You Are Welcome: Visiting IRC Teachers in Guinea |
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October 26th, 2005 - 09:39AM |
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Photo: International Rescue Committee Deborah Jones (left) recently completed a survey of the IRC's education program in Guinea, interviewing teachers and other IRC staff members, some of them refugees themselves who graduated from IRC schools: In early June, the rainy season arrives in West Africa. But for the torrential downpour the night of my arrival in Conakry, the rainfall doesn't seem unusual. I will soon discover how unusual a place it is. I've come to record the 14-year history of the IRC's education program in Guinea. With information having been lost in the 2000 incursion, the documentation will be challenging and I'll use all means at my disposal---interviews, archival research, digital photos---any tool that will offer an insight into the program's remarkable story. A trip by Land Cruiser across the backbone of Guinea, gives me the first look at the forest, trees that stand like sculptures against the dense blue sky, endless bright green rice fields and mesmerizing thunderstorms that sweep the landscape. Natural colors are saturated like I've never seen. The people in the villages seem to interpret the natural beauty with the bright colors of their dress, with the musical instruments that rattle and hiss, mimicking the cicadas and wind rushing through the bush. Two days later, I tumble from the Land Cruiser in N'zerekore and meet David Walker and the Education Team. With each introduction, I am greeted with, 'You are welcome.' The words make an impression not only because they're not the English contraction, 'You're welcome' but because the phrase is inevitably given with a soft smile and an unforgettable handshake. As I move in and out of refugee camps and schools, where I meet the teachers, students, administrators, friends and family members, I am always greeted with the same 'You are welcome.' In the camps, where some refugee teachers have lived and worked for a decade or more, enduring great personal hardship, the greeting comes with the offer of a cool drink, a place to sit, roast corn, bread or whatever food is available. Generosity in the face of need is endless. For the next 3 months, I interview refugees who started the schools without books or pencils and with no shelter but for the shade of the mango trees. They created the curriculum, taught their own children and thousands of others. Many are men and women who eventually joined the IRC as national staff. To a person, each is courageous, warm, smart, funny, and resourceful in a way that I have never known. They shared with me their stories of survival in the face of terrifying heartbreak. They told me how they built the schools. Most important, they told me they did it so that, in spite of having lost everything, their children would have an education to 'carry back' when the time came to repatriate. I have been privileged to listen and to learn from them and I always, always felt that I was welcome. Posted By: Kathleen Sands | Africa, Children & Youth Permalink |
