THANKS AND APPRECIATION
Thanks is due to many people, both individuals and organizations.  I mention LBT, KIBTRALA and TISLL (The Institute for Sierra Leonean Languages) in Freetown for their joint effort which has sponsored the workshop financially. Special thanks goes to Mr Lamin Henry Kargbo, the TISLL program manager and to Mr Tamba Bundor, the chairman for the Kissi Bible Translation and Literacy Association (KIBTRALA) in Monrovia, Liberia. Both persons provided technical and administrative advice for the workshop.  They also advocated on behalf of the Sierra Leonean Kissi people, so this workshop would be successful.   I also extend gratitude to Mr Tamba Kende, the literacy coordinator for KIBTRALA, who also served as an energetic facilitator for this workshop along with his colleague Mr Thomas Samunah. Their deep and accurate knowledge of the language and Kissi alphabet have impacted the Kissi literacy teachers in Sierra Leone so they are now equipped “with cutlass in hand ready to brush the bush.”

PARTICIPANTS

LESSONS COVERED
1. The six levels in the Kissi literacy teaching.
2. Vowels and consonants
3. Building sentences in the Kissi language.
4. Pronunciation skills in the language.
5. Helping students to read and write the language
6.  The four steps in the daily lesson.
7.  Literacy teacher’s guide.

The teachers came knowing the language but they don’t know how to prepare, guide and teach the lesson.  After the workshop they were able to prepare, guide and teach the lesson effectively.

CHALLENGES AND  POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Looking at this heroic task at hand, there are tremendous challenges ahead of us. The challenges are:

QUALIFIED TEACHERS
There is an alarming need for qualified teachers. This is one of the problems that is affecting the Kissi literacy learning in this country. The trained and qualified teachers that we have to run these seven literacy centers are too scanty. Without qualified personnel the training will not be effective in these centers. We need sufficient teachers for these centers that we have established. This need to be taken into consideration, or else the centers will soon diminished and extinct.

In order for our people to have quality education in their native language, we need to continue to have these teacher training workshops that we have planned. These workshops will help our teachers to be effective in their work. 

OFFICE SUPPLIES
We have seven centers for the Kissi literacy program. But there is an urgent need for office supplies such as blackboards, paper, chalk, textbooks, etc. Moreover, for us to have effective classes, we must have these items at hand. All of the centers need these materials.

The world today is faced with financial difficulty, but office supplies are a serious need for the smooth operation of this program. There is saying,  “A famer cannot cultivate large portion of land without him having sufficient working tools at hand.” Therefore, for this program to regain her glory there should be office supplies, so that effective work can start.

OFFICE SPACE
Office space is also an alarming need for the Kissi language program. For the past years, the program has been running without office space. Because of the absence of the office space there were  lots of lapses in the program. Also the program was haphazard and chaotic. Therefore, there is an urgent need for office space for proper coordination.

To coordinate a program like this effectively there should be an office space for the efficiency of the work. Office space also provided a corridor for dialogue in case of any deficiency in the field of work. It also helped in term of reporting and filing of documents etc. It makes the program effective and admirable.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I want to congratulate all those who participated financially, morally and physically in this Kissi literacy teacher’s workshop. I am also thankful to the almighty God who works in the minds of those denominations or mission heads for their kind financial support, even though things are difficult. May the God who started this good work in you may carry it to completion.

PS — Happy Mother’s Day from the missionaries and staff of LBT!

“As the main walker during the Tsamaya village fund raising campaign I was given a gift.  When I opened it was Ndebo Mbuya ne Njimbo (NT & Psalms in Kalanga). That night when I got home I read it; it was amazing how the Word was so clear to me, easy to understand.  I will never read any other Bible except this one!  By the way when are you launching the full Bible?”
—-Mr Charles Siwawa-Group Mining Manager at Debswana Diamond Company

Kalanga New Testament and Psalms with local millet. The Word is the Seed….

Kalanga men reading Scripture in their heart language

Now, fast-forward to March 3, 2012.  I left Los Angeles at 1 PM and arrived in Liberia the next day at 5 PM local time (10 AM, LA time) as a volunteer missionary with the Kuwaa Mission.  Accompanying me was Cindy Ellis, also a KM volunteer missionary, on her third trip to Liberia.  She is our water engineer, supervising the well projects and the medical clinic construction in Kondesu this year.  In her three trips to Liberia we have completed, by the grace of God and the financial support of many Lutheran congregations and individuals, eight well projects and one medical clinic.

Leaving Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, it took us twelve hours to reach Fassama, the first Kuwaa town.  Cindy and I were crowded together in the front seat of a 1990‘s Toyota four-wheel drive pickup truck along with the driver.  The back of the truck was loaded down with our luggage, construction materials, medical and school supplies, bags of rice, water filters and seven men coming up country with us.

In Fassama we met with the government clinic staff, took a tour of the clinic, and presented them with a large amount of medical items from the U.S. and other medical equipment and supplies purchased in Monrovia prior to our trip up country. 

The highlight and purpose of my four week stay in Liberia was to conduct a teacher training workshop for village teachers.  This workshop in lesson planning and classroom management came about at the request of village teachers, some of them  volunteer teachers in mission and government schools in the Belle District.    They had been informed earlier of the workshop by radio and came to Belle Baloma, location of our village home from 1974-1979. Some of the teachers came after walking over six hours through the tropical rain forest, to attend the four day classes.

Belle Baloma is forty-five minutes beyond Fassama and is the end of the road for travel by car or truck from Monrovia.  Can you imagine returning to a place after being gone thirty-three years?  I was greatly surprised by the changes that had happened to our village, now a town.   Our house was gone along with practically every house in the town  due to the fourteen year civil war and three incursions by rebel and government forces in the Belle Forest.  They referred to them as the “Three World Wars.”

 The town seemed five times larger with several churches and schools along with two water pumps, providing fresh, clean water for the townspeople.  A number of the older residents remembered me (Fongbana), my wife Diane (Janga),  and our children: Heather (Yongo Bio),  Scott (Jasia), and Jenny (Ninaw Tuyen).  They were so thankful that I was able to return to the Kuwaa after all these years, bringing them fresh clean water, medical supplies. and school assistance so sorely needed in this remote location in Liberia.

The Teacher Training Workshop began Monday, March 12 and ended Thursday, March 15.  I had prepared materials for thirty teachers from the eighteen towns and was pleasantly surprised that a total of thirty-eight men and women showed up from fourteen towns.  The other four towns were not informed due to lack of radio contact in their remote locations.  We met from 8 AM to 4 PM with a one hour lunch break.  Every day began with singing and prayers and ended the same way. We provided tea and cake for breakfast and meat/vegetables and rice lunch, along with written materials and copy books for note taking.  We also provided reading glasses brought from the States for teachers needing them.  The teachers were very enthusiastic about the workshop and were very cooperative and shared readily their experiences and suggestions for improved teaching methods among themselves after I had shared my materials and teaching experiences with them.  Their written evaluations at the conclusion of the workshop shared their appreciation for my presentation, efforts, and willingness to come all the way from America to help them.  They also expressed a desire for more workshops in the future, “If God Agrees.”

Then, on Friday, March 16, I conducted a teacher training workshop for Evangelists and Sunday School Teachers, again from 8-4.  There were fourteen men and women in this group. I presented an abbreviated version of my four day Workshop for them with an emphasis on evangelism and sharing the Gospel with the children and adults as they taught their lessons with Sunday School materials I had brought with me for their use.

I thank God that I was given this opportunity to return to Liberia and the Kuwaa Chiefdom after being gone thirty-three years.  The Lord has blessed me with good health these seventy-seven years of life and fifty-four years in the ministry of the Lutheran Church in elementary schools and Lutheran Bible Translators back in the ’70’s.  I thank a number of individuals and two Lutheran churches and schools in Southern California  (Christ, Costa Mesa and Abiding Savior, Lake Forest) for their prayers and financial support of my trip and the Kuwaa Mission.  Finally, I wish to thank my wife and family for allowing me to return to our people, the Kuwaa, in Liberia.