Looking for some new summertime activities? Sampson shared a few of the games that Liberian children play outside. Of course, I leave it to you parents out there to make judgment calls on what is safe, and what will allow for proper social distancing (-;

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Grocery Shop

People needed: Two or more

Items needed: cups, coffee leaves

Using coffee leaves for money, buy and sell cups and other items. I am guessing that other leaves would probably work as well if no coffee leaves are available. Be sure to look up the most recent exchange rates though!

Lapper– This sounds a little like keep away, but with some interesting names and more teamwork.

People needed: Two starting players to control the ball, the rest are called Shower Slappers. Shower Slappers should appoint a captain.

Things needed: One Homemade Ball and a Field

1 Starting player throws the ball to other starting player while the captain lines the slappers up on the field.

If the captain or the shower slappers catch the ball, they throw it far away and the opponents have to get it before the count of 10. If they don’t, it’s a win for the shower slappers!

Hide & See – Kind of like a mix between Hide and Seek and Sardines

People Needed: Two groups of five or more

Group 1 hides and blows a whistle to let the second group know they are ready. Group 2 searches until they find every member of Group 1. Then the hiders become the see-ers and the see-ers become the hiders. 

Homemade Seesaw

Items needed: Bush rope, strong short branch

For this one, sounds like the branch is connected to another piece of wood (or a fulcrum of your choosing!) with the bush rope. Voila! Make sure you spend the first part of the day making a strong rope!

Mud Sledding– My personal favorite

Items Needed: 1 plank, 1 hill

People Needed: You and friends willing to help your dream take shape!

“One to two riders will sit on the plank on a hill, and the riders will be asked, you ready!? You ready!!? Upon saying yes, the riders will be pushed and the piece of plank will carry the riders down the hill with speed while friends waiting for their turn cheer for them.”

Getting an Education in Liberia is Hard!

First- parents choose between public and private schools. Public schools are the slightly cheaper (not free) option, but they are massively overcrowded and there are too few of them. This means that kids at these schools have to walk long distances to reach 50-person classes– often carrying their own chair so they can squeeze in! On the other side, there are private schools with a big range in cost and quality. 

Despite these hurdles, Liberians know the huge value that an educated child is to their family, community, and country! The problem is that a lack of jobs and continually rising inflation have created a gap between what most parents can pay, and what it costs to keep a quality school open.

Making a Better Community School

No one knows these challenges better than Care Mission’s founder Sampson. Growing up in a small village outside of Ganta, he overcame incredible obstacles to finish college in Liberia’s capital, and then return to his home county to work for a local non-profit. We met as coworkers in 2013 and kept in touch by email after I returned to the US. Throughout our friendship, I have always been impressed by his seriousness when it comes to educating himself, and improving the lives of youth in Liberia. 

Always ambitious, Sampson began the plans for Care Mission back in his college days, but had to set it aside for years waiting for funds to get started. Finally in 2018, amidst a declining economy in Liberia, the Care Mission school opened its doors for the first time. 

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Over its first two years, the school has successfully educated over 100 students, employed 7 teachers, and 7 additional staff. We received a loan from another non-profit to assist with an addition to the building, and have applied for several grants for further improvements. 

Despite these achievements, the main sticking point has been setting and collecting tuition fees. In the Care Mission school community, there is a gap between what it costs to pay teachers, staff, and rent, and what students and their families can afford to pay. This is why I registered the Care Mission non-profit organization in the US in early 2020. Our goal is to raise enough money to subsidize the cost of tuition for each student, thus allowing community children to attend a good school, without compromising on teacher salary or quality. 

Like you, students and families understand the value of education and are willing to pay for it. They know that investing in their children now means better economic opportunities, better access to information, and a brighter future for the country. With your donations, we can make school affordable for more children. 

Care Mission would like to continue to give value to children’s education rights, and one other way to do it is to enhance their physical wellbeing via the building of a playground on the Care Mission school campus in Ganta, Liberia. Playground play is vital to the long-term development of children and promote their social skills.

Care Mission also embarks on this playground project to support classroom activities with physical outdoor activities which will boost the children’s interest in school. This project will tap into our idea of raising literate generation in our society, and improve the learning environment for the children. At the same time, it will increase the school enrollment.

Throughout Liberia, playgrounds are extremely rare and there is no such thing in our school community. However, this does not mean that Liberian children do not play! There are many creative games that I remember playing as a child which are still played today. Most of these involve the use of homemade balls, cups, planks of wood for sleds, coffee leaves for money, or other items we found available. In future posts I will try to share some of the rules for these games so you can try them yourself.

While many of these games work well in any open area, small children especially could benefit from a real playground that is safe, clean, an designed for them. As a father and as a teacher, I would love to create a space dedicated to children’s play and creativity at our school. 

Kindly support our playground project,

Sampson Gaye