Constructing Lillyfield Academy

January has been a bit of a whirlwind for us over here – especially the last couple of weeks.  We started out the new year thinking we were going to be able to get into the building for our new school and start fixing things up to be ready for school to start mid-February.  Well, things really didn’t work out quite like that.  We kept waiting and waiting for the building to open up, and (to make a very long story very short) it just never did.   We had school uniforms already purchased, books on the way, parents wanting to send their children to our school, but no school building.  But God has been so faithful to us throughout this whole process, and just when we needed it, He gave Passang the idea to build the school on top of our house. 

Our house is two stories with an unfinished roof that we were hoping to one day make into another story.  It used to be the place where everyone would hang their clothes up to dry.  Now we have three school rooms up there!  It is really amazing how quickly this all has happened.  We only started construction on January 15^th.

The first step in the process was for Passang to go cut down bamboo.  We decided to make the walls out of bamboo because it is much cheaper than brick and we don’t have a whole lot of money for this.  Passang cut down almost 500 pieces of bamboo from one of our relative’s land and then carried it all back to our house.  Our awesome nephew, Sanjay, has been using his winter holiday to help him out every day. 

Our bamboo

Then we had workers pound the bamboo flat so that it could be woven into sheets.

Flattened bamboo ready to be woven.

Workers first outlined the entire structure of the school in a couple layers of brick.  This will help keep rain water out of the classrooms. 

One of the workers laying brick.

Workers laying brick.  The building in the background is Passang's mother's house.  The bottom of her house is basically level with the top of ours.  We plan on using the two rooms on the bottom of her house as additional classrooms for our school.

The brick "outline" of our school!

They then began framing the classrooms with wood.  All of the wood comes very rough and has to be cut and planed by hand first before it can be used.

My brother-in-law trimming some wood down.

Framing the school.

The flattened bamboo was then woven into sheets to be used as the walls.  It’s really quite pretty when it’s all done! 

Passang helping on of the workers weave the bamboo

Passang's step-father and one of the workers weaving bamboo.

Passang's step-father pounding the bamboo to get the weaves tighter.

Workers taking a break in front of a finished sheet of woven bamboo.

The sheets of woven bamboo had to be cut down to size to fit each wall, and the windows had to be cut out.

They were then attached to the wooden frame, leaving openings for doors.  

Passang trimming a bamboo sheet.

Bamboo attached to the framing

To finish it off, wood “beading” is nailed to the bamboo on the opposite side of the frame to kind of sandwich the bamboo in place.

Passang with the finished rooms!

The man who owns some of the fields next to our house is letting us rent one of his fields from him to use as our playground.  Passang has been busy clearing this field to get it ready. 

They had to cut down all of the bushes and dig out several stands of bamboo.

Passang and his brother-in-law clearing bamboo.

Passang climbing a tree to cut some vines down.

Then they had to cut down a few trees.

Timber!

Passang cutting up the limbs.

Cutting the tree into more manageable pieces.

Next Passang and several friends and family worked on digging out part of a hill to make the ground level.

This is what the field looked like before...

And this is it now.

Today the workers started nailing pieces of bamboo to the top of the classrooms for the beginning of the ceiling.

Passang's step-father putting up bamboo.

The ceiling will simply be made out of plastic, and then corrugated metal will go up for the roof.  

Then we will need windows, doors, and electricity, of course.

So here is the school so far!

Lillyfield Academy is almost ready to open her doors!