Niamey Wrights: Sahel Academy

Which one is mine?

Library murale

There is a part of all of us that wants to know that our life has meaning an a purpose and that maybe we have made a difference in the lives of those around us (or maybe it’s just me). One of the things that I appreciate the most about teaching is being able to see progress and development in my students. It really helps me to feel like maybe I am making a difference with my life. What is hardest about teaching is that you rarely get to see the long term affect. For the most part you lose touch with those that you have taught and rarely do you get to know that your class had any lasting value to those you have worked with. So, if you are reading this and you have had a teacher or pastor that has really made a difference in your life, my challenge for you is to take the time to let them know that you appreciated them.

Aside from my philosophical ponderings about lasting impact, school has been on my mind for other reasons this week. It seems like every semester posses a new challenge to Sahel Academy (the boys school) and even though we are only into the third day of this last quarter we have already been faced with a number of issues:

Man power is always an issue because Niger is not the easiest country to live in so recruiting has its challenges and as we start the quarter we have additional challenges. We are losing one teacher that has to go home due to illness, we are waiting on another teacher/principal who is delayed in returning because of health issues and in addition to that our IT person (a former student) was hit by a car while crossing a street on Monday and is recovering from severe blood loss and soft tissue damage (his sister, another teacher at the school, was with him at the time and while she wasn’t hit she has had to deal with the shock of the accident). Please pray for these various people and their families and those that are trying to fill in for them.

As well as the manpower problems we have also had to face some technical issues. Our school server crashed and the IT person was not aware that the back up drive hadn’t been working for the last few months, so a significant amount of data was lost. One of the most painful pieces being that most of the layouts and pictures for the yearbook was lost. This hits particularly close to home as this is Cole’s senior year and he was very involved in producing the yearbook. Please pray that when the IT guy recovers from the accident that he will also be able to recover what has been lost or that the students will find another way to have a lasting memory of their final year at Sahel.

On a personal level we have been having issues with our phone line and have not had internet at our house for awhile, so have patience with us as we try to respond to messages that have come our way (It can be a challenge to find internet in town during hot season when the power is sketchy).

We are quickly moving into the home stretch of our term here in Niger and have already begun the task of sorting and packing in order to move out and head home. This home stretch is always the hardest because it comes at the hottest and most tiring part of the year. Please pray that we can keep it up and make it home in once piece.

PS If you want to find out more about teaching at Sahel check out their website: www.sahelacademy.com
& some pictures from the building: