Lesotho Community Project Archives - Sonia Marsh

The day before the completion date of my Lesotho school renovation project, I got a phone call from my counterpart at 7 a.m.

“The contractor needs you to buy 115 meters of electrical wiring.”

“Why didn’t he tell me this before? We are running out of money.”

“He didn’t know,” my counterpart said.

“How much does it cost?”

“48 Rand a meter.”

I quickly calculated a total of 5,520 Rand (almost $400.)

This meant we were now 15,000 Rand ($1,065) over the contractor’s initial quotation for materials, and neither the contractor nor the teachers seemed concerned about this, and I know why. They thought I could keep dishing out cash like an ATM machine, despite my warning them about the $5,000 limit set by the Peace Corps.

At first my contractor said, “I’ll take the taxi to town and back.”

I knew from my weekly trips to Maseru, suffering inside a cranky, old, Toyota van with 25 people sitting on top of each other, that it would be impossible to get to town and back without wasting the entire day.

inside-terrible-taxi-ride — Public Taxi. This one is not yet full.

“How will you fit the wire inside?”

“I put it on the roof,” he said.

“There is no roof rack, plus the taxi has too many people.”

My contractor laughed.

This was the fourth glitch during a 17-day project requiring me to figure out a way to get my contractor to Maseru and back with the extra materials. I made sure to tell him, “Now make sure you have everything you need as I’m running out of money.”

Fortunately I’m friends with a local white business owner who has a couple of trucks. He was born and raised in Lesotho, and is therefore fluent in Sesotho and knows the contractor. In exchange for his “emergency” transportation help, I’ve given him a couple of computer lessons.

I also had to figure out how to get to the bank and withdraw the last of my project cash. I did not like the idea of carrying all that cash in a public taxi, so another friend of mine, Jennifer, the owner of a lodge said she would take me to the bank.

Later that morning, I received another phone call from my counterpart. “Can you buy one kilo of sugar and more meat for the workers?”

“There’s only one day of work left,” I said. “I just bought 5 kilos of chicken a couple of days ago. Can’t the workers eat bread and peanut butter for breakfast? I know we have a jar.”

The requests were never-ending, and I was happy when the project ended.

Fortunately, due to not skimping on transportation costs, and eliminating Phase III of the project, (the floor tile) due to overspending on materials, we got everything done on time. I kept reminding the workers that I was leaving for the Christmas holidays and that everything had to be done by November 25^th, and they managed to finish at the last minute.

I bought a chocolate cake in town to celebrate, and despite the Principal, my counterpart, and two teachers not showing up, there was more cake to celebrate for those who did come to school.

crowd — Parents and grandparents attending the village “pitso” meeting at my school to discuss the community development project.

I’ve been working hard and fast to submit the application to start funding my Peace Corps Community Project. As you can see, the roof and ceiling collapsed at my school, and I hope you can help fund my Lesotho community project, when the Peace Corps accepts, and posts the link to funding my project on their website.

3 goals for my Lesotho Community Project are:

To create a safe classroom environment, by fixing the collapsed roof and ceiling in grade 5.
To wire eleven classrooms providing electricity for lighting, heating during cold winters, and computer literacy.
To improve classroom safety and cleanliness by installing vinyl floor tiles.

As you can see from the photo below, I’m worried that the rest of the roof is going to collapse on my students, so I hope to get started as soon as possible.

Roof and ceiling in my 5th grade classroom

Here’s what I’ve done:

Held a village “pitso” meeting at school, explaining the 3 goals of the community project, and making sure that there is interest, and a 25% contribution from members, in order to ensure sustainability. The parents agreed to pay 10 rand each towards hiring a cook to feed the workers. (This is important in Lesotho.)
Received quotations from various contractors, and suppliers. My counterpart selected the local contractor who maintains the village high school, and who was recommended by my village chief.
Drawn up a detailed contract of the three phases of the project, the materials and transportation required, a detailed timeline, and a specific clause on how to handle theft of tools and/or materials. Also a payment schedule with signatures from the local chief, contractor, supervisor, myself and two witnesses.

I have made friends with a couple of expats who run businesses in Lesotho, and who alerted me to some of the pitfalls, and how to overcome them. Having the contract and making the village chief responsible for supervising the project, were ideas that I had not thought of myself.

I was also able to get price quotations on materials, like floor tiles and glue, from these local business expats who know where to go, and how to get discounts.

bad-floor-in-grade-2 — Cracked cement floor. Want to tile the floor for the cold winters and cleanliness.

I submitted my proposal to the Lesotho Peace Corps office, and hope to hear back from them soon, so that Peace Corps Washington DC can get the link for funding my project as soon as possible.

My goal is to raise $5,000, and to finish all the work by November 15^th, 2016. Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I believe it can be done.

If you are able to help donate funds for my community development project, please keep reading my weekly blog, or sign up to receive my blog posts on the right side of my landing page. (See photo below where to sign up on my blog page: (http://Soniamarsh.com)