Blogs from Yei , South Sudan, Africa

We had a busy morning, which was good because it kept our minds off the prospect of saying good bye to so many people we met this trip and previous ones. Today we again spent time with "old" friends Diantha Hodges, a missionary whom my church helps support, Libby Dearing, the creator of Grace Home for Children, and Drs. Lynn and Sharon Fogleman, the husband and wife team who are the recipients of most of the eyeglasses I brought (some were left behind in Terekeka). Along with a team of twelve volunteers from Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church (the home church of Michael Slaughter, the author of "Christmas Is Not Your Birthday" and several other thought provoking books), we did a health screening of 130 nursery school students at Dar es Salaam UMC school in Yei. In ... read more

Today Karen, Ellen and I completed our plan for sharing our experience with teachers at Terekeka and Yei compounds. Because some of the teachers here in Yei attended the workshop I did in February, we retooled our presentation so that the first part was a review of strategies described then to a more participatory approach with those from last year helping those who were not there. This is one of the principles of cooperative learning--having students (in this case, the teachers) explain in their words what the teacher just said. We did nine Kagan strategies and six active learning strategies, and then demonstrated the use of eight graphic organizers. Having substituted in several of their classes yesterday really helped because we were able to tell how we had actually used some of those strategies and organizers ... read more

When Ellen, Karen and I made plans for this adventure, our only limit was that Karen could only be away from work for two weeks. So we divided up our time, planning to do classroom observations, teacher training and then follow up for one week in Harvesters at Terekeka and the following week at Harvesters in Yei. In early October we learned that the school in Yei was having exams this week, so we couldn't do any observations. Since I was kinda sorta the one in charge of the training phase, I panicked! What would we possibly do here in Yei for three days? So I frantically sent emails, numerous times, to the contacts that I had here and stressed, stressed, stressed! Then, lo and behold, Ellen, who was already in South Sudan, sent me an ... read more

Danke an alle Spender Liebe Spender, mit Eurer Hilfe sind fast 6000,- Euro, ca. 8000,- US Dollar zusammengekommen! Ein herzliches Dankeschoen dafuer!!! Und ich verspreche, dass jeder Cent dieses Geldes bei meinen Frauen angekommen ist. Eine Auflistung: 20 Naehmaschinen: 1800,- US 2 Getreidemuehlen: 3600,- USD 2 Mechaniker + Lehrer zum Aufstellen und Unterrichten zum Gebrauch der Muehlen, sowie der Reparaturen in den naechsten 6 Monaten + Materialien:1200,- USD Mechaniker zum Zusammenbau der Naehmaschinen u. Reparaturen i.d. naechsten 6 Monaten:400,- US Gebuehren an der Grenze Uganda/Sudan:120,- USD Zuschuss zum Gehalt der Schneiderlehrerin aufgrund von Inflation: 200,- USD Ich habe jetzt noch etwa 700,- US Dollar u... read more