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Côte d'Ivoire, Korhogo: Girls' Christian Vocational School
See the FAQ sestion for info on the
relationship between Korhogo and the Pardeeville car show.
Yesterday, Sunday, was the dedication of the girls' school site. It was scheduled to begin at 4 P.M. and started only 4 minutes late! The girls had arrived about 10 minutes before and most of the others who had been invited Ð perhaps 20 Ð members of the various church  and association leaders arrived about the same time. I got there about 3:15 just in case the girls arrived early. I had ordered little sacs of bisop juice and ginger juice for the girls to drink after their walk and they were thankful. They went to get a big basin of water from the neighbors, after they had all had juice, and put the ice blocks I had made into that and had cold water to their heart's delight.
By 4 o'clock the cashew tree where people were congregating provided enough shade for everyone plus the motorcycles. The girls helped themselves to leftover bricks to sit on and the neighbors provided a bench for "the elders". The 'program' was very simple. Sogafoli (Pres.) gave a welcome speech and had them sing three songs.  Then Pastor Oronan (Vice Pres.) gave a history of the school as we know it Ð the one-month one that has been going on sinceÉ Then they sang another song and it was my turn to talk about the dream for the school that we hope will someday be built and functioning on the sight where we were assembled. Then four people prayed for the school: for the funding, for the people who would be involved in the construction, for the girls who would be trained there, and for the testimony of the school.
Before anyone else got there, a group of local women came by and asked me what we were going to build. One of them knew that it was to be a school and helped me explain. Then she said, and the others agreed, "This will give our suburb something to be very proud of. Look around. Is there any thing that is this impressive in the whole suburb?" (And all that is there so far is the wall! It doesn't even have doors!)
I took the 'cooks' back to the Koko church in my car and then returned to gather the bricks back in a group so that they wouldn't so easily disappear. Two little neighbor boys were still hanging around and when they figured out what I was doing, they gave me a hand. The bricks were almost more then they could manage and I was afraid one of them would end up dropping a brick on his foot, but they didn't.  They were careful not to drop the bricks and break them either. When we got done, I gave them each a sac of bisop juice for helping. They looked at me as if to say, "What are we supposed to do with these?" They were Jula speaking, so I couldn't even explain. But I think they understood, "Thank you".
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