Teaching literacy in Napoingae
On Fridays we make our way to the village of Napoingae, into Esther’s household. In typical Karamojong hospitality, she lays out the cow skin for us to sit on and then scurries outside, leaving us blinking in the darkness of the mud hut. After about twenty minutes, Esther reappears in the doorway, and shyly offers us a cup of tea and some freshly roasted g-nuts. Esther disappears again as we sip the tea. Another twenty minutes passes. The American within me gets slightly frustrated, I don’t want tea, I want to teach a literacy lesson! But, I remind myself that receiving Esther’s hospitality is just as important as achieving my goals of literacy lessons. It shows value, love and appreciation for her. Nearly an hour after arriving we start the lessons. We divide the group according to ability level, I take the lower group so that I can use my basic language skills to teach basic literacy concepts (mainly letter and sound recognition). Whereas Lina works with the more advanced group, reading at a basic level. We are encouraged by the progress that they are making. These men and women have had little or no formal education. Reading is as foreign a concept to them as Ng’Karamojong is to me. But together we are learning. I have the literacy skills, I can teach this skill to them. They have the knowledge of Ng’Karamojong. They can teach the language to me. It is good to be both teacher and learner.
To practice letter recognition, my group plays “go fish”. There was something delightful in this moment. My group consists of Samuel, Rapiiel and a couple other warriors, all of them are over six feet tall wrapped in the traditional blankets of the Karamojong, sitting on their traditional stools in the midst of a traditional village… playing “go fish”! We had a lot of fun together (learning should always be fun).
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Samuel, Rapiiel, Esther and Ana are all part of our discipleship group. On Mondays they walk 1 ½ hours to our office for Bible lessons, leadership development and more literacy training. I have come to love and appreciate each one of them. It is my desire that they would someday be able to read God’s Word on their own. It is good for us to teach God’s Word orally, but there is something powerful about reading and studying it for oneself. As I read through the Old Testament, I see several times when God’s Word has not been faithfully passed from one generation to the next. Though storying is the method that is used, it gets degraded over time. But when the people are able to read God’s Word, there is a revival of spiritual understanding, there is an accountability to the written Word. Though it is not necessary for someone to be able to read in order to know God, it is helpful for the sustainability of the work to have local leaders who are rooted and grounded in God’s written Word. We share broadly the oral Word of God. We chronologically story, knowing that this develops a right concept of God. In fact, when we finished the literacy lesson we gather members of the community under the tree to sing songs, pray and tell a Bible story. It is good, glorious even, to see God’s Word shared with the people here. But what happens in the future, when God calls us to another region of Karamoja? The source of the oral stories will also leave. But if the people can read God’s Word, then the stories could continue. Please pray for Esther, Ana, Rapiiel and Samuel as well as the other members of the discipleship group (Toto Joyce, Lucy, Leah and Ana Abong) as they endeavor to learn to read. This is not an easy task, pray that the Lord will open their minds to receive instruction. Pray that they will be willing to apply their hearts to learning. This is very difficult. Life is so full challenges. How can one find time to practice letters and phonemes when one has to gather water, feed the children, care for the cows, plow the fields, grind the pocho, deal with sickness… Learning to read is a luxury in the midst of the grind of daily survival. Pray that despite these challenges, God will give them a motivation to keep working at it. Pray that they will desire to read God’s Word and that this will push them through the difficulties.
Please also pray for me, that I would have wisdom and insight to know how to teach them in the most effective manner. Pray also for my language skills to increase, that I will grow in my fluency of speaking and reading so that I can a more efficient worker in this area. |
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