Exams at the Water Well
June 5th, 2010
Melissa Smith


For those of you who have been waiting for the update on my chicken…it wandered off!  I’m very sorry to disappoint.   He had been living in our yard and eating our rice for three whole weeks when he suddenly left us for no discernable reason. 

The chicken saga continues however… Matthew was given another chicken by some very generous people from Haffia.  He brought it home and put it in the garage so that it wouldn’t wander off like its predecessor.  Unfortunately, the chicken turned out to be rooster - and the garage is adjacent to Adam’s room - so he didn’t get much sleep this morning.  Because we like Adam, we’ve relocated the rooster.  More updates to follow.

This week I had the privilege of travelling to Senekedugu with Pastor Joshua, who is one of the literacy promoters here in Sierra Leone.  We went to conduct an assessment with one of our literacy class there.  We showed up very early in the morning and the participants were waiting with their notebooks and winter jackets (for those of you reading this from Canada, it was a “cold” 22 degrees Celsius).  Before the assessment started, we sat down with the women and Joshua spent some time reassuring them about the exam.   For women who do not have any experience with formal education, our tests can be very intimidating.  I was impressed with Joshua because he was keenly aware of this and did a lot to address our participant’s anxieties.  Only when everyone appeared more relaxed and confident did he begin conducting the exam. 

The women in Senekedugu did very well and it was so encouraging to see the fruits of our literacy training there.  It was also really neat because the classroom was right next to the community well, which was repaired by the women in a CAUSE Canada leadership class last year.  The women who were taking their exams pointed it out to me and proudly explained that it was their sisters who initiated the repairs.  As the day went on, I could see a constant stream of women and girls using the pump and I could understand why they were so proud of it.