I’ve just come home from Masi-Manimba, where we gave a literacy teacher-training seminar. Masi is on the main road between Kikwit and Kinshasa, not very far from us, as the crow flies. It is a large town and large church, with 7 sub-congregations and standing room only on most Sundays. This week at their district pastors’ meeting one of the items on their agenda was spinning one of these sub-congregations off to make a daughter church, and finding it a pastor. Masi is the administrative center for 60 village and town congregations, and the head pastor, Pastor Makasi was hoping to get adult reading classes in all 60. We made a start.
We seemed to have no end of trouble pulling this seminar off. It had been put off four times, when word came from Kikongo that Pastor Makasi was stuck at Kikongo without a way to get to Masi before us, and would we mind delaying our arrival another three days?
As it happened, the publicity for the seminar was effective but minimal. People were told to get there three days early (the date we’d been planning to start our travel), and were told neither the subject nor how long it would be, only that four women were to come from each village with some money, notebooks and pens. Pastor Makasi got home in good time after all, to find the church center full of restive women. When he told them he’d put it off, they rose up in arms. Already their food money was going and would be gone by the time we started. They said he’d better get us there pronto and get that seminar started on the original date or they were going home.
After his frantic phone call, we grabbed whatever travel possibilities we could and got going. Rose, Chantal and Raymond got a taxi that was going all the way to Kikwit from Kinshasa and got there Sunday evening, the day before we had to start teaching. I wasn’t so lucky. The earliest occasion I could find from Vanga was on Sunday morning. They broke an axle on the rocky road into the town that was my first leg, so we walked in. The next car had mechanical troubles halfway there, so we went very slowly. I got to Kikwit too late to find a taxi to Masi-Manimba, so had to find a hotel. Monday, the day the training was to start, I spent the morning waiting for one of the vehicules going to Masi to get going, praying that my colleagues had arrived and started teaching in my absence. Finally at 2:30 I took the bus, and got there late afternoon, to find that, indeed they had started.
On the bus, the passenger next to me got curious and when he found out what I was going to do, he said he was a Baptist church member, Bible League member and secretary for a community center that had been trying to do literacy in the next town over. Could he come?
Much of the next morning was consumed by administrative protocol (We had to visit town hall to meet and officially inform the administrator of what we intended to do in his town, and I, as a foreigner, am required to check in with the officials wherever I go.), it rained, and a crowd of Masi church women gave us an official singing and dancing welcome parade through the town. Finally we got started.
We were holding our training in the church sanctuary (no Sunday school classrooms), the French teachers’ section in one end and ours, the real literacy section in the other. When we passed the attendance sheet around, we had 150 people, including Timothy, my fellow passenger from the bus, three other young men and a pastor of the church.
It was quickly apparent that most of the women had no business being there. Most would be students in the classes that would be formed when we were gone. We invited them to listen at their pleasure and got on with it. When we got to the hard work of writing, most of the women disappeared, leaving the real seminar participants: about 35.
International demand to increase adult literacy has had an effect in Congo. Many Congolese organizations want to include literacy in their portfolio to make themselves attractive to donors, often without understanding what it is. We had a couple of local women politicians attend for a day or two, thinking to get copies of our training syllabus and teach it widely to women’s groups. They did not know that that would not constitute literacy teaching, but merely generalities on teaching adults and the importance of literacy.
All the delegates from one village church, Mbanza-Mundadi, were illiterate. They came because their pastor and pastor’s wife had had our training course in pastoral school and wanted us to send them books to teach with. All told, 7 of the seminar participants who stayed were women who had either never gone to school, or had forgotten how to read and write. We promised there would be a part for them. It is invaluable, when model lessons are given, and when participants are practice-teaching, to have the reactions of real beginners. When we came to that part, and these women found themselves actually reading and writing through such easy lessons, their enthusiasm knew no bounds. They begged for more lessons and quickly took on the role of teacher of their future teachers, correcting the seminar participants when they didn’t follow the method. They’re going to be formidable students, but the backbones of their classes!
The training seminar was supposed to end with a bang. We had been featured on the radio, and all were invited to the church service Sunday, when the graduation ceremony was held. But the participants from other villages were anxious to begin the walk home in good time, and we were rained out. We had a heavy rain from before dawn to 1:30 in the afternoon. Church started at quarter to two, with a fourth of the seats filled. It was good anyway and we ended at 5. Not quite a whimper.
With frequent heavy rains interrupting the proceedings, and the low level of reading and writing skills of many of the women delegates, we did not end up with enough practice time to ensure everyone’s teaching competency. Out of 33 participants, we certified 15. However, we made the rest promoters, and the young men who participated are very enthusiastic and energetic, promising to visit the others and work with them until they can teach.
In French, the big problem was the trainees’ own inadequate French, typical here in the provinces, where people have so much less general exposure. It is a particular problem in that curriculum, because so much responsibility rests on the teacher to complete the lessons from the guide. In all, we now have adult literacy teachers trained or half-trained for 7 towns and villages in the Masi area, 8 if we include the pastor couple at Mbanza-Mundadi. The Masi women had sent good delegates from each of their 7 sub-congregations, to make sure that they would have classes for each part of their town. We requested them to think of their surrounding villages too, within limits of time and energy.
Certainly this training is only a start, if you consider the 60 congregations of the district and the other villages and towns in the area. But if that start is well made, with good enthusiastic classes and mutual support, it can be built upon. They have great people and the timing is good. Pastor Makasi vows that this is only the beginning and they will be calling us back to complete the job with the other villages.
Thank you for your prayers. Please continue praying for the new teachers and the classes they start. It’s not easy for them!
Miriam
