PHOTO BOARD PROJECT!

YIPPY!! After 6 weeks, many frustrations, complications and hold ups, the photo board project for the Montessori is complete!

I cannot remember if I wrote about the project or not, so I will give a little explanation. As there are so many volunteers who come in and out of the Montessori each week, usually only staying for a few hours at a time, most people DO NOT know the names of the children. Since knowing someones name is such a sweet gift, I asked permission at the beginning of October to take pictures of all the kids and post them on a board with their names in blue or pink (since most of the kids get their heads shaved, it can be difficult to tell which ones are boys and girls sometimes). This task seems easy enough, but BOY! As each step progressed more and more roadblocks popped up. God was faithful to provide at each step of the way...

First, getting all the kids names written out in English and Amharic was quite a task, as role sheets do not exist. The two teachers where willing to help, which was such a blessing.

Then, taking the actual pictures took a few days. I photographed each child in a photojournalistic manner ­ trying to capture a little piece of each child's personality.

Then it took a little while to find out a way to print the images. I went to a couple different photo stores, and it turns out there is a place close to the bus stop in our neighborhood that does a pretty good job. I can bring a flash drive full of images and by the next day have images printed on matte paper. The images are 2 ETB, or about 20 cents each print.

The next step was finding a way to type the names in Amharic...After asking around, my friend/tutor Abraham was able to get a program, but b/c mac's have super high control and a different system, the program would not function with my computer. So then I had to borrow a friends computer to install the program.

Abraham then typed out the children¹s names, which took a while b/c it was the first time he had ever typed in AmharicŠand since there are about 300 letters, all of which are VERY different from English, finding each letter on the computer was rather complicated.

Again, since I have a mac computer and the Cherokee printer software is not compatible with my computer, installing the software onto my roommates computer took anther bit of time.  I was able to print the kids¹ names in color, which was exactly what I wanted to do. Keeping all the photos, and names in two languages together was a bit of an ordeal, but in the end with the help of both teachers, I was able to get the images printed and the names cut out.

The next challenge was finding a board that was the right size for all the photos and the space on the wall. After getting connected with the right people, T¹hi (the teacher I work with) and I visited the barn/broken items storage area and selected a piece of plywood that was too difficult to  reach, so we had to wait for the next day to get help to get the board down.

After we got the wooden board, the next task was to find glue to past construction paper along the background and more to put up the images. This was also a small hurdle as glue is a scarce commodity, but some of the teachers let me use some of their small supply to paste the papers and images on the board.

Then I had to get special permission to put a hole in the wall, which took a while considering the Sister we need to talk to is VERY busy and prayers for large chunks of time during the day.

Then, after getting the OK and asking some of the workers to help me put a nail in the wall, we realized that a nail cannot hold the board, so we spent another week figuring out how to drill holes into the 4 corners to permanently put the board in the way.

Then, after a few missed appointments, TODAY my friend Dagim, the electrician, took a little time off from preparing the new clinic to drill holes in the wall. It was rather surreal. Since ever piece of the puzzle was more complex than expected, it was VERY special to see the final project finally getting attached to the wall.  It was also VERY LOUD...I don't think the kids have ever seen a drill before, so they all screamed and squealed when the board was going up.

It was very exciting to see a project that was in my head for so long come into fruition. Praise the Lord! For His perfect timing, for his faithfulness in small but meaningful tasks and for the affirmation the kids will receive as more and more adults loves these kids and know their names. I am so thankful for his goodness and for the helpfulness of my coworkers. I realize this isn¹t the biggest deal in the world, but I think it is meaningful to the kids to have someone see them as individuals and worthy of a hardwork and a personalized project. My sweet friend Alias (I have talked about him before) told me that the board was 'betam konjo' (very beautiful) and so many of the kids were so proud to see their beautiful faces proudly displayed.

Again, PRAISE THE LORD!