Friday, January 30, 2009

One of the IWU student will be holding art classes at a school nearby, so we met with the principal. The school has 325 students. The conversation went something like this.

Do you have any art supplies? - We are a poor school.

How many classes do you have? - We have first grade to seventh grade

Will we go from classroom to classroom? – We only have one room.

You have 325 students in one room? - It is a big room.

Does the room have dividers? - No, One class faces this direction (she turns her head), one class faces this way (she turns again), one class faces this way, (she just continues turning)

[By now we are looking at each other like we cannot believe this]

Do you have desks or tables? – No desks or tables.

Do you have chairs or benches? - No chairs , no benches. The students just sit on the floor and work on their laps.

[Now our eyes are getting really wide and we look at each other, and change our questions a little]

Is the floor concrete? – No, it is dirt.

Do they have pencils? – Some do, some do not so they pass them back and forth.

[We are beginning to think what kind of art program can we do?]

Do you have electricity? – No, we get light from outside.

So you have windows? - We have big openings - no window panes.

Do you have water? – We can get buckets of water and carry them to the school.

How many students are in each class? – Up to 50 or 55

[Now we are sitting there with our mouths open - we do not even know what else to ask]

Do you have any behavior problems? 85% of our students are orphans and many live on the streets, so yes we have behavior problems.

Well we go on Monday, so I will let you know how it turns out. I guess we will draw in the dirt with sticks.
If you have any great ideas on what kind of art we can do without any supplies, let us know.

The woman that started this school use to work for the government when God spoke to her and she knew that she had to do something for these children who had no way of getting an education. So she alone started with 6 children off of the streets about four years ago and now the school has 325 children.

The government does pay for 2-3 teachers the other teachers are volunteers. School is from 7-11am and then some of the children go back to the streets. Although the school only goes to seventh grade they have students up to 18 years of age because they have never had the opportunity to go to school before.

I told her I probably would have pulled a Jonah, she said she has considered it many times.
I told her she was a miracle worker and she said she named her daughter Miracle.

Pray for this school.
Pray for Brittany, the IWU student, as we go on Monday. I am going just for crowd control or as a helper, the IWU student will do the teaching.

Love to all.