Literacy, but more than that

Last week marked the midpoint of our literacy class this spring and we’ll be starting up again in the fall.  For both of us, the ability to read and write is fundamental to any sustainable development, and opens doors beyond what we can possibly do in two years’ time.  It’s something we’re both passionate about, and is probably the most rewarding part of our week.  Our students are motivated and enthusiastic and work hard, and what more could a teacher ask for?  Our literacy class has been a constant source of motivation and encouragement for us, too, knowing that even if things are moving slowly in our offices, or stalled, or not moving in the direction we’d prefer, we’re helping people to learn what’s maybe the most valuable skill in the modern world.  We sometimes worry we’re a little selfish about it, and wonder if our students are getting as much out of the class as we are.
So we handed out notebooks last week for our students to write short essays on whatever they wanted, or to just write our spelling words, depending on their level.  And this week we read them.
And we were called an answer to prayer.  Again.  And again.  And again.
Because in Cameroon, knowledge is power in a sense that we don’t have back home.  People aren’t very willing to share what they know, because they might lose their edge, their advantage, and then maybe they get a little less out of it, and maybe they have a little less at the end of the day.  Shifting this perspective to one of, what benefits the community, benefits everyone in the community, is a challenge volunteers constantly face.
Knowledge certainly isn’t shared for free.  With women.  Who are poor.
We are an answer to prayer, they wrote, because there was no money for school fees.  Or Dad drank the money for school fees.  Or Mom needed help at home.  Or Dad didn’t believe in educating girls.  Or she got married.  Or she was forced to marry.  Or had a child.  Or had to work.  Or was sold to “live as a wife” without the, granted limited, protections of marriage.
But all she ever wanted was the chance to go to school.  So she prayed.  And God sent us here, they wrote, each one certain, sent us just for her.

So that’s it.  If nothing else.  And really, what else could we want?