Back to school

Dear all,
September, always the moment that is associated with education. No matter whether you are in school or not, you will most definitely be aware of the start of the schoolyear... because everybody goes to school.
Buea, September 2007
This week, you'll see all children dressed up in their bright-colored uniforms again. Most children in Buea are enrolled in school, as is required by the Cameroonian law. Most of them wear blue uniforms: government school. I pass by crowds and crowds of blue-dressed children. I know how big their classrooms are, how many teachers are available. How they will be yelled at and beaten if they do not behave. It makes me feel bad.
Nevertheless, children feel fortunate to go to school, and are very willing to show up regularly for additional reading classes during the summer. Here, children are already (painfully much) aware: education and being educated is a privilege. The bus stops in front of me and some volunteers get in, to educate the children of the villages. They tend not to go to school, which exposes them to many problems in later life.
Once I turn around, Junior's eyes meet mine. Junior is one of those kids that somehow dropped out, and is a student in the vocational unit. "No classes yet?" he asks. I will have to disappoint him. There's no way that I can teach today, regarding the preparations that I still need to do. "I'm so sorry Junior, there will not be any classes until October". I remember that he is one of my remedial students. I'm busy. But he's eager to learn and probably will be able to read if I give him additional classes. I tell him to come back tomorrow.
I think of my curriculum. Of the syllabus that I've prepared and of the hopes that these teenagers bear with them. Changing a nation has to start small, and even the small things pose a challenge. There won't be money to purchase the books that I've selected. Nor will there be funds to print the teaching materials. We'll have to manage with what's there - and that is very little.
Thinking back to you all. You'll all be aware of the start of the academic year - even if you're not in school, you'll have siblings, friends, children, grandchildren even, who will sigh and pick up their bags. I wish they'd know. That they'd know what an enormous treasure lies in good education. In holding that pencil, drawing to your heart's content. In the exercise books and those pages that you wish you wouldn't have to study. But here's a world without access to these materials. With illiteracy and not such bright futures.
Although I complain sometimes, I believe in UAC's education programmes, especially the vocational unit. I hate to ask, but today, now that school has restarted, I think it's needed. Please help me to help these children. We need sponsors for children who otherwise cannot attend Jamadianle. And moreover, I need financial support to be able to leave behind English grammar books, a self-composed syllabus and a mathematics package. Not to speak of the shelves that have to be put in place to store them.
Please, you've already done a lot by supporting me to come here. But please have one more look, for the ones that need your help.
I'm back off to work. A lot needs to be done. Help us, if only by hoping that we'll get there!
Till next time,
Mirte