Welcome to the Marine Mammal and wildlife Research and Community Development Expedition blog where you can keep up to date with all the happenings and information from Kenya

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

What's white and glistens? Mkwiro Primary School!


Some time ago Mr Abdul had requested that all of the school buildings be repainted. This meant white washing down to about two feet above the ground and then painting the lower, remaining area with green paint. Work began on this around the beginning of February and various community volunteers pitched in. Getting the correct consistency for the white wash was the subject of quite a lot of discussion, but this was eventually figured out by trial and error! At first it seemed we hadn’t got it right because when first applied the “white” wash is anything but white! However, after five minutes in the hot sun the off-white dirty water that had been painted on to the wall turns to brilliant white, it reminded me of the story of the ugly duckling!

Like anything slightly unusual that happens around Mkwiro, very soon after we began painting we had attracted a large crowd of boys all eager to help. With only two brushes to our name spreading the work load amongst them was quite difficult but with careful control of who had the brushes, and for how long, it was possible to work quickly along a wall and with great results, what’s more the boys were doing all the work!!

Mixing the paint to the perfect consistency
Soon, after working most evenings we had the majority of the school painted and it sat gleaming, like the Jewel of Mkwiro, on our end of Wasini Island. Meanwhile the world map drawn on the west end of the standard 1 and 2 block was being worked on and was looking very smart.
Steve Breese - master of white washing

While painting the walls we were also asked to paint all coral rocks that had been placed alongside all the paths running around the school. Again, this was made quick work by all the keen helpers from the school! Work progressed very fast and by the end of March we had finished painting two of the school buildings and had run out of white wash for the path stones. By now the world map was also finished and looks great, it can’t be missed when approaching the school from the village. The school looks really good and I am sure all the pupils, not only the ones that helped with the work are feeling very proud of their bright new school, I know I took much satisfaction from seeing the transformation.

Steve Breese - Community volunteer

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