children need an education

School had let out for vacation, leaving the resident students on the campus. The school year runs from October until July. The rainy season is from July until September.

While talking with students, I heard many say they wanted to get an education and then become a teacher, a doctor or something worthwhile. Camphor Mission school only has classes through ninth grade, because to add teachers to carry the education through twelth grade would require more teachers and more residences for the teachers. Incidentally, the teachers earn (US) $33.00-50.00 per month, with the upper salary paid to those who have graduated college. All the teachers get a roof over their head and a place for their family to sleep. Cooking is done outdoors. In January, temperatures can reach 110 here. In the photo of the palm tree, the items hanging from the branches looking like coconuts are nests of the rice birds.

Public schools (very limited geographicly) go through high school, but charge a tuition (little government support). Most children who graduate from Camphor Mission School don't go beyond 9th. grade. If a student has a high school graduation certificate they can usually get into a college for further education.

It's going to take years to rebuild the damage done by the civil war (waged over diamonds, gold, by greedy politicians), and already a whole generation has been lost when they were forced into the military as children. More about Frido Kinkolenge's programs to disarm and educate many of those young men and women.

Barbara and I send a little money each month to help the process of educating children at Camphor Mission school. It takes fifty cents to feed a child one meal a day in Liberia, fifty dollars to keep them in school (paying the teachers, giving them one meal a day at school, etc.). If you feel inclined you can send a tax deductible contribution (nothing kept out for overhead) to: General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church, 475 Riverside Dr., Suite 1501, New York, NY 10115. God bless you.

Our drive to Camphor Mission school

Camphor Mission school is about 100 miles south of Monrovia. The trip took about 4 hours, as the road is more pothole than pavement. Obviously there has been no money spent on maintaining the roads. People walk this distance, sleeping in the grass beside the road. The only water safe to drink is bottled, which few people can afford, or out of a borewell. The bushes are used for toilets, there is no toilet paper, nor showers.

We have come hoping to give hope to people who need everything. Ellen Johnson Serlif, President since 2005 is doing her best to eliminate corruption in the government, but with few police, I'm saw that it is every man for himself. The UN had a large military force in the country and cars/trucks marked UN Police were everywhere. One thing I noticed, was nobody was begging on the streets, when we were in Buchannan or Monrovia. When we walked down the street, no children ran up to us with their hands out, like in other countries.

People seemed to want to work and wherever money was donated, reconstruction was going on. We were warmly greeted at the school and I fell in love with 100 resident children at once. Oh, everybody shakes hand everytime they see you there and they have a special handshake.

African discoveries

We flew to Monrovia, Liberia, Western Africa in July, 2008. We were headed for the United Methodist supported Camphor Mission School, 100 miles south. The country was free of war by only a few years, so there were burned out buildings, no running water or electricity for the people living in Monrovia, a city of 1.3 million. Signs of damage were everywhere, but every street was jammed with vendor selling something and girls walking with trays of peanuts and other items, hoping to sell enough to buy their two cups of rice for the day. In addition to seeing severe poverty we experienced a theft from our van, while we were parked.