school construction update

After a phone call with Sherap [4 August 07], please find the following summary:

Construction
1. Fencing construction is almost complete;
2. A new building for teacher's accomodation shall commence soon. (in cost quotation stage).

Village level
1. The local government has just connected each house with running water. (自来水) Therefore only in winter (frozen temp), the villagers will need to fetch water from the spring.

Future plan
1. Visitor block and more classroom block shall be built next year;
2. A sustainable toilet block shall be built next year;
3. Sherap will collect the building parts of an old house of his friends which are planning to be demolished soon. This aims to reuse the building material for the future school construction, also act as a historical record of past materials and building elements;
4. The need for a pipe connect to the spring no long required, however the potential need of a water storage for the spring shall be reassessed in the next visit.
5. sherap agree the idea of using traditional building methods to build the next school block, the idead to conserve Tibetan traditional architectural knowledge.

Visitors
1. Three friends of Sherap, who are from Lanzhou Polytechnic University, are visiting the school now, they have been teaching the school children singing and dancing.

report by maggie