Ivorian Refugees in Liberia

Learning together in Liberia - Karen's thoughts

The red dust billowed around us as we bumped along the dirt road to a small town in Northern Liberia. The signs of years of civil war were still evident as we passed through towns and villages. I saw burned buildings, broken bridges and people worn and weary, often with eyes haunted by the ravages of war. Finally, 6 hours after leaving Monrovia, weary professors and wives arrived on the ABC University campus, just as the sun was setting over the Nimba mountains of Yekepa. It was breathtaking!


Our call for the next 5 weeks was to engage in the lives of 80 university students. Curt taught a New and Emerging Media course, along with Joseph Kebbie, our African media trainer. Together they shared the joys and struggles of teaching a university level course for the first time.

I had the opportunity to teach a 4 hour Saturday course on Learning Differences in Children. Students with learning issues are often forgotten and left behind in the African school systems. I also had the joy of teaching an in-service to 48 teachers from around the Yekepa region. How rich to see teachers wanting to know how to make a difference in their student’s lives.

Tutoring students became a daily opportunity. So many of them had missed 3 or 4 years of schooling, lost during the war. Some students shared their horror stories ...needing to process the memories that haunted their dreams. Others wanted to forget and look to the future.

The ABC University campus destroyed during the war is now rebuilt. As we walked the roads around the campus, we were often greeted with, “Thank God I’m alive.”

Good-bye was hard. We miss the chapel choir with their rich voices and dancing. We miss Liberia, a country beginning to heal with the touch of the Master’s hand. Above all, we miss the determination and smiles of the Liberian students.