Cute Boys

As you can see from the picture below, I am a HUGE F. C. Barcelona fan now. Unfortunately they got knocked out last night. People really enjoy giving me a hard time when my team loses. What they don't know is that when I got here and realized how important it was to have a team, I picked the team with the cutest jersey.
   Also in the picture are two of my very favorites boys here. Justin and Moses don't attend Ricks but they live in separate houses in the duplex next to me. They were both recently adopted out of the bush to come live with these families so that they can go to school.  They arrived here in December and most likely will never go back to their families. Justin is 12 but Moses is not sure of his birthday. They work very hard for their new families but after they get all their work done they love to play soccer and they love to pretend they are as good as me, which they aren't.

Justin and Moses, my soccer playing buddies.

Some of my wonderful 6th graders. 

Brothers Thomas and William love to visit me and play with the camera...and my sunglasses.

Moses holding one of the brand new baby chicks, this one is missing a lot of feathers and looked very ugly next to the others. 

Back to Nimba

After proclaiming I would never make the long trek back to Nimba County ever again, I found myself on a packed bus headed towards Yekepa less than a month later. My position at Ricks Institute has changes this period.  Instead of teaching language arts to 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grade I am only teaching 6^th grade and I am working with the juniors and seniors on career development/resumes/college applications and all that good stuff. I am excited about this move. I enjoy working with the older students and this way I am able to continue my never ending quest to be as most like Gill Bosonetto as possible.

            Two other teachers and I took a group of seniors to visit the Africa Bible College in Yekepa. It is a beautiful campus with modern technology and buildings and the students were very excited to be there. We stayed for one night, climbed Nimba Mountain in the morning, and then came home. During the tour they mentioned that one year of school, including tuition, housing, meals, and books would cost $900.  I wish Harvard would be more like ABC.

I taught them that it is necessary to take a cool jumping picture when you're on the edge of a mountain.... this was the best we got. 

This is Nimba mountain at the site where they used to get all the iron ore before the war. 

They showed the students how much fun college is by giving them the chance to get on facebook.