Over 90 new school benches for Noontoto Primary School

Per Åkesson from Swedish School Nairobi (Svenska skolan i Nairobi) has sent us a pleasant update about the progress of the School Bench Project which was started in Enkokidongoi, Southern Kenya. Twiga congratulate Per for his commendable work which has provided many schoolchildren with strong and sturdy benches.

Trip to Militisa to see the benches: 26 May 2010

As the sun rises above the horizon I find myself already at Nairobi airport. Getting into my small hatchback, I begin the slow cruise southwards. It feels good to get out of Nairobi. It should take around 3 hours to reach Militisa, the village where the benches are made. The journey goes well, and during a coffee break I call Mr. Anderson, the school principal. He says he’s at school and will set off for the village to meet me right away.

Noontoto Primary School, which will be making use of the benches, is still in need of electricity. Although there are several pylons sitting just outside the school’s fences, it costs money to direct the electricity into the school.

Mr. Anderson had to hire a truck to get the wood to Militisa, where it was stored in an outhouse owned by the Baptist Church. In total, four carpenters were involved in the project, sawing and nailing away at the exceptionally hard acacia wood. They regularly complained that the timber was too hard; they’d never worked with such hard wood before. Saws were becoming blunt far too quickly and many nails were bent as they refused to go into the rock-hard wood. Even the handheld power plane, made in China, was damaged and eventually burned out its motor. Regardless of the tough conditions, the carpenters said they had learnt a lot from the project and were proud to take part. All the work was done outside under the shade of a few trees. The finished benches were stacked up and stored until they could be transported to the school. Many softer woods would have been infested by termites during this time. The principal tells me the benches will last for at least 10 years without repair. I reckon they’d last a good 20 years with a bit of TLC. Regular softwood benches need to be replaced every three years.

Altogether 95 benches were made: 84 double-benches and 11 smaller ones with separate tables. Of the smaller ones, 9 more are still to be made. These will be used for the preschool. Each bench can seat eight students. Interesting. I wonder how that works in practice?

There is still some excess wood left over, but not nearly as much as I’d expected. I took a few of the pieces myself to make chopping boards out of, which I hope to sell to raise money for the school. Personally, I’m quite fascinated by the unique structure, pattern and colour of acacia wood. I’ll probably take a few pieces home with me to Sweden, though they’ll be quite heavy and it depends on how much free luggage space I have.

In the end we decided that all the material should be used for further constructions, and not simply burnt for firewood. Some of the larger pieces will be used for outdoor benches, to be placed under the small trees in the playground, where children can sit and eat lunch while discussing their plans for the future.

And finally a very big thank you to everyone who contributed by donating money so that we could fund this project. Without your generosity there wouldn’t be any benches. We firmly believe that this project will help the young Maasai children on their way to a better education.

/Per Åkesson, Nairobi, Kenya

(translated by Yakub Eneborg)