First Day Teaching at Rubbish Dump

The sun was shining at 3:00pm on Tuesday 13th May, as Will left the office of Bridge of Hope to start his first English class at Sumompo, the rubbish dump of Manado. Riding on his little Suzuki motorbike with Whiteboard on his back, he went over the key words in Indonesian he had to remember for this class. Arriving at Sumompo, he was welcomed by several eager students, sitting in trees next to the house of the village head, the place he was to teach. Sharing some fruit, they exchanged names and smiles. At the strike of 4:00pm all was ready as Will to begin.

There were 16 eager faces before him, aged between 6 and 16. He tried to remember their names – Ockly, Santi, Titin, Aldo, Ezra….remembering all but one! Typical to Indonesian culture the children were initially shy, however, through using games as the way to teach introductions and greetings, everyone got involved. At the end of the class, Will brought out a big gold box to the children’s great surprise. Yet it wasn’t a gift. This box was an opportunity for each child to suggest a name for the Community Education Resource Centre that Bridge of Hope is providing for Sumompo. The building begins on Thursday 15th May, and should take 2-3 weeks. Who knows what name will be chosen?

It is exciting that it will be a name coined by the children of Sumompo, giving them ownership of this centre. This centre hopes to plant seeds of motivation and hope to the children of Sumompo through education. To date, there are 54 children who are working on the rubbish dump instead of being at school. Will remains hopeful in the belief that this education centre will provide an impetus toward broader horizons for the children and people of Sumompo.