Report from local coordinator Sam Avila

De partner vertelt... van 12 september 2016


Kairos School, San Juan Ostuncalco

Summary

This was the last stage of our 3 year plan to finish the school, the Kairos project has many advantages when it comes to the construction on facilitation of it because of the expereince the local staff has at this point and because we know how to run the teams in this specific scenario. The group was one of the largest teams we have had over the last two years. The planning for this trip was very similar to recent years, with a few differences on the cultural side of things.


The project was, as mentioned before, on its finishing stage. We have the privilege of counting on three hardworking  local masons that continue to work day after day on the project to keep the construction going at a consistent pace. The school at this point is operating on a daily basis in the new building. All of the children has moved and are now attending school in the new facilities, Most of them have their classes on the first floor in the two normal shifts (morning and afternoon), The kitchen and school administration office is also established on the first floor. Only for the time that the team was there we moved the classrooms to the second floor to have free space downstairs as rooms and dining areas for the team. We had finished the bathrooms and all the facilities necessary for the team to be comfortable and safe.

The construction
By the time the WS team got to Ostuncalco, Angel, the head constructor and his team were already done with the construction of the second floor. This provided us as project an opportunity to work on another one of our dreams for the school. We would build a wall on the second floors roof to provide the safety and structure we need to create a greenhouse for our school, where we can grow our own vegetables. We will also use this space to have egg laying hens. in order to create sustainability for our kitchen. We had big expectations for this team in order to make the best of the time we had with them. We knew in advance that the weather conditions could and would be challenging some days and we tried to stay as real and honest when it came to set a goal for our construction site. We were all very surprised when we saw the ability and willingness to work from the team and it is safe to say that we surpassed the goals we thought was “achievable” at first. The team worked really hard and was able not only to organize everything, move all the materials, clean up the second floor, finish the wall, assemble all 36 columns, but was also able to pour concrete in  16 of them. This was much more than what we had set at the beginning as goal to finish this project.


Facilitation of the team
Accommodation for the team this year was very easy to set up. We had a finished facilities  available at our school, so we decided to move the classrooms, during the two weeks,  to the second floor so that we could use four class rooms for the team on the first floor.  Two for girls, one for boys and one as a dining area for our meals. We also had finished the bathrooms, so we could easily provide a bathrooms for both male and female participants with showers and even hot water.

Food
The food was again cooked wonderfully by our own staff. since three of our teachers were cooks for many years. Most of our meals were cooked and eaten at our school and even on the days we had to go out for a cultural activity or church we would get sandwiches to go, this helped a lot on managing the resources and to stay in budget for our meals.

Children's program
The children's program was so much better this year in terms of transportation, timing and ease of access, because all of our kids were already in the same facility where we lived and worked.  It was really easy for us to set times and to decide whether or not we could do certain activities and even be flexible on times and types of work. Having the children at the same place where we worked did create a few extra challenges, especially for the teachers, to keep our students focused and to keep them on the safe areas we marked for them. The group decided to work with them once every day, for a period of two hours. This year we had three translators so we could have one at the children program all the time and he would know the sequence and type of work beforehand. This made the communication easier and it allowed the team to make a better use of their time. The lessons and the stories for this year were prepared in advance and I think the communication between the WS participants was better, you could see that they had a plan and specific roles for each person, which made the learning experience for our kids much better. The leader for this part of the project was very experienced and she led the team in a way that gave the participants the confidence to perform really good.


Life skills and cultural program
This year we tried to consolidate our options based on what we had experienced and learned from the last projects. We tried to let the team leaders and the person in charge of the cultural and skills program make the decision on how many things they wanted to do. This was coordinated with the technical leader as well.  The reason for this was that we had noticed on the last project that the cultural outings sometimes were taking too many people for too long out of the construction site. I was very happy with the balance we got from the decisions and the options that were picked I think were beneficial for the team. They all had opportunities to do different things based on their own level of interest and desire of involvement.



Cooperation with the WSN project staff
The staff was amazing, Their input and their leadership was great and that was obvious to see from the reactions we got from the participants. They were really experienced,  but always open to suggestions and flexible in their planning, keeping the best interests of the team and the local facilitators in mind. They had clearly established roles and tasks and they were really organized and easy to work with.

Involvement of the stakeholders:
WS team
Everyone was willing and open to be a part of anything that we suggested or asked from them. It was really interesting to see how curious they were of our culture and how open to try everything the team was.
Staff
We had all of our local staff involved with the team; teachers, director. Everyone was willing to collaborate and they were happy to be a part of the project. Not because we were forcing them to but because they genuinely wanted to be a part of the change and the good things this building will bring to them and their families.

Beneficiaries
Our children and their families were delighted with what we did. We had many families that visited and a couple that wanted to be part of what we were doing. It is always great to have random shows of appreciation for what we do, like getting vegetables as a gift or for one of them to let us use their wood planks for a few days. Shows of appreciation that tell us that they want to contribute to their own development.

The local authorities
They continue to support us providing legal assistance and ease to get the construction licenses every year.
Community
The community is always willing to invite us and to welcome us. We would get greetings and respect from the people as we walked through the streets, people always welcomed us to their shops and gave us great deals for our children festival.


Development of the project
The project went really well, the participants, staff and all the people involved in it did their best to make this project. To make it not only a fun experience but also a learning experience for the participants as they helped to build the school. As for the construction, the project went really well. We passed our goal and we finished more than what we thought we would do. The school is now on its last stage of construction as they finish the second floor and get all the finishing details at the school.

Lessons learned

  • A bigger team is definitely an asset when everyone involved is working towards the same goal and people are led by organized and flexible leaders.
  • It is really important to communicate the needs of everyone involved, sometimes the miscommunication is just a lack of communication. Sharing the needs, the team had or the needs of the local staff gave us an advantage and a better focus of our work.