Hi Everyone!

First off, I want to say thank you again SO MUCH for your support of this fundraiser. A special thanks to my family for all their big donations, to Rolling Gratitudes for their huge donation of a week of sales proceeds, and of course thank you to EVERYONE who has donated any amount of money to support this cause, and also to those who have shared it with their own friends and family.

Through all of this support, we have all raised WAY more money than we imagined!

So amazing!

As I promised, we’d love to share more with all of you about what this money will go toward.

We’ve been here for a few weeks now and we have gotten to know our school really well. We’ve thought a lot about the funds in this account and have been trying to slowly learn about what projects it may be able to support.

During a conversation last week with the teachers at our school, we’ve learned that they have been trying to buy land and build a new school. They currently rent the building they are in, and it is literally falling apart. There is a section of roof that is a danger of caving in, there are large holes in the roof and when it rains, the water runs down the inside walls and down onto the floors. The door to the nursery area is basically a roughly broken hole in the wall to connect the two areas of building. The windows are broken panes of glass.

This is a school and day care for kids as young as two years old.

We haven’t told the teachers about the money that has been raised through this account.

We learned that they received a donation of about 11,000 kwacha from a couple who volunteered before us (that’s around $900USD).

They have picked out land, and when we talked to them about the construction costs, they are moving on faith it will be figured out. Land first, then save for the building.

So, all of you awesome people — the money is going to help them build a new school.

Not just HELP... these funds are going to provide the ability for them purchase land and should be about enough for them to build a three room school house with an office and a bathroom.

It is amazing!

We got an estimate for labor and materials from a local construction worker we trust. Based on his estimates for this type of project, between these donations and the donation from the couple who volunteered at Elicecy before us, this project can become a reality.

I’m going to attach some pictures of their current school. When we said we’d try to help fundraise for them they were so happy! We can’t wait to share how much all our friends and family and strangers have put in.

They said they’d love to show us the land they have picked out. Once we see it, we’ll share those pictures too!

Construction here takes some time, so it definitely won’t be done while we are here. They make their own bricks and the labor is all by hand, so it’s slow. It will likely take years.

But together, we will get to see this happen from back home! We’ll arrange with Elizabeth and Cecilia for updates on how it’s going and pictures when they can share them!

Thanks everyone for all the support. Please know that now is an amazing time to donate if you haven’t yet! The more we can provide them with, the nicer their new school can be.

Big love!

Katie and Luke