Teshie School Project – Volunteer Diary - Day 4
Day 4 - Wednesday 12th August 2009
This morning started with one man down as the bug caught out one of the crew. All other crew members were on site at 9am to start their day.
Electrical Progress – 7 classrooms completely wired
Work is on-going in the technical school with all the sub-mains cables and sub-distribution boards now installed. Wiring has been completed in all 7 classrooms upstairs and we await the installation of the ceilings so that the fluorescent fittings can be installed and the crew can walk away from a job well done upstairs. Meanwhile, back in the kindergarten Alan Thompson, Eoin Waldron, Sinead O'Keefe, Gerard Larkin, Damian Byrne and Ciaran Fitzgerald have completed all the wiring. Great work has been carried out by the carpenters installing the ceiling. Fluorescent fittings arrived on site today with work is planned to progress tomorrow on this aspect of the project. Once supply connection is made next Monday by ECG final work in the Kindergarten can be completed. The young kindergarten team will be graduating on Monday to take their place in "big school" i.e. the technical school, from Tuesday.
Painting Progress – a great start made on the exterior walls
Margaret Hayden, Maurice O'Connor and Majella McCarron completed the base coat of the kindergarten interior today and made a great start on the priming the exterior walls. Base coat in the kitchen was also completed today. Base coat on the technical area is almost compete however due to continuing work by contractors plastering some walls have yet to dry out. In Teshie we don't except this will take very long. Work will start tomorrow on second coating of interior walls in the technical school whist other members of the team will continue to coat the exterior walls with primer. The hard work of sealing the interior walls with a base coat ensures that the job of second and final coats is a less backbreaking task.
IT Progress – course participants show significant progress
Today there was a class of 30 teachers in attendance for the Intermediate Calc course, similar to Microsoft Excel. The hard work from the previous two days was apparent as the participants showed significant progress with their IT skills. The expression of joy on the teachers faces as they were presented with their Certificates of completion made the last three days of hard work worthwhile. The teachers with the more proficient IT skills will return to the IT Resource Centre next week to participate on an Internet course. Children from the school are due to attend IT courses on Thursday and Friday this week.
Other News - one tonne of sweets arrive for the children!
Part of the consignment of the container delivered to site yesterday consisted of one tonne of sweets which were generously donated by Richie Sweets in Dublin. The opportunity arose this morning, whilst some of the children where in class, to surprise them with a treat. Joe Boyne, Greg Dooley, and Sharyn McMenamin were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to distribute the sweets. Screams of excitement echoed around the site as class by class the crew visited each room as Santa Clause and his elves came early to Teshie.
A report by Michael O'Connor (ESBI) and Sharyn McMenamin (ICT).
