Highlights for Children (November 2017)

Report





Cards





By Joan Stevenson
Art by Robert Squier




James rode the to .
bus school

Jake rode in the to

car

dog-obedience .
school

James learned to read and do math.
books

Jake learned to sit, stay, and fetch.



One morning, James said, “I get my today.”

report card

Mom said, “Jake gets his today, too!”
report card

That afternoon, James rode the home from .

bus school
He dashed into the .

house

Mom was having a of coffee. Jake was under the .
cup table

“I got a good ,” said James. “How did Jake do on his ?”

report card report card
“I don’t know,” said Mom. “He ate it!”

Building








a School







ThekidsinthevillageofMhangenicame

together and used determination, smarts,
Hard work and many hands were
and strength to build their own school. needed to clear bushes and grasses
and to fill pits.
Story and Photos by Cecil Dzwowa



Ifthenearestschoolwere The children in the new village Matsa, one of the village elders.
10milesfromyourhome,how of Mhangeni in Zimbabwe, Africa, “We realized very late that
wouldyougetthere?Perhaps were faced with a somewhat there was no nearby school
yourmomordadwoulddrive,or similar challenge. Mhangeni was for the kids.”
aschoolbuswouldtakeyou. created by villagers who moved The villagers, along with the
But what if your parents did from different parts of Zimbabwe. children, panicked. The parents
not have a car, or there wasn’t When they arrived, it was held an emergency meeting but
even a road from your house to summer and there was no school. couldn’t come up with a solution.
the school? What would you do? All the families were busy Nobody in the village had a
Just stay at home and forget building their huts. “Nobody car. And between Mhangeni and
about your studies? thought about the school,” said the nearest school was a game

preserve with wild animals—
In Mhangeni,
too dangerous for the children
school means
to travel through.
sharing books
Then someone came up
and benches,
with an idea. Near the village
reading outside,
stood an old, abandoned farm
and using
warehouse. It could be cleaned,
plastic bottles
renovated, and turned into
for science
classrooms. experiments.
The parents repaired the
leaking roof. Using scrap wood,
they divided the warehouse into
three classrooms.
Still, there was much more
work to do. The walls were dirty
and needed to be scrubbed. The
grasses and bushes outside cleared the bushes. And those were too many students and too
needed to be cleared. And pits without tools filled the pits few rooms. The three classrooms
left by miners needed to be filled. with sand. couldn’t hold them all. Some of
But the parents had run out of Things improved when the boys and girls had to study
time. The rains were coming, and two teachers who worked for outside. During science lessons,
the village elders had to go to the country’s Department of plastic bottles had to serve as
work in the fields. Most of the Education arrived to help out— beakers. Four kids had to sit at
families survive by growing and first with the construction and benches designed for two. And
selling maize (corn). then with the teaching. Two as many as four students had
The children of Mhangeni Swedish visitors were also to share one book.
decided to finish the warehouse impressed by the children’s Despite these problems, the
themselves. They brought determination. They donated children in Mhangeni village
tools—slashers, to cut the grass, textbooks, pens, and pencils. are happy to be in school—
and spades and wheelbarrows. After 10 days of hard work, their school.
They needed to get busy. the new school was ready. For the They know their school might
Summer had ended and other kids, it was catch-up time. They not be the most modern in the
schools had already opened. were behind in their studies. district, but they are proud of it.
The younger kids slashed the But even more challenges Their dream of having a school
grasses. Those a little older were waiting for them. There near their home has come true.

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