The Oskaloosa Herald
OSKALOOSA
November 09, 2009 11:32 am
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They’re both lending a hand to Africa in their own way.
Thursday night’s Chautauqua lecture at William Penn University provided insight into life in the African nation of Kenya. Penn faculty members Jim Hoeksema and Charlotte Stangeland told their stories of the country, which is more than 7,000 miles from Oskaloosa.
Charlotte Stangeland, an assistant professor of education at Penn, is part of a team working on a “peace curriculum” for Kenyan children in kindergarten through 12th grade. This is greatly needed following a hotly contested 2007 presidential election in the country, which led to riots. Friends Schools are preparing this curriculum, she said.
“Friends have had a tradition of peace-making for a long time,” said Stangeland. “They also have a lot of schools in Kenya. Many of the children in the high schools were involved in the violence both as victims and as perpetrators. They felt that it was significant they teach about peacemaking skills.”
Stangeland said riots caused the deaths of an estimated 1,000 people and left as many as 300,000 homeless after fleeing from the violence. Peace was gradually restored in Kenya in 2008, said Stangeland.
“People where just kind of killing each other randomly,” she said before adding that this kind of violence was not typical in Kenya.
After holding three workshops with Kenyan school leaders, a lot of progress on the peace curriculum was made, said Stangeland.
The curriculum itself goes against the typical way Kenyan education goes, explained Stangeland. She said education in Kenya is focused on memorization, rather than changing the way students think and act. It focuses on many Friends values including pacifism and integrity.
“What we’re looking to do is change attitudes,” said Stangeland.
The plan is to finish out the curriculum for three more grades in 2010. Stangeland hopes to implement the curriculum in Kenya by 2011.
“Beyond Kenya, our vision is that they can use this in other Friends schools and Friends Churches here in the United States,” she said.
Jim Hoeksema, a professor of industrial technology at Penn, spent 11 weeks in Kenya this past summer.
Hoeksema, wife Donna, and children Lydia, Miriam and Caleb, volunteered at the Africa Inland Church Missionary College in Eldoret, Kenya.
The 50-acre college specializes in graduating what Hoeksema called “cross-cultural missionaries.” However, this isn’t without its difficulties, he said.
“The problem is, the local people won’t support them,” he said. “They’re graduating these people and trying to send them out, but there’s zero support for them almost.”
Hoeksema was contacted to come to the college because his wife is a librarian and could aid with computerizing the campus library. Along with his son, Caleb, Hoeksema provided some much-needed maintenance work on the campus, including helping build a water tower. There were also more menial repairs to be done, such as repairing windows, he said.
“You’d see a broken window and ask someone how long it’d been broken and they’d tell you ‘maybe 5 or 10 years,’” said Hoeksema while explaining the cultural differences between Kenyans and Americans.
Hoeksema’s daughters, Miriam and Lydia, explored their interests while in Kenya, as well. Miriam taught in a local nursery school, while Lydia worked with a veterinarian, said Hoeksema.
As the son of missionaries, Hoeksema spent time in Africa with his family as a child before returning to Iowa to graduate from Oskaloosa High School. He has since been back and forth between Africa and the U.S. throughout his life.
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Herald City Editor Andy Goodell can be reached at news2@oskyhearald.com
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