things on my mind

So I just wanted to interrupt the journal entries to kind of talk about my plans for this school/community.  I chatted with some teachers today about what they think this school needs.  And the biggest concern is building extra teaching quarters/classrooms to accommodate for such a high volume of students.  I said before that each class about 65-70 students.  Which is a ridiculous amount.  We talked about building new classrooms and also having the task of finding teachers to fill those classrooms.  If we could accomplish that, things would be amazing at this school. 

We also talked about a school feeding program.  The government currently has a school feeding program for select Primary and KG (kindergarten) schools.  Not even all of them.  Senior High Schools are most often boarding schools, so they have feeding programs too.  And then there is the Junior High Schools.  They get nothing when it comes to feeding programs.  And I have no idea why.  Neither do the other teachers.  So I am going to do some research and see if there is anything I can do to help with that.  If not help with all JHS’s, but at least Dondometeng.  Feeding the students and teachers is important.  Halfway through the day, everyone is hungry, and they quickly lose focus on learning/teaching.  They/we are focused on our growling stomach’s.  Plus, these students are still kids.  Growing kids.  Having a proper diet is important.  So, there’s project numero dos.

Project number three.  The other day we had people from the clinic come and administer CSM vaccines.  Which stands for Cerebral-Spinal-Meningitis vaccine.  Every student and every willing teacher received them.  For free.  At the JHS and the Primary and KG.  Apparently all the schools get them for free.  I thought that was amazing!  It made me realize I really want to get involved with the health aspect in this school/community.  I chatted with the teachers about bringing in some people from the hospital to talk about health, hygiene, HIV/AIDS etc.  And also setting up hand washing stations  at the schools. 

The final thing I’m starting to get involved with is a girl’s camp.  Another volunteer is setting it up and asked if I wanted to get involved.  Heck yes!  It’s going to be in February, so I have plenty of time to plan.  The camp is to encourage girls to pursue their education and knowing all the benefits from it.  As well as possible career options and other opportunities girls have with their futures.  She asked if I had 2-3 girls who I thought would be interested in going.  I have about 10 I think would definitely benefit, but I think I can narrow it down to 2 or 3.  The other volunteer also asked if I would be willing to be in charge of a workshop during the camp, specifically the one about careers.  Of course!  So until then, I’ll have to do some research and figure out what it is I’m going to talk about =) 

I’m so excited to finally get some project ideas.  Even though these projects are pretty big, I think they would be amazing to accomplish.  So for now, my hopes are high.  But I also realize it is a big risk, so hopefully I won’t get too disappointed if things don’t turn out.  So we shall see =)  Anywho, those are just a few things on my mind right now, and I’ll be sure to keep you updated on them all.