Schools out for two weeks so a cleaning i will go

The school is officially on a two week break that started on Monday (technically the school closed on the Friday before but normal weekend activities took place leaving me to the break activities starting on Monday).  Part of the two week break will consumed with the required trip out of country.  It really is a wonderful thing the two week break falls at almost the midpoint of the 1/2 year semester.

So what do I do with the week between school closing and my going to Kenya?  I clean the school.  It is something I have been wanting to do for a while.  Let's be honest, 40+ kids age 5-8 are going leave a mess.  Most noticeably on the walls at about the 2 foot mark is a consistent discoloration in all the classrooms and the outside walls.

They cannot help but but their hands out.  Unfortunately, Tanzanians typically clean the floors on a regular basis.  They sweep the ground nonstop.  But even in medical facilities they don't normally clean the ceilings, windows and walls.  It was why at my previous site I was the one that cleaned water tanks out and bat guano out of ceilings.

I started with the blackboards because the chalk left on them for long periods of times causes a discoloration.

You can still see some of the discoloration after the 1st wash down of the blackboard in the picture above.  I think I can make out Mathematics that is several weeks ago.

After that I take the broom and clean ceilings and the window bars/frame of spider webs.

Then it is the walls.  There are pencil marks and occasionally a magic marker or crayon mark on the walls that also have to be cleaned along with the sweaty palm prints everywhere.  Each classroom took about 3 hours to completely clean.

after the first cleaning

This water was clear when I started. It took about a large bucket (used to fill my small cleaning bucket) to clean each classroom.

There was the unfortunate are of bad paint that washed off the wall.  I get a chance to evaluate the condition of the paint, windows and blackboards while cleaning.

After I get done cleaning the rooms we are using for classes (four of them), I moved on to evaluating all the chairs and desks.  Ended up doing small repairs (mostly replacing bolts) on 12 chairs and 3 desks.

Also this week I have been working on making dolls for a team to give away next July hopefully.  They normally give away bears, but customs is getting pretty tough on those type of things.  So I am trying to make 70 dolls for them to give away to the students.  My faces are getting better.