If you build it, they will come.

So something really cool that's going on in my village right now is that they are building a new school building. There have been tons of town meetings lately to discuss it. This means that a lot of nights theres a couple of kids walking around the village around 5 PM, blowing a whistle and shouting in Malagasy that everyone should come down to the school yard for a meeting. I haven't been to all the meetings, but the basic gist is that we have a lot of quatrieme students in my village (I think this is CEG, the middle school equivalent). The man in charge of schools has said there is a teacher out there and if we build a school then we will have a new teacher for it. So what this means is that the community is coming together to build a school.

It's been really impressive watching how the school construction happens. People donated the construction materials and one morning a bunch of men kept passing my house with various building materials--planks of wood, raffia (the leaves they use for roofing) and bamboo. The men went up to start construction, and the women came up with donated rice and cooked lunch. It was awesome to see everyone pitching in. Here's some photos:

Men building the school (it's up by the soccer field.)

The cooking crew

More building photos.

Giant pot!

So I left my village for a few weeks--training and vacation. But I am told that once the school is there, they will request the teacher. By the time I get back school should be in session. This could mean a lot more kid visitors because the main path up the hill to the school passes my house. I'll keep you updated.