BFA teachers are all required to do 2 weeks of work during the summer as a service to the school. For the last two weeks, I have been doing my work, which has involved a somewhat humorous compilation of borderline slave labor tasks.
In the fall, the elementary school is moving from Sitzenkirch to Wollbach, and the middle school is moving from Kandern to Sitzenkirch. This means that the job of the work teams this summer has been to set up the new schools. During the first two weeks after graduation, the work teams moved lockers, desks and books and everything else. They even took down the playground from the elementary school.
They left one thing for us to do.
Gravel in the old playground
All of the gravel from the playground needed to be moved to a pit in Kandern. It was backbreaking work, but our team was really fun!
The first step in the process was shoveling the rocks into wheelbarrows.
We worked tirelessly for days, in rain and sunshine, dealing with mud and caked-on dirt.
Once each wheelbarrow was full, we loaded it onto the truck. The truck could handle about 8 wheelbarrow loads at a time; when we tried more, the clutch started smelling funny.
Since only 3 could fit in the truck to unload at the school, the rest of us stayed behind and alternated between chopping up stubbornly packed dirt, playing hangman in the dust, and describing what superpowers our arch-enemies would have. Meanwhile….
At first, we unloaded the truck by shoveling it all out the back. That took a long time.
Then we came up with a new technique involving a tarp. The first part was the same: shovel out a layer of rocks.
Then we pulled the tarp over the edge, dumping the rocks onto the pile.
Finally, on Wednesday of the 2nd week of work, we got to the last shovel-full....
...the last wheelbarrow load....
... and the old playground was cleared and ready for middle schoolers to take over and make it their own sports field!
There's the big pile of rock in its new location.
... and the proud crew, happy our task was complete!
We started the job on Monday of Week 1 and finished it Wednesday of Week 2, but we worked on other projects during that time as well. For instance, all the trash cans in the school needed to be cleaned. I avoided that job and chose to shovel rocks for the most part, but I did get to move a few to and from their places and tape signs on them saying “Please Do Not Use.”
Taping up the trash cans
My favorite job, though also the most sweaty, was mowing the lawn. During Week 1, Jonathan Griesse and I mowed the hill and picnic area. During Week 2 (Tuesday – the hottest day ever!), I mowed the hill and picnic area all by myself! Then Thursday I did a little extra mowing behind the basketball court.
There's the hill. It goes all the way up to the wood pile on the right. My little push mower didn't even have functioning self-propel, so I had to muscle across the slope.
Here's the picnic area. Yes, there are little slopes here, too.
During Week 2 after finishing the rocks, we got stuck with the mopping jobs. Fortunately, I had good company. Suzanne and Katrina and I explored the school…
There they are, up on the rooftop! I joined them shortly after taking the picture.
There was a nice view from up there, but the roof itself wasn't so pretty. Katrina and Suzanne did their best to improve it with their smiles.
Working is always more fun when you have good company. It also is great when you get hour-long lunch breaks that go even longer to finish up games of Dominion!
Dominion is a strategy game involving cards. It's more addicting than Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne...
To celebrate the end of our work weeks, we took some of the wood from the playground and had a little cookout.
Mmm, fire and sausages and s'mores.
What great people!
Though the idea of work weeks sounds like an infringement on the freedom of summer, it was actually really fun working together with an awesome group. The structure of working 9-3 every day was freeing as well, because I knew I would not waste my day, but I still had lots of free time in the afternoon and evening. It was a little taste of a “normal” job, but way more fun!
