Development in the Science Lab building - Malawi
Our top priority is completing the construction of the new Science and Library building, but it has certainly been a long and arduous process thus far--but we are pushing forward and making great progress.
Fortunately, we are making big strides as we move out of the Approval phase and into the final Construction phase.
In Malawi, large buildings of this kind require an enormously immense time of planning and approval gathering for the biggest steps forward, and once finished, it is much smoother sailing.
The fact is that a building of this size and structure requires a tremendous amount of time. For instance, the steps involved include: choosing firm for land surveys followed by actual surveys; initial bids for architects for competitive bids and pricing; plans drawn up by chosen architect; engineer involvement and additions; edits by both parties back and forth; then approval phase requiring City Land officials, City building officials and construction officials who dole out permits. They make edits that then our architects and engineers adjust.
There is much more just in that phase, but the good news is that we are moving out of that phase successfully.
Here is a bit more of what is going on here on the ground:
Firstly, we have been working with two different companies to prepare a survey of the whole Jacaranda compound. We have been in dire need of this survey because it is mandatory to prepare our master plan, the plan where we will lay down all our future construction development plans. Blantyre City Assembly has also asked us to submit these surveyors' plans, as a first step for approval of the constrution of a double story building. Now it had been a real challenge to obtain this full survey; we first started with Patrick Calisse, (his company's website is: http://www.modarchitects.com/ ) a top architect who came to see the school and promised to do work with us; but he gave us a quote that we could not afford, he is just too expensive. Then we asked two different firms who were less expensive, they spent weeks at the school; but none of them were able to produce a decent map of the compound! Both of them omitted buildings; for example one left out the Standard 8 classroom. As we are building a double story Science and Library structure, we have needed much more detailed plans to be approved by the city, notably engineering plans. It was one of the reasons why I extended my stay in Malawi, since I was chasing these companies, asking them to produce the plans. So it has been not an easy process.
Luckily, we are successfully moving into the construction phase of the building.
The most important news in that regards is that we are hoping to finish the construction of the foundation before the rainy season begins, which would be a great achievement.
Our team in Malawi is impressed with how quickly we have been moving through the approval phase, particularly with all that pitfalls that unfortunately exist and are quite real in Malawi construction.
In fact, one of the largest contributors, mostly with his time and expertise, is a successful 80 year British businessman Mr. Paul Gatrell who has been in the construction business his entire life, building double story offices. Mr. Gatrell is amazed at how fast we are navigating the Malawian construction bureaucracy, and he always mentions he has been in business for 50 years and has faced these pitfalls.
We have certainly all found here that building the secondary school and then the toilets was much easier and much faster, because they were simple, ground floor buildings.
But we cannot take this approach for the physics and science labs as we do not have the space for a library. We have to build a double story in order to conserve space. We have no choice. This is why we have had to work with having a master plan.
In the meantime, we are all very excited by all the good developments here for the Science and Library building, and we will definitely send you some pictures once we have the foundation properly laid.
From there, the construction aspect is far less of a headache than the approval process we have nearly completed.
Hope this email reaches you well, and rest assured that the school itself and all of the students here are now thriving because of all the efforts on the ground!
Other than that, I am happy to say, with this years enrollment, we have come to a total of 400 children at the school. 98% Orphans. At the moment we have sent fourteen to college. They are taking subjects such as Electronics Engineering, Hotel and Catering, Rural and Community Development, Business Management, Carpentry and Joinery, etc.
One is studying in America. This year our pass rate at national exams for middle high school is 86.5% which is great for the Malawi standard. We are now waiting for our high school examinations results. Every student who passes, we will again send to college.
There have been many positive changes and progress at the school.
Just this term, we introduced French lessons at the school. The French cultural Center in Malawi assigned us with a French teacher for free. French is an examinable subject our their curriculum.
We have two German volunteers for a year, teaching different subjects like Maths and English.
We have an American Fulbright student working at our school for 10 months.
We are waiting to hear from the American Embassy if they will send us a Peace Corps for two years. All this takes our academics at the school to another level, and we can then give our children a better chance of graduating and going to the best colleges in Malawi and acquire scholarships to go abroad.
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