Yesterday we went to the Trumpet of God Institute with a couple we met at the Lutheran Compound, where we are staying. Eb and Janelle Flomo are the co-founders of HELLO, Helping Encourage Liberia's Little Ones. They invited us to go with them to TOGI to pass out book bags with school supplies for the teachers and Principal Olive.
Janelle is a middle school teacher in Minnesota. She had her students write to the students at TOGI inviting them to be penpals. While we were there, the students wrote letters back to Janelle's students in Minnesota. We took pictures and videos of the students so that Janelle's class can see who their penpals are.
The students in Liberia have a month off of school, from mid- December to mid-January, so they were on vacation when we came. There were only about 50 of the 200 students at TOGI there. The school was nothing like what you would see in America. I cannot imagine having over 200 people in that small space at one time. The classrooms are open, with no doors and open hallways. It is very hot, 90F on average, and they do not have airconditioning.
There were chickens running around the courtyard and into the classrooms. Also, one of the students had a "pet" rodent called a duk. It was wild but Eb told us he was "taming' it to be a pet. One kid was holding it and it seemed content but when the other students would come up and try to pet it or touch it, it would bite at them and make awful noises. It was scary to be close to but it didn't seem to bother them.
HELLO brings paper, pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers and other school supplies that we would consider basic. The students' ages are much higher than we would expect for their grade levels. This is because the civil war significantly disrupted their education. HELLO came to this school in 2006; there were some students that were there then and they got up and spoke. In the three years, many of the students had excelled 4 or 5 grade levels.
I found a razorblade on the ground and quickly picked it up so that it wouldn't get into the wrong hands and someone could cut themselves. I found out, this is what they are using to sharpen their pencils! They have children in kindergarten using razorblades to sharpen pencils?
We had a lot of fun helping the kids with their letters and even explaning to them what snow and sledding is. Before we left, Janelle taught them a song, "Come and Go with Me to My Father's House." They then thanked us for coming and some individual students got up and said thanks.
The school motto is, "Building character for a better future." They also had a lot of encouraging phrases painted on the walls; including, "Knowledge is more valuable than silver and gold."
The biggest problem HELLO has is funding. You can visit their website at:
-bekki
COOL. Reminds me of that small school in Guatemala that we went to. Cool pic btw. Better watch out for that kid in the doorway though, looks like hes creepin'.
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