This first term in service has been slow however, with our time we have been very productive. We started the year by brainstorming some ideas on our necessities for the school, what is the most crucial project at the moment? Not only, but we also took into account other teacher’s requests and strived to achieve them, such as building the fence for the Eco Schools team.

As we finalized our project plans, which were building a bamboo fence, a tarp for the garden beds, and a recycling container, groups were formed.

I was put into a group with our service leader and my friend, Ben, to build the fence. We established a really good plan that used sustainable materials and that aligned with Mr. Grandbois requests for height and function.

So far we have collected the measurements, designed the construction, and we have cut out all the bamboo pieces we need. However, a big challenge remains for how we will apply the ropes.

The coconut ropes are part of the design and they are used to save on bamboo. Instead of having the filling between the holes of the staffs of bamboo to be bamboo, we will wrap thick coconut rope around the top and bottom bamboo sticks. This way, we save money on bamboo (for the organization of other big projects) but more importantly, it is not as fragile and will not break if a football is kicked onto it.

A factor that we had to consider with Ben is that the location of this fence is right beside the primary football/playing field where kids run around and kick a lot of balls and toys. We had to take into account how we will secure the fence in a way where it wont be knocked down and more importantly not hurt any of the kids playing around it. To do this, for safety, we will try to sand all the rough edges of the fence to avoid any serious injuries.

As of now, we have only prepared our bamboo staff to lay down and start digging in the primary field. A challenge we are facing is figuring a way to wrap the coconut rope in an effective method.

Otherwise, term 1 has come to an end and I am proud of my service group for the work that we have done in such a short time considering that some of us have mostly been absent due to some complications. Our goal for this term is to finish our project from the first term and begin brainstorming for new ones, these ideas may, again, come from the request of teachers and we are always happy to do it and give back to our community.