Construction paper mango trees

What I looked like in elementary school...
Can you say, "princess"?

I remember brightly coloured bulletin boards. The teachers and classroom aids changed them every month. Fall was apples for the beginning of school, leaves and turkeys and pilgrims for fall, snowflakes for Christmas, flowers in May, umbrellas for April showers and great, big smiling suns for June and the end of the school year.

At the start of every year, there were sharp pencils, new pink erasers, heavy textbooks with shiny covers and pages that always smelled so comforting to me.

I remember walking into my second grade classroom; Mrs. Hoffman was my teacher. There, above the chalkboard was a shiny cardboard strip of letters… in cursive! Each letter had a picture next to it to help us remember what sound that letter made.

Elementary school was full of learning and playing-- of recess on jungle gyms and limitless crayons. There was construction paper and safety scissors. We played kickball during PE. We had music class once a week; I was in the school play every year. There were cupcakes for birthdays and paper valentines in February. It was glorious.

A little boy walking in the yard
of the Napere Primary School.

In Sudan, for those students who are lucky enough to have a school within walking distance and who have parents who don’t need them to help at home, elementary school is not like this. Not even close.

I interviewed the headmaster of the Primary School in one of the refugee camps, he and his 8 teachers have 6 grades of 600 students in 8 classrooms. Kids get a pen and a small exercise book every semester. There is one set of textbooks—for the teachers. This school has walls and a roof, pit latrines out back, and a water pump in the yard. There are no jungle gyms, monkey bars, slides or tetherballs. In fact, the yard resembles that of a prison more that a school. Most kids don’t come to school in the afternoons, because after they walk home for lunch, its too far to go back a second time.

Makpandu Primary School

As sparse as these resources are its still one of the best schools in the State. In fact, since refugees often receive more assistance from the international community, the school in the refugee camp is much better than anything the host communities’ children have available to them.

My colleague asked what subjects were taught at the school. The students are taking Math, English, French, History and Geography.

How do you teach geography without maps?

The school desks in Napere.
To be fair, school is on a holiday break,
its not normally this dusty.

Its hard for me to reconcile my life with the lives of these children. UNHCR did an assessment here a few months ago, and they asked children 8-12 years old what they felt their biggest need was.

They asked for school supplies.

If someone had asked me that question when I was their age, I’d have asked for Lisa Frank stickers and a new pair of LA Gear high-tops.   I’m here living my dream. They’re here living a nightmare. And, yet, they’re not… its strange, but life goes on. Kids still giggle when something is funny, little girls still chase little boys (or is it the other way around?). I think its these commonalities that make us a human family.

If you hear that I’ve quit my job to teach elementary school under a mango tree… don’t be too surprised… just send maps.