2012 Photo Report #6: Video Tour of the School

In my last report, I showed you pictures of the first PROJECT BUCHANAN classroom building, which is still under construction.  In this report, I would like to roll a short video clip, so that you can walk through the building with me.

The small city of Buchanan, where the new school campus is being developed,  is located on Liberia's Atlantic coast and is just 5 degrees above the equator.  As you can imagine, the temperatures and the humidity there are fairly high most of the year.  Therefore, when we were planning this building, every effort was made to design classrooms that would be as comfortable as possible for the students.  (And just so you know... air conditioning was not one of our options!)
  
Fortunately the school is located on high ground overlooking the Benson River, and just a mile and a half to the south is the ocean (to the right, in this photo).  Since the building lies in an east-west direction, the prevailing sea breeze will provide maximum airflow through every classroom.  The walls are 12 feet high, and each of the four classrooms has 6 large windows. 

In this brief report, I would like to take you on a short walking tour through PROJECT BUCHANAN's first school building.  Of course, at this point, only the walls are up, but that's OK... without the roof, there will be lots of natural "sky-light" for the video!

So come with me now, and let's get started on the tour!  It'll only take 3 or 4 minutes...

To start the video, just click the "Play" button in the middle of the screen...  After the video starts, for the best quality picture, click the "Change quality" (cogwheel) button in the taskbar at the bottom of the picture and select "480p"... To make the picture bigger, click the "Full screen" button (bottom right)...  You may need to turn up the volume on the video (the red slider in the taskbar) or the volume on your computer!

In February (2013), Gordon Tiner is planning to take another work team to Liberia.  This time his plan is to get the roof on this first PROJECT BUCHANAN school building!  The dry season is already returning to Liberia, which means that over the next few months we will need to purchase (and truck in) the timber, the sheets of roofing, and the other materials needed for this construction job.   Then, when Gordon arrives in mid-February, he and his team will be able to get right to work!