My Trip to JPSS – by Emma Carrier
My first impression of the school was taken aback. I obviously had seen pictures of the school and the campus, but seeing it in real life and seeing it all being run as a full community, was amazing. The students were so welcoming and curious, as was I, but I was able to go and talk and get to know a lot of them to see how they lived their daily lives.
I was surprised that there is so much space for the kids to be entertained, more than any other school that we passed, but even then, there is still so much more that could be added to improve their time there even more. Even with all the space on campus, the current girls’ dorm is very crowded. There were too many beds with too little space for the girls. So much so that there were a lot of beds in the hallways and lobby. Also, in both dorms there were very few kids that had mosquito netting, which is very important to have in the country where malaria is present.
Compared to the other schools that we drove by, the multipurpose building is a true eyecatcher and really makes John Paul Secondary School stand out compared to the others. There is so much potential for that building alone to improve the education for the children. Compared to all the other cities and villages that we passed through in our time there, Chelekura was by far the most rural area of them all, but it had the biggest school that I was able to see throughout all our drives.
I tried to talk to a lot of the kids, and the most common majors that I heard of were doctor, lawyer, accountant, engineer, teacher, and going into agriculture. A common factor that I noticed is that all the kids that are a part of John Paul Secondary School want to be able to make a change in the future and continue their education. They are determined to be able to do more with their lives.
I will forever remember when we turned into the campus for the first time and all the kids were standing on the rocks waving and screaming. It was such an overwhelming feeling knowing how much the school really means for these kids and how much joy they have in their hearts, and that we are able to help out and give them this life.
