This gallery shows photos taken at the beginning stages of Wollega Adventist Academy and show its humble beginnings and early pioneers and students.




This picture shows the very first pioneers (all were potential students who were eager to build their school) whom the Principal took with him on a tractor and camped on the sight.  Today the first one on the right is a medical doctor, the first on the left is a PhD and the second a medical doctor. 










The next thing we did after the camping was to clear the field for construction by students, who had no money but used their muscles to work and earn their school fees.  Not much technology and engineering required.  We cut trees and put up poles here and there and built the walls and the roofs from bare corrugated iron.










This was the girl’s dormitory and, as you can see, they washed their clothes by hand behind their residential hall.
 











Our only moving machine on campus was a very old tractor and the principal’s small moped. Wood collected for building materials was pulled by that single tractor and students who worked for their school fees.











Students not only participated in building construction, but also played an active role in mixing the soil with straw to plaster the walls and keep the wind from blowing through.  They went to school in the morning and in the afternoon got their feet in the soil cheerfully.












This is a father who knew how to plaster the walls with the mixed mud.   And as you can see, he did a great job.













Each student and faculty was given a bottle to collect water from the river for drinking and washing their faces in the morning.  We boiled water and let it cool for drinking.  We continued collecting our water supplies from the river, and we established a small old generator give us light in the evening, but it often didn't work correctly.  We pumped water from the river and you can see the condition of the water.  Yet it surprised the local people and they wondered how we could get water from the river to come up-hill in a pipe.  It was a wonder of wonders! We collected water in a big water tank.














Students worked in the garden for their school fees.  This was planted in the dry season, down the valley, on school property. Look at the fresh and healthy looking vegetables. We still can grow potatoes four times a year in the valley.  Students harvest vegetables and bring to the kitchen. The school gives them credit towards their school fees and they are happy to work their way through school.  That way we feed the students from their produce, and those who can pay cash do, although we have some hours of labor as a compulsory for every student as part of the curriculum in order to teach them the dignity of work.








Students cut one another’s hair short on campus.













Students and teachers worked hard to make their own sweaters from scratch!













Students and teachers wearing their hand made woolen sweaters.















This is the way they separate the seed from the straw using animals to walk on (they help themselves too.)  Flour is made from harvested grain. We baked bread to feed students.











Our most efficient local transportation at the time was donkeys and mules (and to some extent even today.) Student looked after them after school as part of his work and study program.  Students collected water from the river and carried the water supply to the kitchen by donkeys. They also used donkeys to bring their garden produce to the kitchen from the valley. Pastors who are fortunate enough to own a mule come and visit our school on the back of mules. Missionaries at times travel by mule to come and see the school from distant stations.









This is the first week of prayer we had on campus for the community and students.  Students are praying in groups if front of the administration building.












Here many students and community people were baptized.













We constructed a church and meetings were conducted inside even before it was completed. The church was completed and even painted white. One missionary came and suggested a pulpit and constructed one for the church.  This is the existing church building when it was first completed.










The school started a small brick factory and built a kitchen and staff housing. The bricks were produced in a very primitive way, using wood to burn the bricks in open air that consumed a lot of firewood.  These brick were used to build a sign for WAA at the entrance of the school.  They also built dormitories for boys and girls with cement blocks.  If you see it these today, every piece of wood used in the building has been eaten by termites, turning the buildings into ruins and impossible to live in. If the termites turned these solid block building into this condition, you can imagine what condition those original buildings, made of local materials and covered with mud, are in. When evaluated, it was recommended that it must all be demolished.  Only two dorms are able to be rehabilitated, using metals instead of wood in order to avoid future damage by termites.