Gambia, observations in life and beauty

The Gambian students that I have gotten the chance to interact with and teach in the last three days have impressed me (positively) more than any other class I've ever been in. They were selected by their schools to come for extra training, and the twelvish schools have been beautifully represented. Dozens of high school students living, studying, learning, and teaching together with little more than some teacher guidance and peer accountability.

While they were selected primarily for their academic abilities, the students displayed really strong leadership qualities, an unexpected depth and breadth of life skills, and, maybe most significantly, the motivation to continue pushing forward in their education. With just a few days of experience in The Gambia, I have caught the students' contagious expectation that they will be able to help their country grow and achieve greatly - their dreams are big, but their work ethic, consistent focus and passion for creating a chain of positive change makes me dare to dream with them.

At the same time, the two organizations that organized this summit have worked together beautifully. The EDGE Institute from the US partners with various organizations to help bring educational tools to bear in places where they would usually be unavailable. The point of this is to catalyze improved education, not simply to provide a bit of help nor alternatively to be an indefinite prop. Thus, the second part of this year's summit in The Gambia is sharing with teachers here. Sharing is the key word, for as I tried to express above, the students were really significant contributors to the summit, so we can expect the same from their teachers.

EDGE's Gambian partner in this summit was Side by Side Organization. It has been great getting to work with their members both individually and as an organization. They have been incredibly gracious in their help to us, but more significantly we have seen the value that they provide to students here and the great respect they are given in return. As an organization of young people, run by young people, and for young people, they showcase a beautiful model of servant leadership raising up more servant leaders.

In this first 20% of our trip, I have found myself to be deeply privileged to be here, getting to keep learning my teaching craft in this very different setting. If this all sounds like a promotional bit, that's perfectly ok (though not necessarily the point) because I'd be more than happy to recommend The Gambia, EDGE or Side by Side.