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

Yes, Sara, there are trees in America

By Jose Alfaro

Some of the best times at our camps are the little moments when you see the students light up with recognition.  A lot of times it is not about something you did in class.  Most of the times it is actually about something that will stick with them forever that made them a wiser person.  Last night we screened Apollo 13.  That movie always gives me the chills.  It is such a good story and a wonderful moment in our history.  The students usually love it too but for far different reasons.  

This morning as we sat there after our breakfast of cream of corn, bread and Ovaltine, I got to talk to some of the students about it.  There were so many points that they learned from the movie, it made the late night worth it.  They were marveled at the fact that so many engineers had to work together to bring three people home.  They were marveled at the key place computers had in the operation.  They were so impressed to see real life engineers BRAINSTORMING, just like we taught them earlier this week.  They were impressed with the fact that they had to brainstorm to use weird materials to make something that was not expected or supposed to work.  

Even more important than the different points in the movie that related to the curriculum was the discussions that were sparked for the kid's lives and their world view.  One young lady, Sara, told me, "What impressed me most out of the movie was to see that America has trees!".  "Before last night in my mind, America was on a hanky (suspended in the air or something).  But yesterday I learned they have coconut tress and other trees, grass and nature."  I laughed.  So impressive that we have no idea what some of our students' world view or view of America is.  Kind of the way people in America have a distorted view of Africa when we tell them what we do.  People in America think of Africa as a large savannah, a dessert maybe, or the other iconic images.  But the continent is so vast!  

Sara and I then talked about Michigan, our nature, the Upper Penninsula, fresh water beaches!  The other girls around her wanted to know if we had farmers in the USA and if it was true that we had poor people.  I told them about our farmers market, community shares agriculture, organic farmers. I had to tell them about Detroit and how it looks now a lot like Monrovia looked like a few years ago.  Boarded up buildings, squatters, and homelessness are sadly common to all of us.  

Sara and the others around me then got into a discussions of how Liberia can use agriculturalists to create business and engineers to innovate.  We talked about so many projects that they could go into.  Peanut candy, water bottling, tourism, agroforestry, dried products.  I saw their eyes grow wide at the thought of selling dried mangoes and pineapple in Monrovia to the hoards of expats and NGO workers.  It was a moment of eureka for them.  A simple moment over hot tea and food.  A simple moment of recognition.  True education!!  

Yes, Sara, there are trees in America!


Some more pics for your viewing pleasure

Brieland and Mim Jones at the Cuttington Campus

A student checks out the solar ovens.  One team got over 200 F!

Prof Johnson gives a math lesson with help from Napoleon

Registration at KRTTI