Third Workshop in Three Days

Monrovia, Liberia's capital city, is home to close to one million people. More than seventy-five thousand of them are crammed onto a small peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. This community,  known as West Point, is the city's largest slum. According to Global Health Now, West Point has no running water and just six public toilets. In 2014, this was the epicenter of the Ebola crisis.

Photo I took on my 2019 visit, near West Point.

Today, we were honored to meet eleven administrators and teachers from Educate West Point, a school that serves the children of this desperate community. As we've done the past two days, we hosted this group for a daylong workshop focusing on effective study and teaching methodologies they can use to make their jobs easier and to teach children more effectively. Included in the program was an exercise we run the attendees through that gives them practical experience with the study technology and brings to life the Liberian pledge of allegiance - to startling results.

Tim welcomed the group and got the event going. Jay opened with the soul-searching question for each attendee: Is life fair? As you can imagine, this elicits plenty of passionate conversation with all. But, as only Jay can, by the end of the back and forth everyone in attendance had a much broader view of life, their place in it, and how they can be more effective in creating the change they want to see.    

Next, I ran them through the barriers to study and their solutions for students and teachers. This included a great deal of interaction, Q/As, videos, live demos, and more. I very much enjoyed working with this group. They were engaged, full of good ideas and fresh viewpoints. 

(One way I know a workshop is good is when I can walk away from it having learned new things about the subject I am covering from those I am working with. Today I did.)

Below you will find some of the highlights from the successes from our fellow educators. But first a few new companions and an update or two.

My friend Willemina, who attended yesterday's genius leadership workshop and helped us run today's event.

 

My new friend Rueben, the most helpful hotel manager I've ever met.

For breakfast, slashed fruit was on the menu. Very tasty!

My luggage still has yet to arrive to my hands. One piece is in Brussels, Netherlands due to arrive late tomorrow night, meaning I'll get it on Saturday. And the other piece can be seen here. But, believe it or not, even though Jay took these pictures, this suitcase is still sitting in the Brussels Airline office in downtown Monrovia. If you want the full story of how this happened, read to the end of the post. 

  

Success stories!

Rebecca Winness Anderson

Firstly I want to commend you all -- Mr. Bowles, Mr. Taufer, Mr. Yarsiah -- for the splendid teaching. I have learned about the real meaning of the Pledge of Liberia not to just recite it any longer, but to understand and implement what it means.

Karolyn Konton

I have learned and understood the definition of study and how to become a good student. I've also learned how to overcome the three barriers of study and meaning of pledging my support not only to my country but to myself and others.

What I like about today's lesson is that it was very interactive and a lot of misunderstood words have been understood. I am grateful for the opportunity.

A big thanks to you and your team, this workshop really inspired me a lot and I know that through this I will inspire others.

Anthony G. Kpah

I really enjoyed this lesson today because it has helped me to know the reason why more students fail in their lesson and why most students don't pass attendance in class. I'm going to make sure that I teach my students well.

William K. Godfrey

Actually, I learned so many new things today that I have not known before. I learned that words don't have single definitions and meanings and misunderstood words can be very bad at times. Therefore, whenever you are using a word, make sure to use the rightful word that you’ll not get yourself confused. 

Those things will all be most helpful to me with my students are all that I have acquired from today's workshop I will teach my students how to study, learn and apply or demonstrate what they have learned for their own betterment and contributions to the world at large.

The thing I liked about today’s lesson is that the presentation was very clear, the presenters were friendly and the discussion was kind of interactive where everybody participates well. Thank you guys very much. Hope to share some experiences next.

Sekou M. Keita

Firstly, I am profoundly grateful to the Applied Scholastics Family for dedicating their time to educate me on a few important topics, which will help me impart knowledge to my students. 

Today, I learned a lot of good things. To be exact, I learned about the three (3) basic types of barriers to study. I promise to use this knowledge to help strengthen my students’ learning ability 

What I like about today’s lesson is that it was interactive, knowledge-driven and the sharing of ideas on new topics. I shall ensure that what I have learnt today, will serve as a benefit for me and my students for the future.

Old friends!

~~~~~~~

Here you can see a map of Liberia. On the eastern side is the airport. In the middle, you can see where we are staying, RLJ. In the west, you see the Brussels Airlines office in Monrovia.

As I type this, my red bag from which an alien burst out, is sitting in the Brussels Air office. My clothes-filled blue suitcase is sitting in the Brussels, Netherland airport waiting to fly to Liberia tomorrow. (I can't wait to ask my two pieces of luggage how and where they got separated.)

Tomorrow night the flight from Brussels will arrive at the airport. A Brussels Air van will pick up the crew of the flight as well as any wayward luggage, such as my missing suitcase. The van will drop the crew off at our hotel then proceed to Monrovia to drop my luggage off at the Brussels Air office. For a brief moment tomorrow night, I will be THIS close to my blue suitcase before it is driven off, on its endless journey. (I cannot retrieve my blue bag until it is logged in at the Brussels office.)

As for my red luggage, it looks like the ferret I was taking to West Africa escaped. It's probably frolicking through Amersterdam chasing mice and photographing centuries-old Dutch windmills.

Or, alternatively, my red bag was so heavy -- full of paper and clay and other weighty things -- that the handle was ripped off by an overzealous baggage handler who then sent it on its way via the system for "special needs" suitcases. 

This morning Jay went to retrieve my luggage (both bags, is what the email said) from the Brussels office. Found they only had the hole-y red one, and he decided I better be there when we pick it up to ensure nothing is missing. Once it leaves the office, the airlines' responsibility for it is over. 

What happened to the red piece?

Where and how were the red and blue suitcases separated?

What condition is my incoming blue suitcase in?

Will I hug them and kiss them on Saturday? 

Where is the ferret now?

Stay tuned and find out.

Colin