Day Two – Empowering Teachers to Change Their Country!

Friday, August 21st, 2009
Written by: Lois

Today’s report filed by Spryte Loriano, Chief Humanitarian Officer, HUB:

Today was a day like none other – we thought that the worst was behind us from the pandemonium of trying to register so many people the first day! And arriving in the morning, Kimmie and his staff plus over 20 volunteers were already there leading a smooth as silk process for the second day. The world seemed perfect – I went upstage and the Audio/Visual manager was preparing and testing his equipment, the camera technician was setting up – all was right with the world. And then five minutes into the training of the day, Trish and Jan were on stage, having a ball, and so was the audience – and the audio equipment completely stopped working! There is no way in a crowded auditorium such as this that one could possibly shout loud enough for all to hear – so we did the next best thing… I ran out to the lobby and grabbed the MEGA-PHONE from Kimmie!

Can you imagine trying to teach your class with one mega-phone between two speakers? But these girls pulled it off with grace and class and lots of laughs at their expense that everyone just rolled with without a single complaint from them or the audience – I’m sure that’s not an all too uncommon occurrence to this audience! And gratefully, we were back up with microphones in about an hour.

A few startling facts that surfaced during the day…

Trish asked the 600 teachers how many of them had ever used a computer – about ten hands raised!

She asked how many had a television – about five raised their hands!

She asked how many watched at least one television show during a week – less than 20 raised their hands!

And when she was teaching about how to share reading skills with their classes and taught them that the average person uses only 220 words every day in ALL of their conversations, and that this was the basis for books wisely written by Dr. Seuss, specifically “The Cat in the Hat,” and asked how many knew about Dr. Seuss books – ONE person raised his hand!

A sobering experience, and one that speaks so loudly as to the mission that we are on. How can people be empowered to exist on an equal playing field in the world economy without access to the resources that so much of the developed nations take for granted?

But what Liberians do have is the newspaper. I have been amazed since my first visit to Liberia by the number of people I see in the streets reading a newspaper…it is their only access to what is current, relevant and possible in their own country and beyond. And they read it fervently and daily.

One of the programs we support through YAI is national school libraries. I remember visiting here in March, when we were dedicating the first of such libraries at the Special Project High School in Monrovia. I asked Kimmie Weeks what he felt it meant to the students to have a library. He responded, “Well, for most of us, it would actually seem strange and absurd to have a school and not to have a library in it. So for these students, it means everything to them to have access to text books, non-fiction and fiction books that they can use to dig deeper into their lessons and expand their thinking. It will open a whole new world of opportunity and possibility for them.”

Trish and her team went on to share with them ways in which they could empower themselves with the resources they did have to expect the best of themselves and their students! One of the ways that they stressed was through community service, especially around cleaning up their environments and picking up trash and creating school projects of pride for the whole community. I happened to walk into the lobby at one point during the day and Kimmie introduced me to the Mayor, Mary Broh, who had come down from her office in City Hall to see what was happening. She’s famous in Monrovia for riding around in a truck with a broom and whenever she sees trash, she stops and gets out and sweeps it up herself! She has also hired a crew of street cleaners that can be seen sweeping up the streets in uniforms! She told me that it’s very difficult to engage the community in clean-up because for generations before the war, Liberians had those in society that would do “that kind of work” so though there is now massive poverty in the city, culturally it is ingrained for them not stoop so low as to clean up the streets. She said that it is her hope that she can inspire business owners to lead the charge for the rest of the community.

And the day was topped off with an experience that only those of us from the US or die-hard rock-and-roll lovers may possibly appreciate. Trish McCarty is married to Steve McCarty, formerly of the Steve Miller Band, who wrote the famous song “Fly Like an Eagle.” Though most of the teachers had never heard it before, Trish put the words of the chorus up on the screen (which is actually two pinned together sheets hanging on the back wall of City Hall) and had them all stand up to sing and dance with the song. She explained the lyrics ahead of time…”shoe the children that don’t have enough to eat; house the people, living in the streets; oohh, there’s a solution,” to which there were cheers and applause. But the greatest joy was watching them join us crazy white girls on stage flapping our arms like eagles during the chorus and seeing a sea of Liberian teachers in love with the exploration of life and love and community!

Yes, another amazing day. And an experience that they will and we will never forget.

with gratitude, Spryte

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News from StarShine Academy in Africa

Written by: Lois

HUB Members Field Report:

HUB members Trish McCarty, Amber Halvorson and Jan Stoop from Star Shine Academy in Phoenix, Az, are spearheading the largest teacher training in the history of Liberia organized by HUB and Youth Action International. This is their report from activities they have been witnessing.

There’s a saying in Africa that you learn within your first 24-36 hours here. Well, if you’re lucky, you learn it within 24-36 hours, because once you know it, you will be much more ready to deal with how things happen in Africa. The system and process of how things happen here is as unique as the individuals that occupy this country.

The saying is ‘D.I.A.’ meaning “Dis Is Africa.” …translation: we’re on Africa time and Africa ways….and as I can tell you from just my little experience here so far, Africa time and Africa ways are unlike any other ways I’ve ever been around. Example being, our training was scheduled to start here today Wednesday August 19, 2009 at 10:00am Local Time. The letter that Kimmie Weeks and his staff sent out stated the training started at 9:00am, taking into consideration D.I.A. This is why your ‘On the Ground’ Team is critically important.

Additionally, Kimmie and his team handled themselves like pros today. They had to deal with 400 teachers confirmed and well over 700 (we think, possibly more) actually showed up. It was a lot to deal with and they worked very hard under Kimmie’s guidance.

At one point I dove into the registration process to help. The ground versus on the stage offered an even hotter experience as the temperature must have exceeded well over 100 degrees on the floor. My clothes sticking to me and my hair wet all around my face, I looked up to see an absolute sea of people all clamoring to get in and registered. Not one to panic quickly, even I was taken aback a few times at the realization of how many people we were faced with and the look on their faces desperate to get in.

There’s an energy to a large crowd, and you can feel it. The temperature rising the closer it gets to the edge. Very close to boiling, this was as close to a crowd on the edge as I’ve ever seen or been near to.

It’s not because this is a group that’s impatient or unkind. It’s because life here is hard. It’s very difficult and, like I saw hope in the eyes of the press yesterday, I saw desperation today in the eyes of the very large crowd standing before me trying to get in to a training they so very much needed and wanted.

Finally, in a large hall that is not air-conditioned, with people packed aisle to aisle and literally to the rafters, we commenced our first day of teacher training for over 600 teachers.

For as many people that were there, I have never seen a crowd so still and attentive. Ever.

After a welcome from each of our partners, Kimmie with Youth Action International and Spryte with HUB, Trish opened with an overview of StarShine, trauma and the brain, and what we would be covering over the next three days. Jan followed with an explanation of a StarShine Opening. With over 600 people on one foot breathing in and out, Jan explained why it’s important that every student start their day in a positive space and how to prepare their brains to learn by doing the StarShine Opening every day. I followed with the equally important StarShine Closing, detailing the importance of students staying in a positive space, sharing the best part of their day and stating their goal for the next day, thus keeping them excited about school until their return the following day.

All three of us were certain to detail the importance of the StarShine community, and how they can build a community both in their classroom and in the school as a whole. A large focus was also placed on the brain and what the audience could do immediately to engage their classrooms more with specific classroom techniques.

The afternoon continued with the character traits, executive protocol, goal setting, and when the door opens, to “run through it!”

The audience’s participation, respect and attentiveness was unlike anything any of us had ever seen. At times it was so moving it took everything we could to maintain our composure on stage.

We talk a lot about the pent up demand of an educational system that meets the demands of the world we live in. Those of us that have this conversation frequently readily admit it takes a kind, caring, passionate human populace that will be the carriers of such a system. Without a shadow of a doubt there were 600+ such individuals in that hot hall today. Our message as we explained it was reflected in an understanding written across everyone’s faces, and the passion for both what we know, and their deep commitment to understand it, was palpable.

In any speech or concert there is a two way message happening – one in which the presenter sends out, and one in which the crowd sends back in response to the message. By the end of the day, our presentation notes and outlines were thrown to the side and the crowd guided our content and its delivery. Today was far beyond a presentation. Today was a dialogue, and we learned as much from them as we brought to teach.

We are all better together and at no time has this been more apparent – from the partnership between Kimmie Weeks, HUB and StarShine, to our interaction with the crowd today. It took the work of many people to make this happen. Trish, Jan and I may have been physically on the stage today, but there were many, many others standing behind us.

To the StarShine family back home: your endless support to make this trip happen and your strength and ability to maintain everything while we’ve been gone has been paramount to this entire process; you were on the stage with us today.

To all of the spouses, friends and families of StarShine: we wouldn’t be where we are on this project without you. You were with us on the stage today.

To everyone else that’s done their part to help keep the StarShine project moving and keep all of the people within it smiling; you were with us on the stage today.

The world is watching and the events of today will have effects that will continue on long, long after we leave next Monday. We are working on the system that will continue to support and educate this community. Making everyone in the auditorium promise to share what they learned today with at least two other teachers empowers everyone to go out and do their part.

We’re all in this together, and our combined efforts are having a profound effect.

Thank you to you all,

Trish, Jan and Amber

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