Tuesday, May 17, 2011

From Baton Rouge to Mozambique

HIA, Catholic High, Third Coast team up to send soccer equipment to Amatongas


Catholic High boys’ soccer head coach Bo Cassidy and Third Coast Soccer are working with HIA to send soccer equipment to Amatongas, Mozambique in June, where Michael Kline and fellow HIA member Mark Clements will be spending the first of five planned summers assisting in the development of a new Brothers of the Sacred Heart mission.

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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Changes

Check out the before/after pictures below. Changes are slow in coming here, but there are changes. A huge amount of paint, blood, sweat and a great deal of help from friends in our first three months in Amatongas has resulted in some not so minor changes to the school.

Before
After much paint, sweat and a little help from friends
The picture below shows our future pig house. Believe it or not, you could not even see this building through the vines, trees and bushes growing around and in the buildings. It took over a month to clear and clean. Next week we will put the new roof on and hopefully begin acquiring pigs next month. This Sustainable Support Project will hopefully provide funds and food for the school next year.
Future pig residence
The students are enjoying the new residence hall and study room shown below. We have two study periods. The first from 8:30-10:30 for the afternoon students and the second from 1:30-3:30 for the morning school students. If you haven't heard already, we have three sessions of students attending classes in the morning, afternoon and the evening. There are over 800 students attending this coed school each day from 6:30 AM until 11:00 PM every day.
New study room for resident students
Also, work began last week on the future residence for the brothers. This residence next to the school was the house for the Franciscans who first built the school. Since the civil war, it has been abandoned and in need of much repair. The roof, which had many leaks causing major problems, will be the first project. The residence will house the four brothers assigned to Amatongas as well as volunteers and other guests.
Work begins on future brothers residence