Milkhouse/classroom photo

The windows are for the classroom.

Garry took this photo with his tablet because he doesn't have a camera he can't get any good photos of the work inside the addition right now, The tile is finished in the bathroom, the well is done, now they need to get the electricity hooked up. That is a process which been unfolding slowly, because of the red tape and rules involved, but they hope to complete it soon, without spending any more money than necessary.

Re-vamped trade school

This year the plan is the trade school will be back, although in a scaled down version. We had no students last year, other than two guys who continued with year two of the program in the fall and lived at our house.. . as you can see if you look back in this blog... Our school started with a man with a dream about a trade school for orphans, John Wiens.

We had a small group of students start in September 2012, most of them received the certificate the Ukrainian government authorized us to confer on them - for being a cattle grazing technician. The only male student that did not get his was the only one who worked on the farm in 2013. The others have gone on to other trade schools or university for training in other subjects. One student was baptized by John Wiens the Sunday before he  left for Canada, and others had experiences that changed their lives spiritually.

For 2013, due to lack of funds, it was decided not to have students in the fall and most of the staff was laid off. John Wiens went on home assignment and fund raised successfully in Canada and even the US, until he was diagnosed with cancer in December. He had hoped to start up with new students in January when he planned to return to Ukraine, but we were not ready yet. John really hoped to start a second track for students to study, he really wanted a baking track for girls. Sadly, John passed away in January.

However, a team from BC got the ball rolling on the unfinished barn renovation and came this spring to work for ten days and got so much done on this important piece of the project. The renovation of one of the old collective barns in the village was the linchpin of the project, and the reason Garry got involved when John talked about his dream of the trade school for orphans (to set up and manage the farm for the school). The barn would not only serve as the training area for the students learning to be farm managers but be a way to fund the ongoing operation of the school. We have been able to continue work on the barn and plan to have some animals in it soon, with cows milking there in the fall and students back in the two houses with foster families to help them learn about living in a family environment instead of an institutional one.

We have some strategies to make it work better this year. including trying to select students who really want to study farming! All students will be in the 18-22 year age range, no minors. We will have fewer teachers to reduce expenses, and forget about government certification since the one we could give is not really what we are teaching. Garry will continue to teach the farm component, and we plan to have some classes taught by the foster parents.

We will not try to give the students everything they would get at a government school- clothes, food, spending money for whatever they want. Education will be free,  but the orphans will have room and board deducted from the money they make for working in the barn during the work study component of their education. They will make more than the amount needed, so they will have some spending cash for themselves, but it will be earned, to help prepare them for the real world.

So right now we are looking for students for the fall, orphans of course. We may have few day students from the village, after filling our houses with orphans, these students would live at home and work to pay for their training during the work study.

It's gone, but the school dream lives on

You may have seen the video of John Wiens with the original building he hoped to turn into the trade school building in the village. It was not to be, two years ago the church building was further renovated to accommodate the school and the three classrooms the Ukrainian government required for an official school. There was a lot of red tape involved in being an official school, that spring and summer everyone was forced to get things done quickly to start the school that fall, and the church was seen as an immediate solution. It actually worked out well for the school, although the ten or twelve members of the church had to rearrange things every Sunday for services. This year we hope to leave them their own room for services!

Sadly this spring there has been a fire bug on the loose in the village, you may have read about the house that burned back in March in my Moo-oosings blog, there was a second empty abandoned house that burned and then while we in Egypt the old preschool that John once hoped to turn into a school burned also. The roof had fallen in last year, so as Garry said they really knew it was not to be, but here is a photo of what is left of the building.

Luckily it did not spread to the building behind it which were the town works building and are rented out for storage, because we have grain and fertilizer stored in some of the lock boxes.

Come to our school!

If you read the other blog, you will know of the progress Garry has made with the help of his brother in the last two weeks over at the trade school barn. Maria has made a one page flyer to hand out to help find students for the fall that they got printed this week... a thousand was the smallest number , so there are a thousand to send out like these....

Progress on the barn

Friday painting 

 Work progresses daily but slowly on the barn as compared to when the teams was here. Last week the guys painted the inside of the addition. This week Garry laid out the division of the rooms inside. He hopes to get his brother John to work on the bathrooms after he arrives on Sunday for two weeks.

He was working on the soffit with Victor this afternoon when I came over to take photos, and they started bricking up the excess doors..

Brickwork

Maria looking over the layout from the new classroom space

The new dad was working on laying bricks

Maria and Garry are looking for bred (pregnant) heifers to buy to go in the new barn. They will be ready to calve and milk in the fall. He wants to find 50% Holstein ones.

Work is progressing on the barn

 Since the team left the village guys have been working on finishing the barn, they did more cement work and so the freestalls have all been bolted together. Yesterday they were working on putting more screws into the wood in the addition on the barn the future classroom and milkhouse.

Garry had been looking for the book with the plan for the milkhouse room in, it turned out Maria had taken it because she was using it for something in the front, while the floor plan was in the back of the book. Notebooks here that the students use are usually not lined paper but graph paper, so perfect for drawing plans in!

Garry went over to check out how things were going yesterday before lunch, and told them to use less screws...today they have a problem with putting the rest for the screws in the walls, they never brought the tools back to recharge... it will get done eventually.

Garry checking out the ceiling

Maybe they could have used less screws?

Maria is busy with updating the websites and information for the trade school and sending information out to different organizations to find students for the fall.

Big progress on the trade school barn

 We had a wonderful work team from BC (Canada) here for a week and wow, what a lot got done!

The team and the Ukrainians working on the barn 

They worked on finishing this floor until 2 am !

they built roof trusses

 They built an addition onto the old collective barn which will house the milk house, a classroom, bathrooms, showers and change rooms for students to use when working at the barn.

Got ready to install the freestalls

pouring cement for the milk parlor 

They built and painted  and installed new vents for the ceiling

day one