All Shook up

Progress continues at a pace in Luang Prabang

The LEOT Language School  is really taking shape

LEOT Contract Manager Touy lends a hand to the builders!!!

and has got

All Shook Up



9th February 2011

I am pleased to say we are making great progress and our thanks go to our builders and Touy for all their hard work.

All ready we can see the shape of the building. The foundations are in. The walls are shooting up and are being fitted with window frames

 

In the last blog we showed a picture of our builders having a good home made meal.

It looks like they have very fresh eggs

Site hen house

Thanks guys for doing a good job

The start of building

The project started with the arrival of materials

You can see Touy busy organising

The site office has already been built it will be home for several of our builders

Shuttering has been put up and columns are being cast

No take aways on site our builders have their own kitchen for making meals

Its heavy work as the pillars are cast and foundations are laid

Our signs up inviting people to come and watch the building

Christmas Day 2011

The 25th December was a very special day for us in Luang Prabang when a blessing ceremony was held at the start of building The LEOT School

Monks blessed The Spirit Column (Central pillar of the building)

They were joined by members of LEOT and the local community

Part of the Baci ceremony



A monks blessing

Alan & Touy give thanks to the monks

The day was one of religious celebration and hope.

But like all Laos festivals finished with a party until dusk



Selecting our Contract Manager



Phattana Manivong

It was decided at an early date that it was essential for LEOT to play an active role in the construction of our school.
We decided that this could be done best with the appointment of a contract manager to liase with our builders.
The ideal candidate was soon found. Touy was a LEOT student and had been sponsored by us to complete a diploma in English at a local college. He is now completing advanced studies at the Rattana Business school.
Touy accepted this new challenge with relish and was soon busy establishing a temporary office in the CCC building in the centre of town.

The new LEOT project office gets a lick of paint by Touy in his new office in the CCC building on Luang Prabangs main street

Mooving in the furniture

Nearly ready to start work

Finding our builder

We have all heard the stories of cowboy builders in the UK.
We were quite daunted at finding a builder in Laos with both cultural and language difficulties.
It was important to find a reliable firm that we could trust and we were confident would do a good job. We wanted to use local Laos labour and make sure we avoided the exploitation of child labour.

With all this in mind a detailed specification was commissioned and with the help of Teng our Homeland Director invitations to tender were sent out to local firms.

We were delighted to receive seven detailed responses of which three were produced to a very high standard.

A committee was formed to meet with our short listed builders and we spent a very busy week discussing our plans and seeing examples of buildings completed by each contractor.

One firm impressed us most with their professionalism and the quality of their work. They had completed work on a number of projects for the public sector including the refurbishment of a school in central Luang Prabang in the heritage style.

Our minds were made up and we entered negotiations with Phonexay Constructions. Discussions lasted several days and we were grateful to Trustee Claire who drafted the contract for us

Chair Alan signs contract at Phoneyays office

 We had reached our next mile stone.

We were ready for the difficult job of building.

The Plans

The School is being built in the World Heritage zone of Luang Prabang.
The design we chose is in harmony with the buildings in the village and is of a traditional Laos design.
It is functional with three large class rooms and a study/library.
We plan to extend our syllabus to include computer studies.
The building has a dedicated library area for private study and reading.
It will become the focal point for IT study as we develop the curriculum.

We are pleased that our architect has added touches of Laos artistic design that will give the traditionally red tiled roof a heritage appearance
Laos craftsman show their skills through the use of capentry skills.

Site Plan of LEOT School

Map shows Nam Khan River in Ban Phuluang Village

Buying the land

The purchase of property is difficult in the UK even with the help of an experienced agent and solicitor.
The experience for the Falang in Laos is much more difficult as the sale of land is carried out without the benefit of professional help.
We viewed many pieces of land all with hand painted signs and mobile phone numbers.
Much of the land was at prices more suited to Central London rather than Luang Prabang

Historic Luang Prabang

The school is near the Apsara Rive Droite

We eventually found a piece of land in Ban Phunluang village on the opposite side of the Nam Khan river opposite the heart of Luang Prabang.
The site is accessible for students and has the benefit of being both affordable and in a quieter part of the town to aid study.

School Land

The picture shows Trustee Claire surveying the land after basic clearance had been completed in Spring 2011.
The site is next to a temple and is surrounded by many mature trees.
We managed to preserve the tree that Claire is standing by. the school will stretch from the back of the site up to the tree on the left of the picture

A Project is born

LEOT was born in 2006 as the result of a chance meeting of a monk and a UK tourist.
Alan Shiel was the tourist and the founder of LEOT.
The charity sponsors the education of disadvantaged young people in Laos.
Today we assist over twenty students studying subjects ranging from Business Studies to Dentistry and Plumbing to Environmental Studies.
Typically it was Chair Alan who first mentioned the number of our students who studied English as a second language in addition to their core subject.
It was early in 2010 he floated the idea of The LEOT English Language Centre.
The idea started small with the vision of a small School in a rented building.

LEOT English Language Centre

Like all good ideas the vision grew to include the building of a school with three classrooms and a study centre.

Room Layout plan

By the start of 2011 plans were commissioned and the project was under way.
All we now needed was permission from The Laos Government, the funds to build and a builder to complete the work