I told you about the school we saw in Tamale, which I am learning is about what an average school in this area looks like. Here are a couple of pictures of that school.

Our school, NECA (North-Eastern Christian Academy) is a dream of a home missionary here, Emmanuel Mustapha (Muss). He envisioned a school in which students receive an education equivalent to one in America. In the next few years we will expand to have a Senior High and a boarding school.

We had our first Open House last week. It was attended by most parents and we received some positive feedback. One man told me that we are putting Yendi on the map. It is the best school in the area. He said that he could see that children are involved and learning. He believes education is the key to bettering the whole area. He said that these children will not grow up and start tribal wars. They will not think, "I do not like you, I will kill you, or I will burn your house down". These children will use words to solve their problems. It was interesting because the pastor had given a short lesson at the beginning of the open house, which this man was not there for. He told the story of the good Samaritan and stressed that we are all neighbors and should all love each other, no matter the race, tribe or religion. As I have said before, most of our students are from Muslim families, so I pray that we are teaching peace also.

Muss' dream in becoming a reality and I am so thankful to be a part of it. Parents from 60 or 100 kilometers are waiting for the boarding school to open so that they can send their children because they want them to have a quality education. I can not wait to come back in a few years and see a much larger school and a boarding house. And the dream continues. Muss would like to build another school in Bimbilla, about 60 miles south of here. And Rebecca, my roommate, would like to start a mobile school that will go to several surrounding villages and teach children and adults, leaving assignments there for a head adult to oversee. You see, parents here know that education is the key to getting out of poverty and changing lives, but many do not have access to quality education. Many can not even afford public school because they can not purchase books or uniforms. And the public schools are very poor and over crowded. So NECA is changing the lives of almost 100 students.

This past month, I made cupcakes (from scratch) for a girl in my room. I believe it was the first birthday cake she had ever had. We had the cupcakes, sang Happy Birthday and played UNO. When we wrote in our journals that day, "If I could do anything I wanted on my birthday..." All they wanted was cake, and for their mothers to buy rice and bake a chicken. That would be their dream birthday. So this year, each of them will have a cake or cupcakes for their birthdays (I don't know about the chicken and rice).

Other signs that kids are excited. We can hardly keep them out of the library. They want to look at books! My students often spend their recess time in the room practicing reading. Today I was alittle late in writing the daily schedule on the board, so one of the students wrote it for me, but wrote in an extra reading time. I have started an after school program for 6 students and have to turn kids away that want to come in.