One project that several teams have worked on is designing
and creating desks for three classrooms at the school. This has been mentioned in several blog
entries and we thought those of you back home might appreciate a bit more
description of what this involves.
First, long metal bars were purchased and hauled up the mountain. (This is not as easy as it sounds.) Often the metal must be cleaned with a wire brush before it is cut into pieces and welded together. It is a long, hot, arduous process.
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| Steve welds the metal frames together for the desks. |
Next, boards must be cut and created for the seats and desktops. This has been done by previous teams. The boards must be stained with a couple coats and then the desktop pieces are varnished for a smooth writing surface. The welded frame pieces must be painted and dried – which is a tricky process since they have many different surfaces. Finally, the rails along the bottom of the desks (which hold 4-6 desks each) and the frames must be drilled for assembly. This project was a bit of a challenge yesterday. Since school is starting Monday, we cannot assemble the desks in the classroom. However, since there are 4-6 desks all hooked together, we weren’t sure that we could get them in the classrooms on the second floor of the school once they were all together. So we assembled one in a classroom and brought it out – successfully. This hopefully means that we can do the final assembly outside the school and move the desks into the classrooms.
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| Kent works on assembling all the prepared pieces for the desks together. When complete, there will be about 5 desks on one set of rails. |
This is just one small example of how a project in Haiti involves many people, all doing different jobs, as part of a team. It is a reminder of how we are all parts of one body in Christ. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” 1 Corinthians 12:12
