“Seeing the progress makes the work more rewarding than it is difficult.” -Liz Doernhoefer, World Volunteer participant

After the success of the first group of World Volunteer students, we were all pumped to GET THIS SCHOOL DONE!! World Volunteer had rounded up a second group – a group of adults associated with their organization as well as their own family members. It was very cool to see impassioned young adults give up their time for our cause and to see families working side by side. Altogether, the two groups from World Volunteer put up enough walls to make a classroom! Anxious to see the fruits of their labor, they also moved the tables, chairs, blackboard, and students into this new clay room. This room now serves as the official new classroom and classes are held there every school day! The primary school kids were very very happy to see that so much progress had been made in 2 weeks. World Volunteer volunteers: thank you so much for helping us kick-start building the walls and we commend you for your motivation and hard work!

We had three more groups in the month of December! The first two groups were high school students from Australia. These groups were organized in conjunction with Lao Project Group and World Challenge. The challenge for them was to get us back on track with brick making. In total, we had estimated a need of around 6000 bricks to complete the structure of the school, an average of 2000 bricks per room! Holy Bricks! Though these groups focused their time on making more bricks, collecting more straw, and other preparation, they were also involved with wall construction. LPG/World Challenge volunteers: thank you for ALL THE BRICKS and for engaging the children of Ban Naluang! With the production of more bricks on hand, our third group of adventure volunteers, organized by Incheon Center for International Cooperation and Exchange , arrived just before Christmas day. Despite their rough journey from Vientiane to Luang Prabang, this group of 13 from South Korea were jolly and ready for their own challenge. During their stay, they completed the construction of the second room and got a head start on one wall of the third and FINAL CLASSROOM!! ICICE volunteers: thank you for giving up your Christmas holiday to CELEBRATE with the villagers of Naluang!  Thank you as well for all of your kind and very PRACTICAL donations.  The villagers were extremely grateful for your thoughtfulness.

So… ONE MORE classroom to construct followed by some finishing touches, fun stuff like plastering, painting, and prettying!  If you want to help, contact us!!