Fast Start and Summer Start 2012: July 2012

Saturday 28 July 2012

Summer Start: The Beginning... Again

By Jose Alfaro

Every University has some level of disfunction to it. Often it is what makes us like them or laugh at them. Like the fact that University of TN does not have sorority houses because according to the law it would be a brothel. Or the fact that the water main broke at Michigan's Environtmental and WATER resources. University of Liberia is no different. We started our program last Sunday by becoming the first occupants of the dormitories at the new Fendell Campus. The new dorms were donated by China AID and unfortunately have been sitting there for a while. So, adding to the University's disfunction is the debugging of a brand new building. Needless to say that is a formula for disaster.

The dorm is beautiful and elegant, reminds me of an apartment I lived in in Germany. But the toilettes smell to high heavens and they are squatters. The water reservoir is not enough to serve all of us and there are NO curtains in the dorm! As much as I am not very shy, I still would not like to have all my junk out for my students to see. Oh, yeah, we are staying at the same dorm as the rest of our 80 students. We had to literally struggle our way around the engineering building and the first couple of days we had crazy stories of getting into different rooms for classes and actually being able to use the bathroom.

But, as the british used to say "Keep Calm and Carry on!" So we did. We pushed on and tried our best to give the students a nice first week of classes. And as much as the dysfunctionality felt like nails on chalk the students and the staff actually made some amazing progress and were treated to some great stories. My favorite stories of the first week have to do with the fact that as much as things were not really ready with buildings and class rooms and we were plagued by misunderstandings the students and the staff are working great together. Matter of fact, the students mentioned that their favorite part of Summer Start is the ability to hang out with each other. Although the Liberian students usually spend a lot of time together they don't have time for non-academic stuff. So at Summer Start they get to work together and live together and get a semblance of how great team work can be.

Second Year Students brainstorming

On top of our staff we have a group of 11 undergraduate students from UM that are helping in the program. Their job is to more or less help the Liberian students gain life skills and get exposed to students from America. At first I thought this was just a nice thing for the American students to experience as part of their Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates (GIEU). But once I saw what it is doing for the Liberian students I can't put a price on it. The GIEU students have been amazing at jumping in and mixing with the Liberians. They are all split into teams with our returning students from last year and working on research projects. They have already taught them how to search the internet for appropriate and reliable sources and how to manage the search during a project. They have participated in brainstorming exercises and even taught them how to play ultimate frisbee.

GIEU Students help with research on the internet

For the independence day on July 26 we organized a scavenger hunt. One of our volunteers from the Peace Corps made up 16 clues that went with the traditional masks of each tribe that makes up Liberia. We then hid the masks around campus. The students broke out into groups and searched for the masks. It was amazing to see them not only think critically about some really hard riddles but to solve them and use technology to organize their search. The winning team broke out into smaller teams and used their cell phones to figure out the clues and how to direct each other to the right spot. In the end 2 teams came in with all 16 masks accounted for. They won some goodies but we got the best price of the day. Both teams broke out into chanting and dancing for celebration. They sang and sang and screamed. As more and more teams came in they all joined sometimes all doing the same dance sometimes each team performing a different one. One big wave of youth and power and song and joy. It was the perfect example of how joyful the young generation of Liberia can be. How they need no breaking of the ice, as they showed us last year.

Last night, our intern Ryan, lead an impromptu unplugged sessions where the students drowned his guitar with their singing. I heard them laughing and shouting from my room in the dorm. It reminded me again of how the intangibles of this program are the best part of it. How singing and dancing and culture have nothing to do with agriculture and engineering but are such key components of the education of our youth. How when they express themselves with no inhibitions they learn to chase after dreams and joy and to help each other and depend on each other. They will need that to succeed and to chase the dreams they have. Once again summer start… we begin again… the students showing us that sometimes you do need to ease back and enjoy a little song before the real work can begin!

Winning team of the scavenger hunt

Second place at the scavenger hunt

We decorated the cafeteria for Independence Day

Ultimate Frisbee!

Crazy celebration dances

Thursday 26 July 2012

The end of Fast Start and Graduation

By Brieland Jones and Jose Alfaro

After a break-in and larsony at Kakata, a breakout of gonorhaea at Zorzor, and the first time use of an Epi Pen at Firestone (sorry Mom...I'm ok), we're all back safe and sound and starting the next chapter in the summer of EHELD. I've always been amazed by the potential to make lifelong friends in an incredibly short period of time and we've already made plans to meet up again with the University of Michigan crew, and hope to see the PCVs sporadically throughout the rest of our stay in Liberia.

Many of our discussions leading up to our High School camps rolled around the fact that 2 weeks are really not enough to make an impact on the students. How can one heal gapping holes in Math and English in the span of just two weeks? How can one really convey the meaning and importance of such fields as Engineering and Agriculture? How can we create a culture of students that think critically and have imaginative solutions to everyday problems in just two weeks? It just seems impossible. But we have to start some where. Little steps would help.

Mss. Crandall and the students

At the end of our camp in Kakata the majority of our students still did not have the skills to move up to pre-calculus or to write a research report. Many of them still had no idea what exactly an engineer does or how it relates to agriculture and vice-versa. But the question really should be broader. Did we have an impact on students lives period? That objective was a resounding yes. Our students may not be totally ready to take on college. But they are much better at dreaming now. They are much better at working in groups and supporting each other. They are a community now. The second to last day we ran demonstrations of different experiments. We showed them how magnets can move liquids and how you can touch slowly a non-newtonian liquid that acts as a solid when you punch it quickly. "That witch there oh!" exclaimed some of them. Now, they now that is not vudu or "juju" but science.

At Firestone and Kakata we prepared videos with music and pictures of the students. They were mesmerized to see them. They loved them!

Students playing with the Non-Newtonian Fluid

We finished up on a great note with the final Tractor Pull competition and a video presentation of the students over the previous two weeks. The different models were outstanding and although at the beginning of the week they all had issues trying to get the tractor to move on its own, in the end they all ran and fast. We had a power competition to see who could lift a weight through a set of pulleys the highest. Then we had a set of drag races to see who's tractor could make it further down the track.

Students working on their tractors

After our competition we had a little ceremony to hand out certificates and some prices. Several students came up to delight us with funny stories of the camp and jokes. Then two students led them in hymns. Finally a shy student who asked if she could sing came up. She opened her mouth and delightful sounds came out that stilled the room in shock at first to then burst in admiration. She sang a verse of a hymn and then kept going at the encouragement of her colleagues.

When we handed out the certificates they hooted and hollered for each other. Each name we called was followed by chants of nicknames, girlfriends, or funny references. All of them were cheered intensely as they walked proudly shake hands with instructors and receive a humble certificate. They had become a family. They had become a team.

As we parted ways with those students and made our way back to Monrovia I pondered on the impact the students had on me. Two weeks was enough. Two weeks was more than enough for them to take a little place in all of our hearts and hopefully viceversa.

Mr. Jose and the boys

All of our teams came from the different sites after hours or days in the case of Zwedru of traveling on rough roads. The message at the debrief table that night was pretty unanimous. Each camp was a success story of students breaking through their shyness, being motivated to dream big and being exposed to new things. The peace corps volunteers that participated as instructor gave us the best compliments for our curriculum: they will continue to use it in their own classrooms. They also all said they would love to participate again.

The peace corps also showed us how much of a challenge education is. ALthough our students had difficulty with the curriculum at various stages, all of the PC volunteers agreed; these were the best students they had had in Liberia.

Our five teams spend one last night in Monrovia, delighting in pizza and ice cream and the memories of two weeks well spent!

Enjoying the "Who know me" Tea Shop.
Best Meat sandwiches in Kakata.
Ask for a Mr. Kilo, they add egg to it!

Last minute adjustment to a tractor before the pull

Community children enjoy the competition

First heat of the distance competition

Second heat!

The final!

Best Looking Design Winner: The Wisdom Tractor

The Master Star: Most environmentally friendly design

Tractor Garage and score board

Our Teaching Assistants

Mr. Johnson and some students

Mr. Jose and the students

Highest Pull winners

Mss. Crandall handing cerficates

The students gave us a beautiful gift!

Jose, Brieland and Dave got matching shirts for the final day!

Checking out the solar ovens

The lemon battery

Saturday 14 July 2012

Experimentation

By Mim and Brie

After the first week of EHELD Fast Start camp, we’ve had some time to reflect on the experiences that we’ve had with our students, our staff, and each other. While there are five camps around Liberia, our team felt privileged when we found out we would be teaching at Firestone Senior High School, the educational powerhouse that produces Division 1 and 2 WAEC (West African Examination Council) students year after year. We were also privileged to have a visit from the Mission Director of USAID in Liberia, the Chief of Party of EHELD, and our University of Michigan Team Leader Jose Alfaro, all of whom said a few words to welcome to the students to the program. Then we got to work…

Martha and Siah playing "Pirates" IceBreaker

Because our camp was a day camp, we woke up every morning at 5:30 am to make it to Firestone by 7 am, the first day only to see students showing up four hours late. We drilled the students on respect, punctuality, and integrity, and by the end of the second day, we saw massive improvements. Life Skills is one of the classes we teach at Fast Start, and some students initially failed to see its importance, both in the classroom and in the professional world. We had an opportunity to sit down with a Liberian professor who had been living and teaching in the U.S. for the past forty years. He couldn’t believe how Liberia had changed. He gave us his blessing for this program and said this is exactly what Liberia needs to help re-develop both its infrastructure and social stability. He stressed to us that during this camp, we need to emphasize group-work for these students. During the war, he said, thousands of people were targeted for the tribal dialect they spoke. Horrible things happened to these people, and Liberian English helped this country form a more cohesive society. “This is what the students need to do,” he said.

Emmanuel and Jefferson

Dorothy and Benedict learning about Agricultural Disciplines

We are becoming increasingly impressed with these students’ ability and willingness to help each other. Some “helping” is not as noble as others, but when we see the real kind in action, it gives you such a positive feeling for the future of Liberia: the future that these students will be leading.

On Tuesday we were straight into it. We discussed engineering, emphasized the importance of working as a team, introduced a partner to the class in English, talked about physics, as well as the history and parts of computers, and learned about sustainability and the UN Millennium Development Goals.

We introduced agriculture, showed students how to apply for college, what scholarships are available and made biogas from waste. One bottle had manure, another food scraps and the other soil. We then capped it with a balloon to see which would generate the most gas over the next week. Students measure the circumference and material levels daily, taking note of any changes.

Students conducting aquifer experiment

Students then made their own aquifers in Exploratory. They were fascinated at the different layers of soil and enjoyed learning about how their drinking wells access water in the same way. We spoke about water pollution and started brainstorming ways on how to purify and filter their water sources from contaminants.

Students making biogas from waste!

Perhaps the best feeling is not that we taught the students that you can purify water using sunlight or produce electricity from wind, but rather that these ideas were so foreign to them, that they begin to think differently about the world around them. I received a question of “why don’t apples grow in Liberia?”, which launched a mind-blowing discussion of greenhouses, recycling, and international trade. After the students saw that it was actually good to ask questions, they couldn’t stop. Many of the questions they asked were more thought-provoking and real than those asked in my Master’s program at the University of Michigan. The last three days have not only opened up the students’ minds about the interdependence of engineering and agriculture in Liberia, but it has given them a look into different cultures. We talked with students about our homes and asked them about theirs. Indeed, there were differences, but even more striking were the similarities. We all cook, we all wash clothes, we all like to be with family and friends. We are making progress in great strides.

On the first day, the students’ best idea of agriculture and engineering was fertilizer and irrigation. At the end of the day on Friday, two students came to ask me, “so if you can cook with gas made from waste, can cars use it too?”