Building Cat Shelters in Beirut

 

One of my favorite activities in the school year was Week Without Walls, WWW. This was a time for students to learn and experience beyond the classroom. Teachers were in charge of planning the trip and there was a learning focus, to most of them. One that will stay with me forever, not my trip, was building bathrooms in Bali. We tend to think of Bali as an exotic vacation but there is extreme poverty off of the glitzy tourist paths and the students came back changed forever. It is important to point out that these students are extremely privileged, living in a rarified world of drivers, maids, cooks and gardeners. They’ve never cleaned anything in their lives. Unsurprising, to those who know me, I always focussed on local animal shelters. My last year in Beirut our project was to build cat shelters for a woman who was feeding and caring for about thirty cats in a vacant lot across from her house.

Students raised money through bake sales to buy all of the supplies, Then alone, or with a partner, they had to measure, plan, draw, cut out the design and paint the structure. At the end of the week we had created and assembled seven unique “cat houses” to take up the mountain and install for the kitties new homes. 

After all expenses, there was enough money to make a sizable donation of food and money for vet bills to sterilize and care for the cats. The woman cried when we finished and presented the food, money and shelters.

Students then sorted through the volumes of pictures and created a video to showcase their learning experience. This was presented at an open house for parents and students discussed what they had learned. Parents were teary-eyed listening to their children.