Education Working Smoothly

Hello again all TEP followers. As Eileen noted last time the libraryis finally finished. We sealed the deal this week by dedicating the new library to the memory of Cassie’s late number two, Benny, whopassed away last year. He was very passionate about the education of these children so it was only fitting.

Now we are really in the swing of things. The kids come to use the library during study hall and teachers bring them in for class to use the books. For now the only system in place is allowing the students to use the books while they remain in the library because we have not hired a trained librarian yet. The kids love the books, and they are learning to replace them exactly where they found them or place them in a drop-box for the current librarian to place back on the shelves
properly.

For me specifically, everything in the sea container has made teaching go a whole lot smoother. The students love the blank white paper that we have stacks and stacks of so I decided that on Tuesday my form II biology class could make their own nutrient cycle diagrams. We went
into the library and pulled out all the biology books, looked for pictures of the cycles and recreated them for later study use. It was great because they all have the same information but the pictures and shapes are different. I remembered how much I liked doing this in high school so it was great that I had the resources to allow them to do the same. The only problem was that if you let the kids at Fanaka draw anything you have to give them enough time because they do not understand the concept of not making the drawings perfect. Every single one of them needs a ruler, a pencil, a pen, an eraser. If a line is not perfectly straight they want to start over, they won’t finish until the shading is just right, and they certainly wouldn’t dream of crossing something out. Haha, I don’t know where they get it from but they do make some pretty good drawings because of it. Last week Eileen gave a sexual education course to all the boys and girls at the school including topics such as AIDs, other diseases, rape, violence, abstinence, and family planning. As far as I could tell the talk was much needed and very successful. They students asked some pertinent questions and they got a lot of helpful and important information. The shop is almost ready to go, we are just waiting to hire a

shopkeeper. It looks great inside and it will be well protected because Oswin, the second headmaster at Fanaka, lives right next door. This week we worked hard on the documentary and also creating a newsletter for Fanaka. They usually pay someone every year to complete this for them so we are wiping that cost out thanks to good old Microsoft publisher. The program is just as good as anything they can create here and the newsletter will really mean something to these kids as we are making sure to include some of their own writing and various pictures of exciting things at the school are included like the futbol team with new jerseys, the library, the music program, the
study tour, volunteers, and so many of the other things that makes Fanaka special.

The really good news is that we can leave the template and we are already giving them Microsoft Works so the school will have the tools to make the newsletter themselves for years to come. It is in our own self-interest to help with the newsletter because the better we make it, the better it advertises the school to potential students in the community. In showing how unique and great the school really is, we are ensuring Fanaka’s future all in one fell swoop. We are also helping the school plan the form four graduation ceremony. The school usually goes over budget on this event due to the staff being so overworked, causing them to sometimes go for the easier and not cheaper route on things. Now we are working hard to cut costs at every corner and we will be saving them a lot of money as well as freeing up time for our administration to focus on their primary roles in the school.

The library at ELA nursery is under construction as we speak which is great news. Soon we can load up the books in there and we will be 2/3 done with the library project. The other 1/3 will be complete when we get all the books to Olof which we are starting to do with our trip there tomorrow. We will be giving them the bags that Lois Knaack donated to decorate and use. The reason these bags were donated is because the orphanage is situated on a hill and most of the girls don’t have any bags to carry their books in and will beg other to bring them back even cheap plastic bags to use. Now they will have a nice canvas bag and since the girls don’t really have their own
possessions either it will be wonderful for them to have a personalized nice bag to carry their things in. Along with the bags we will be bringing about half of the library (We cannot fit all the books we are giving them in one trip) and doing some work with the African Children Haven scholarship program girls. Tomorrow Cassie is planning on meeting with Aichi, the mentor for Olof, to discuss how TEP can further work alongside and help the scholarship program. We are very excited to give these books to another school, the amount of good they will do is infinite.

On a personal note, Bibi is really improving so thanks for all the good wishes. She is able to walk under her own power and is almost back to her old self. We plan on having a family meeting this Saturday to discuss the future of Fanaka and how the TEP can form a long-time partnership to help the school.

The three of us are still a little under the weather but no worries we went to a hospital to get fully checked out just in case. They say we have bacterial infections so they loaded us up on antibiotics. Cassie and I are feeling it the worst so we have been trying to take it easy, even though if we had a choice we would be working hard, but we are sure we will get better soon!
As always, thanks for reading and thanks for your support!