[February 2008]
Container Items Being Put to Good Use from Ellen Hoover
The
English-speaking School of Lubumbashi thanks all those
involved in sending the containers to Lubumbashi. We are
actively using and thoroughly enjoying all the things you
sent for our school. You were so wise to ask what we wanted
and to designate everything to a particular institution.
That way, when it came, we just put it all into place as we
had hoped.
As our school
keeps growing and growing, furniture was getting to be a
desperate need. Sometimes we found nice furniture here
locally and purchased it but of course that gets expensive
plus we weren't able to find some things. Just to give you
an idea of what we are doing with the wonderful gifts, here
are some examples.
Two of the
lateral file cabinets have gone into the office, where
they fit just perfectly into the space available. You would
think that they had been made to our specifications. We are
using them for school supplies, including some of the ones
you sent, such as the scissors. Because the drawers are
big, they hold lots of material and it is all readily
visible and easy to get out for use.
Another
lateral file cabinet has found a home in the computer
room where storage space was seriously lacking for things
like CDs and spare parts. Now the room looks neater and the
materials are safe from dust and breakage.
The athletic
equipment and balls are also in use. Finally the
children have lots of balls to play with at break time, and
the teachers have enough to use for gym class. But we have
kept some in reserve for later when the current ones wear
out.
You won't believe
this one: the Santa beard and hair. After many years of
borrowing or improvising Santa suits, we decided to have a
seamstress make a simple red jacket and baggy red pants (we
already had a hat)so that we TESOLians would have our very
own Santa suit for this and future years. Of course, it got
to be rather the last minute but it was done, except of
course for the hair and beard. But we had selected a Santa
who came with his own beard so we figured that would have to
do. Ireen (the assistant director) was working on unpacking
some of the container boxes when she ran across one of the
costume boxes and--there it was--the world's best Santa hair
and beard.
And speaking of
Christmas, the container was perfectly timed. We have
started a tradition of giving each of the TESOL children one
or more books as a gift at Christmas. We have some
donated by World Vision a few years ago, but we needed some
more since many children had already received a copy of
those books. Hoping that we were not going against your
wishes, we searched the boxes of books you had sent (as well
as some from my sister) to find those in new condition. We
put them in red plastic bags, each with a child's name, and
Santa handed them out. The children were thrilled and we
were pleased that we had given out educational gifts. I
think that books which children have at home get read a
lot--sometimes by them over and over, sometimes by siblings
or friends.
Ah yes, the
tall plastic cupboard that our teachers assembled from
the kit. It's in the office and is now holding small or
valuable items related to buildings, grounds and
equipment--things like photocopier supplies, starters and
ballasts for the fluorescent fixtures--as well as some
bottles of drinking water (since the cupboard is plastic, we
don't have to worry about rust in case the water drips).
Again in the
furniture department, we are delighted with the folding
chairs. They are sturdy, don't fold up unexpectedly, AND
have flat seats which makes them good for school use (often,
folding chairs are made for leaning back in while listening
to a speaker). We are using some in the computer room and a
few in other classrooms to try to fill our chair shortage
until we can find some affordable good ones here. Ideally,
we'd like to keep the folding chairs for moments when we
need a whole lot of chairs in addition to the ones we use
every day, such as when there's a special program at schoool--and,
yes, the parents and siblings who attended the TESOL
Christmas program sat in your folding chairs (which still
had their numbered tags).
We have used the
folding tables on several occasions already. For
instance, the sixth grade girls decided they wanted to sell
baked goods on Monday during lunchtime. Instead of having
to clear off a table already in use, or put together several
student desks of the same height, we simply and easily
carried one of the folding tables all the way across campus
and set it up by the office. When their sale was over (a
big success), it was easy to put the table away.
The container
also carried a batch of reconditioned laptops; for
these, TESOL had contributed something to the cost but not
the full amount nor the shipping. There was one for each of
our teachers. Jeff worked hard at installing updates that
had happened since the laptops were packed, and then each
teacher received his or hers. I assure you they were very
pleased, and they have been using them ever since. We had
some sets of small lockers made so that the teachers will
have a safer place to keep them (and other things) at
school.
Well, I could go
on and on but as you can see we are thoroughly enjoying our
Pacific Northwest container gifts. Thanks so much
for all you did to collect and pack these items and raise
the money for the shipping.
Ellen Hoover for TESOL
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