Fast Start and Summer Start 2012: Oasis

Last year our Summer Start program was done at Cuttington University. While there I remember the distinct feeling that Cuttington was a sort of oasis in the middle of a rebuilding Liberia. Rolling hills over look rubber, rice and cassava farms. Tilapia ponds dot the sides. Little roads lead to villages that bring their wares to market. Beautiful houses protect the staff and even give them gardens and porches to spend their afternoons in. The students and the staff walk to the river to wash their laundry every weekend but more out of community than need. There was running water in the houses. Electricity was available… sporadic but available. The neighboring city of Gbanga had most of what one would need, including a night club, a taylor that made "so fine clothes", and a breakfast joint with egg sandwiches. It was easy to enjoy the place and feel as if in a far different place than Monrovia and it's craziness.

Ryan leads a music night

I remember attributing the feeling of progress to the presence of the university and the education that it gave to its students and the surroundings. I feel universities tend to bring this sort of feeling to their communities: a sort of wellness and progressiveness. But there are exceptions. University of Liberia is a bit dysfunctional as I mentioned before. Our arrival did not help. The buildings were still not quite livable. The university had serious delays during the semester which caused finals to land right on our schedule. Our students are having to leave our classes to go take their finals. Never mind the problems that brings to our camp, the students seem stressed and over worked.

Students survey the Kpondetown farm

I dont blame the students. They had no hand in the scheduling issues (other than a few days of rioting a couple of weeks ago). Professors tend to cancel their exams and reschedule for another day, regardless of what that does to the students. Some of our students have four tests scheduled for the same time! Worse than that is the solution to the issue. The student has to choose what test to take, then fail the other ones, or receive an incomplete on their class. The strategies the students follow to cope with this are almost comical. Some of the students try to take a test as fast as they can then rush to the other one and try to at least get some points on it. Some students foreseeing this problem study very hard for their midterms so that if they come to this they can at least pass the class. Some students just pick the test that represents the largest percentage of a class grade and take that one. Needless to say, GPAs here literally mean nothing. Professors also tend to refuse to come to campus and ask students instead to go to their private offices to make presentations. This puts a huge stress on the students who tend to pay more on transportation than on tuition and fees.

So the view of Universities providing that oasis of development and peace has been shattered for me here at UL. However, something has happened over the last two weeks. Students. Students living together and struggling together. Students being coached, encouraged and mentored by people who have their best interest in mind. Peace Corps volunteers, UL and Cuttington selected staff, RTI employees and UM faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, have been giving these students all they can each and every day. The results have been amazing to say the least. The dorm and the "Chinese Buildings" have turned into a place of laughter, studying, reading, experimenting, dancing, pranks, and even worship.

Checking out the rabbit farm

Fellowship is sprouting everywhere like wild flowers in a burnt field. The small courtyard in between the buildings has turned into a mini-soccer field with daily games and a referee. We are having a 4 on 4 tournament today. The cafeteria empties after food to turn into a study room and small study groups. At night, we show movies and students half watch and half read their articles and homework. Facilitators from our staff help the students study for their finals. Yesterday the students commandeered the kitchen staff utensils and attention to build their popsicle stick bridges. They spent most of their Saturday morning tinkering with their designs. The dorm breaks out into laughter and song. Our very artistically inclined Ryan smith leads the students in evening songs with his guitar. It usually takes about a half hour before the students take over with their singing to drown him out. It almost always ends up in a dance party of some sort.

Checking the goat farm

It is not only fun and games. This week the students visited three different farms. They surveyed the farmers, observed their growing and management methods, listened to their issues and identified crops and wild species in the fields. They surveyed plots with crops, taking measurements and estimating crop coverage. The computer lab, once plagued with viruses on every computer, is now virus free and has been full of minds learning to type, produce spread sheets, create documents and prepare presentations. The second year Engineering students have been test driving a server packed of information for their different research projects in alternative energy, water purification, hydroponics, and irrigation.

Slowly but surely the feeling of being on an island from the rest of the world has been emerging. The ocean of craziness laps at the shores but more and more we feel the oasis sprouting up from inside to create development, spread education and improve the conditions of the people in it and around it. The oasis is taking root and growing. I was wrong, the institution of universities does not create the oasis. It is the people, the students, that make it. It is them who, with a little bit of our help, have made an oasis of sanity in the midst of the craziness.