Participants

A dear friend of mine e-mailed me and asked me to share a bit more about the participants of the workshop. Unfortunately, when we're not teaching we are preparing for our next workshop so we haven't had a lot of opportunity to spend time with them outside of the classroom. However, we have made an effort as a team to split up over lunch and sit with different groups and try to get to know them. Unfortunately, people from Sierra Leone don't as a habit talk while they are eating, so it is a bit difficult. Last night when we were working on the computers and the electricity went out, I had about 20 minutes of waiting so I talked to a few teachers. They are truly amazing people. They have all lived through the war and therefore have lost valuable years of education and yet they have persevered to achieve their goals. All the teachers we work with are from the rural areas and have had no education past secondary school, in fact many of them have not completed secondary school. It is for this reason that they are invited to the workshops. One man I spoke to last night must be in his 60's. He worked for 10 years in a mine as an electrician, during the war he was not able to work but after the war he was asked to be the teacher of the local school. Most often, the teacher is the smartest or the most educated person in the village and is asked to take on the role of the teacher. Many of them are not paid for months at a time, sometimes even years, and yet they get up every morning and teach their students because they feel it is their calling. Despite the fact that they do not have access to regular newspapers or the internet, they are surprisingly quite informed about world events. They truly inspire me and I have a lot of respect for them. I am learning so much from them.
Tomorrow is Saturday, we will continue the workshop but Sunday will be a day of rest. We hope to visit the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and visit a popular beach. Monday and Tuesday next week we will continue with the same group of participants. Wednesday is another day off (lazy aren't we?), and Thurs. night our new participants will arrive for the second session. Action packed, not so?