Take Us to Africa!

Some of you may remember last year's Africa unit, which had some of my students organizing a bake sale for a home soccer game so that we could raise money for mosquito nets.  This activity of raising awareness and money had significant impact on the students in my class as they were able to participate in malaria prevention in an African country.

This year instead of raising money for mosquito nets, my students and I are supporting BFA's short term mission trip to Tanzania, which leaves at the end of this week.  The team of BFA high schoolers and staff will spend a week at a school there, so they are able to take school supplies, clothes, toys, and other donated items along with them.  My students easily filled this collection box to overflowing with things for the team to take!

We have also welcomed several guests into our class so far.  One of my students' parents are both Nigerian, so her mother was able to share with us about life growing up in Nigeria, as well as how to pray for Nigerians today.  Another woman from our BFA community is involved in school development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, so she shared with the class about educational systems and daily life there.  We look forward to hearing from several other guests in the coming weeks who have served in different parents of Africa.

The students are working on independent research of countries now and will complete their good copies of the research essay after our spring break.  We are also discussing current issues (malaria, AIDs, etc.) in Africa and share current events from African countries every Friday afternoon.  It is exciting to see the students' eyes opened to what life is like in another place!