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Thank you!

Akolets teach reading and writing

Dogs bark and the smoke of a cooking fire wafts through the air. Akolet children play in groups as an old man in a traditional Papua New Guinea wrap-around skirt lingers nearby, curious but not wanting to stare. Inside the cooking hut all is silent.

A note on the chalkboard -- ironically intended for people who can’t read -- says, "I have a talk for you. Do not write on the chalkboard during non-literacy class times. And also do not make damaging marks on the board. These behaviors are not good, do not do them. That is my talk."

The teachers’ hands shake as they begin to describe how the literacy class will go. Yet through the nervousness there is an air of confident enthusiasm that will build as the class progresses.

Eighteen students huddle together, teenagers and adults, hearing for the first time in their language the principles of reading. They practice holding their pencils loosely. They write straight lines, circles and zigzags on their pages, complaining between completed lines about how cramped their hands feel.

Adam and I sit back and watch, content to be just observers. We’re watching the three teachers we trained as they do it all, and we know they’ll do a great job for the entire three months of classes.

Please pray that the students will continue faithfully to learn to read and write their language and that the village-wide interest in the upcoming evangelistic Bible lessons will remain strong.
Tags: Akolet People, Mission News, Prayer Papua New Guinea,
POSTED ON Sep 02, 2010 by Julie Martin