Thursday, October 15, 2015

Dongi Dongi Mission Trip - Days 7 & 8

Student Dormitory
 
Over these two days we got to work on cleaning out the new student dormitory in Palu, which is still under the final stages of construction.  This facility needs to be completed by the 5th November and there still is a lot of work to be done.  Nyoman hoped that by us cleaning out the completed rooms it would create a sense of urgency and motivation for the builders to pick up the pace with a vision of the final product in front of them.  

The feedback we received from Nyoman afterwards was that our hard work on the dorms created some positive chatter among school staff and the builders who were surprised by our willingness to do the 'dirty' work.  This has provided Nyoman with a good platform for coaching the locals involved with this building.  Our work has also saved Nyoman a considerable amount of money and time on a project that is already way over budget and behind schedule.  While not the focus of our trip, these two days work have been of great assistance to the Palu School.

 
The night before working on the dorms I was asked to prepare and present a 1.5 hour seminar on 'Problem Solving' to a class of 40 high school students at the Palu School at 7:00 in the morning.  You can imagine that meant a late night of preparation!

 
The night after working on the dorms we were invited to visit a group of 50 students at a scout camp on the outskirts of Palu.  We got to observe a traditional bonfire ceremony and campfire singing by the kids.  This was another unexpected opportunity to engage in a familiar activity in a very different cultural setting.

 
Our mission team changed shape again with Tony and Jill departing for home, leaving Stav and I behind to continue work on the Dongi Dongi Project until Stav returns home on Friday and Neville arrives to join the team on Monday for the final week.

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