Pen Pal Program, written 7/21/07

Annie and I have spent practically every second together over the last 16 days, and as a result we have talked about pretty much everything! During one of our many conversations, we started talking about how much we had loved having pen pals when we were younger (we actually wished we still had a pen pal!). That's when Annie suggested that we should start a pen pal program between the kids in Sumbrungu and kids in the United States. We feel it is so important for kids to feel connected to one another, even though they are thousands of miles apart and will probably never meet face to face. This also presents the opprotunity for kids to learn about a different culture. Most of the kids in the U.S. don't know a lot about what life is like for kids in Africa, and the kids in Africa have a lot of questions about life in America.
When we got to Ghana, we told the librarians our idea and they thought it was wonderful. Darius suggested that we should go around to the different schools in Sumbrungu and invite them to come to the library and write a letter. Darius also wanted us to introduce ourselves to the kids in the community and to inform them that the library has changed locations. A note for future volunteers: if you want to speak to large groups of people, make sure you have a translator with you. Even though all of the kids spoke English, they had a very hard time understanding us because of our accents. Every time we went into a class, Annie and I would talk and then Darius would repeat everything we had said in FraFra. All of the children seemed really excited by the idea, and after school was released for the day, about 50 kids came to the library to write their letters. We wrote up sample questions for them to answe in their letters, such as: Name, age, where are you from, what is your village like, what sorts of animals do you see, where do you go to school, what is your favorite subject, what do you want to be when you grow up, describe your family, describe your friend, what is your favorite sport, and what is your favorite food?
If I were doing this again, I would definately pre-make a sign with all of these questions on it to hang up on the wall so that all the kids could see it and so we would not have to write it over and over again whenever the paper gets lost or torn.
Every day, more kids come to write letters--by now we have around 100 of them! We told the kids that we will be bringing the letters home to the U.S. with us, and giving them to children in grade schools. On our way home, Annie and I will read through all of the letters and determine which age groups we think the letters should go to. Some of the letters are very well written and thoughtful, so we will try and give those to junior-high aged students, where as some--written by younger children--are very simple and so we will try and give those to younger grades.
As soon as we get back into the states, both Annie and I will talk to grade schools in our various hometowns about having their classes do the pen pal project. Our hope is that this project will help these students foster a relationship so that they can share and learn from one another.