2008 is "The Year of Enormous Change" for the school.
The building will be ready on 1 February 2008.
We're a moving on uppp, to the sky.... to a deluxe school building in the skyyyyy!!!
Many, many, many, many, many thanks to our new contractor, Vijay Kumar (Usha Madam's brother-in-law). Here he is with the Naandi team, including Bhartee, our Naandi engineer.
We are only one month behind our original schedule. (Our old contractor walked off the job in October 2007, long story and it wasn't really anyone's fault.)
THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY!
Classes moved into the first floor already. The poojas took place on 2 January 2008: a "Christian Pooja" and the "Hindu Pooja." Prayers were said in many languages and coconuts were cracked to scare all evil spirits away
Here is Kalpana teacher cracking her coconut at the Hindu pooja.
That same day, the Naandi Foundation started delivery of the Mid-Day Meal from their wonderful, amazing central kitchen.
We have no words for how wonderful this is. They can offer better food at lower cost because of economies of scale, they feed 750,000 (that's right 750,000) government school children every day out of this huge central kitchen.
We had another pooja just yesterday. The good people at the Hyderabad Water Board -- the best run government office in town -- connected the school to the main water line. The water started yesterday. This one was a bit interfaith, more of a "Pan-Indian Pooja."
Finally, the government funds were released for the building. This is a big deal. After a one month delay, we received 5 lakh rupees (about US$10,000). The delay was due to a new rule at the state level, which conflicted with rules at the local level. The District Collector, Praveen Prakash, did a champion job of untying red tape. Ismail was the go-to guy for all of this work. GREAT JOB ISMAIL! Here he is with our government engineers, Raja Ratnam.
Funny story about this check. After one month of huge work by Ismail and mountains of paperwork, Ismail and I sat down in the accountant's office to get the check. Our babu, Ramu, was all ready to write the check. Then he look up, and with a poker face said that he was out of checks. He needed a new checkbook, he would have to go to the bank. It would be another day before we could get the check. I nearly grabbed him by the collar and shook him. Surinder stopped me. He is a lovely human being in the SSA Engineers department and a true faith ally to the school. Surinder gave Ramu a talking to, and Ramu immediately found his checkbook.
Finally, we have a new addition, a future teacher. Priyanka teacher (IInd standard, retired) gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl. Priyanka is looking forward to coming back to teach as soon the baby is two and ready to go to preschool.
The building will be ready on 1 February 2008.
We're a moving on uppp, to the sky.... to a deluxe school building in the skyyyyy!!!
Many, many, many, many, many thanks to our new contractor, Vijay Kumar (Usha Madam's brother-in-law). Here he is with the Naandi team, including Bhartee, our Naandi engineer.
We are only one month behind our original schedule. (Our old contractor walked off the job in October 2007, long story and it wasn't really anyone's fault.)
THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY! THANK YOU VIJAY!
Classes moved into the first floor already. The poojas took place on 2 January 2008: a "Christian Pooja" and the "Hindu Pooja." Prayers were said in many languages and coconuts were cracked to scare all evil spirits away
Here is Kalpana teacher cracking her coconut at the Hindu pooja.
That same day, the Naandi Foundation started delivery of the Mid-Day Meal from their wonderful, amazing central kitchen.
We have no words for how wonderful this is. They can offer better food at lower cost because of economies of scale, they feed 750,000 (that's right 750,000) government school children every day out of this huge central kitchen.
We had another pooja just yesterday. The good people at the Hyderabad Water Board -- the best run government office in town -- connected the school to the main water line. The water started yesterday. This one was a bit interfaith, more of a "Pan-Indian Pooja."
Finally, the government funds were released for the building. This is a big deal. After a one month delay, we received 5 lakh rupees (about US$10,000). The delay was due to a new rule at the state level, which conflicted with rules at the local level. The District Collector, Praveen Prakash, did a champion job of untying red tape. Ismail was the go-to guy for all of this work. GREAT JOB ISMAIL! Here he is with our government engineers, Raja Ratnam.
Funny story about this check. After one month of huge work by Ismail and mountains of paperwork, Ismail and I sat down in the accountant's office to get the check. Our babu, Ramu, was all ready to write the check. Then he look up, and with a poker face said that he was out of checks. He needed a new checkbook, he would have to go to the bank. It would be another day before we could get the check. I nearly grabbed him by the collar and shook him. Surinder stopped me. He is a lovely human being in the SSA Engineers department and a true faith ally to the school. Surinder gave Ramu a talking to, and Ramu immediately found his checkbook.
Finally, we have a new addition, a future teacher. Priyanka teacher (IInd standard, retired) gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl. Priyanka is looking forward to coming back to teach as soon the baby is two and ready to go to preschool.
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