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Journal from the Ground
by Kelly Craft and Kari Krakow
10:15AM- Kari, Kelly, and Baby Bear met Saiful at the Medan Airport. |
Since one of our main objectives during this trip is to make an
abstract concept more real for the children in our classrooms, Kari
brought along Baby Bear, an important member of her classroom. Saiful
has named Baby Bear our Ambassador. He does seem to bring smiles to
adults and children alike wherever we go. The boxes in the picture are
full of school supplies donated by the Ithaca community. We loaded the
supplies into the Aceh Relief Fund truck and headed to the KKSP
Education and Information Center for Child Rights. KKSP provides a safe
space for homeless children in Medan.
We met some of the volunteers at KKSP. They showed us some of the art
work drawn by the children there. We were invited to take lunch at the
home of Bang Surya with KKSP board members of the foundation. Everyone
was very friendly and gracious to us. We sat in circles while eating our
lunch and were introduced to some wonderful food and drink.
4pm-On Monday we loaded three boxes on the plane that will take us to
Banda Aceh. The rest was transported by truck. Saiful works so hard. The
phone never stops ringing for him.
10:17AM- Saiful’s friend and colleague, Elly Sufriadi, met us at the airport. |
We ate dinner in a traditional Acehnese restaurant that recently
reopened. After dinner Saiful drove us to Phi Beta School and gave us a
tour. The school is so clean compared to the pictures we showed our
children in Ithaca before we left. We can see the efforts of the people
who have worked tirelessly to get the school back in shape for use.
10pm- A banner outside the Phi Beta
Learning Center translates to “Wake Up! Aceh
Recover", "Free Enrichment Study & Counseling", and "Supported by CNY Aceh Relief Fund”. The school now offers counseling and is
beginning to register students for classes.
Picture taken by Kari and Kelly. Click to enlarge the image. |
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