Earlier this year we had to say good bye to a tree.  A very special tree, it had that classic African rain forest look.  Rising high above all others, it was a stately tree.  It almost felt like a symbol of Rain Forest International School.

But do you see what is at the base of that beautiful big tree?  Ron’s garage office.

One day last November, Ron got a phone call after a strong wind and rain storm.  Another branch had fallen.  This was not the first such call about that tree, but it would be the last.  A fallen branch had done damage to school property for the last time… or so we thought.

*insert imagination.  My camera was not working when the tree was cut.  As it went down, it took out a portion of the wall that had just been rebuilt as well as the electricity, as its branches grazed the electric pole.

The next couple of weeks the air was filled with the annoying buzz of the chainsaw as the amazingly skilled “woodcutter” made lumber from the trunk of that tree.

The wood is stacked and drying in anticipation of its next role — to once again shade the garage / industrial arts area.

Many of us were saddened that she had to be cut down.  But somehow it’s not quite so sad knowing she’ll be built in to the physical structure of RFIS.