Champas: Preston Palm

Another one of our projects was this champa, or shade structure. We noticed that there were a few already surrounding the soccer field, however many of them looked like the small shabby one on the left side of the second picture with many gaps in their thatch roofs and major structural issues. The people use these every Sunday to watch

their community teams battle it out for bragging rights. 

The main reason they use them is not to protect themselves from the rain but from the sun which can be overwhelming at times. We felt like this project would be used regularly and considered useful by the community. We saw that we were correct when we installed these benches right before a Sunday soccer game. The spectators loved it. This champa was paid for by a combination of municipal funds and a fundraiser done by the colegio. A generous citizen donated the benches.

In addition, we rebuilt these two champas in the courtyard of the colegio. The champas that preceded these were made of thatch that had rotted almost completely away. We restructured the roofs and then replaced the thatch with this sturdy, long-lasting corrugated metal. We saw these structures being used everyday during school weeks so we knew that our work would be appreciated.

Our friends helped to build these structures were members of the Segundo bachillerato, a level of the colegio equivalent to a junior or senior. In order to graduate, they were required to do 300 hours of community service. Our projects helped this guy, Maynor, a really good friend of ours, to complete his requirement; he was the first one.