Recruiting tour continues

Dear everyone,

All's still well in Africa. We just thought it would be good to share with you how student selection is going and about my travels.

So last weekend Pastor and I went to Nzerekore (silent 'N') and Masanta to test students. You might want to look at a map to see where those are in comparison to Faranah. Driving a manual 4x4 was not as bad as I anticipated. Pastor was a pretty good teacher so we split the driving time and nobody died (including the car itself).

As you already know, driving in this country is slightly dangerous, but Pastor and I both prefer driving without laws or police so it actually worked out well for us. The road was pretty good, except for a 3 hour stretch between Kissidougou and Masanta. For those three hours it was a winding, one lane, dirt path through the mountains. It's hard to explain, but if you could imagine a road construction crew getting angry and tearing up the road instead of fixing it you'd about have the conditions of this road. We never got over 30 mph and spent most of the time riding on the brakes. We survived though!

In both locations the local EPE (protestant church) was kind enough to let us use their facilities for our testing. Pastor sent a couple of university students from Faranah ahead of us earlier in the week to spread the word, do early registration and find places for us to stay and do the testing. We left Thursday after lunch time and drove the eight hours to Nzerekore.

We stopped for dinner on the road and because a communication breakdown we ended up getting two different sauces mixed together (instead of half and half). It was a mix of peanut sauce and sweet potato leaves (spinach like). A strange combination and interestingly not that bad, although appearance was grotesque.

We started registering and testing both Friday and Saturday mornings at 8. We gave each child a simple IQ test where they were supposed to recognize similar shapes. The hardest part was trying to explain to the kids how to take the test. The language barrier made it difficult, but it really helped to separate the kids quickly. We tested about 120 kids the first day and were able to narrow the field down to about 12 potential students. Masanta was more difficult because we interviewed over twice the number of students.

It was a long morning. We worked nonstop from 8-2pm testing children and then retesting some of the best students. We took photos of almost 40 potential students from Masanta. All in all it was a good trip, but we were glad to get home when it was all over.

The real difficulty will come when we try to narrow down the students to 5 or 6 from each city. We are praying a lot and will send out the decisions on May 14th. This weekend we will visit Kankan and Dabolah. Fortunately they're not as far away and we hear the road is decent. Plus, they have internet so I can send this to you! Next weekend we'll be in Labea and Dalobah and then the grand finale will be in Faranah.

We had a very nice Easter! Everyone wore their Sunday best to celebrate the Savior's resurrection. And of course, what's Easter without a big feast to celebrate? We had chicken and rice, plus mangoes, bananas, and oranges. As an added treat the volunteers made some cato, which is kind of like a donut hole. The after lunch picture doesn't quite show all the carnage. These kids really know how to eat, often to the point where they have belly aches on Monday. It tastes so good though!

The rain has finally come. We were starting to wonder if it was really going to happen. It had become a joke to hear Mira say daily, "Today it's going to rain," because each day she said it she got more desperate and unsure. Her statements became more of a question, but we were hopeful too.

It actually sprinkled in our village about 10 drops of rain a couple of days ago, which we thought was funny. Finally, the big rain came. All of our water tanks were filled, so no more hauling buckets from the pump!

Well we have so much to do and so little time to get it all done in. Please pray that God would give us strength and endurance to finish the school year well.

See you all very soon! God bless.

Love,
Shannon and Carol

Open Wide!

Pastor delivering the test

Helpers Nestor and David

Masanta kids waiting

Easter Best

Before lunch

After lunch