Girl, Intent on Studying
 A young girl of five or six sits outside a one-room learning center. She is too young to be accepted into the program, but she desperately wants to be included in everything her older brother is learning inside.
She sits, so very, very quietly, at the door repeating every word she hears. "This is a store," she hears and softly whispers the sentence. As a teacher, I am brokenhearted that she can’t attend yet, so we sit together and read some of the children's books the teachers let us have.
We play a game, sitting on the steps with colored heart candies that I saved from Valentine's Day, and drink a juice box.
Every day, 10 children come to the education center sponsored by Back2Back Ministries. Students learn English and are tutored after their day in either public or private school. There are rules! The most important rule is that if you do not go to school, you cannot come to the learning center.
"Auntie Theresa" (an American missionary) and "Auntie Esther" (a native Nigerian) are very insistent about this rule, and it breaks their hearts when they learn that one of the students did not attend school earlier in the day and must be turned away. One young man decided to test their resolve and showed up at the learning center despite being absent from school that day. He was told he had to leave. Remorseful of his decision to skip school, he chose to sit outside the classroom window during the entire session. The next day, when the teachers were reviewing the previous day’s lesson, he was able to recall everything that had been taught.
The learning center is a fun, colorful place to enrich students’ lessons. It's a safe and loving environment run by two dedicated teachers who care enough to provide a nutritious snack and even a Flintstone chewable vitamin each day. It is such an inviting environment that a young girl sits outside the door listening, learning, and quietly waiting for her opportunity to join the program.
--Heidi Doose, March 22
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