King of Kings - Florence's School

Florence is a teacher with a loving heart to teach children: about letters and numbers, about Jesus, about tying shoes and washing hands and sharing toys. She and her two daughters, Miriam, 24, and Rachel, 23, work hard to make schooling interesting and fun for these children, ages 3 to 6. Sometimes they share their frustrations with me.

Some of the kids have health issues that haven't been recognized, i.e. one girl who finally had surgery to remove a piece of metal that was in her lung or a youngster with a serious ear infection. Some children are sent only intermittently by their families, especially when there is no money to pay the fees. There have been times when the child has no snack for mid-morning or even juice, so the teachers share out whatever they have brought.

This one room school, with a latrine behind, is full of kids having fun learning and playing. There is room outside for running around and kicking balls, or riding small bikes, when the tires work.


At the end of November, the end of last term for the year, there was a wonderful Christmas party for the children. Volunteers who have worked for the past 4 months brought pencils, exercise books, candy, and erasers. Another volunteer made carry bags to put things into. Because of generous donations from friends in the States, there were small toys for each child and foods to eat that they had only heard about but never eaten: pasta, sausage, watermelon, apples and ice cream.