Saturday, October 19, 2013

On Education and Politics

On Education:

I continue to teach English in the church here every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  I have discovered a HUGE love of teaching within me.  I love coming up with creative teaching tactics to engage my multi-age, multi-level class.  The class has dwindled a bit from its initial 35issh students because of private schools in Guinea Bissau starting (there are no private schools in our village, so people move far and wide to be able to attend private school).  The students who are left have shown a very remarkable work ethic and drive to learn.  

I recently assigned a group project (writing a newspaper) to help them to practice past and future tenses.  I fully expected them to rebel.  Afterall, writing a short article would be a very stretching exercise for some of them.   Additionally, it is a free class… they technically get no grade and have nothing invested in it, so why “waste” the extra time in doing something that isn’t completely necessary (especially considering that each of them keeps a very busy schedule).  To my surprise, they were very eager to show off to me what they’ve learned and our class paper will be published next week – complete with a Sports, a Religion, a Local News, and an Opinions Section.

My students are pretty awesome!

You may have noticed that I mentioned the private schools have started, but made no mention of the state (public) schools.  That’s because they haven’t started yet.  The teachers are currently on strike through December because the government refuses to pay them. 

It is a very sorry situation indeed as families of teachers are starving from no income, and as the young brains of Guinea Bissau are hungry for knowledge.  The last school year was almost completely thrown out for the same reason – too many school days missed due to teacher strikes.

Imagine being a student here in Guinea Bissau.  You want to learn so badly to be able to further yourself and maybe get a decent job eventually.  Your family doesn’t have enough money to send you to private school, and so you are forced to wait while your government figures out what/how they are going to pay the teachers.  It’s because of these sorts of situations (and others) that it is completely normal here for a 23-year-old to be studying 9th grade, or to have simply put school on a “long pause” while they work to get enough money to study somewhere else.

On Politics:

Politics is something that I absolutely never involved myself in.  Firstly, they were something that I was simply not interested in, but secondly, I have never voted and therefore have absolutely no excuse to complain about how things are in government because I did not do anything to make it be otherwise.  I know in my circles where I grew up, the concept of voting is debated.  My intent with this blog post is not to start a political debate (please!), but to shed some light on the politics of the country in which I currently live.

The first election in Guinea Bissau after the coup in April of 2012 [for more information on the coup, click on this link http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/04/2012413232852260513.html] is to happen in November.  Interestingly enough, voter registration has not even started yet, so people are starting to doubt that it will happen on time.

1 Timothy 2:2 tells us to pray for people in authority [to read this passage, visit this link: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+2&version=NIV].  On our team here, we are praying for a just, intelligent and compassionate president for the Guinensi people.  Elections are usually very…. Well… “political” for lack of a better word.  A lot hangs on what tribe you are from, how much power you demonstrate, who you know, etc.  I’ve been told that very high up leaders of Guinea Bissau have the education up to 4th grade, and many have not finished high school.

Join with us in praying (to a God who knows better than we do what Guinea Bissau needs) for good leadership that will bring change and development for Guinea Bissau! 

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