Cultural Training

Our team met with Sue Folger on July 13th for cultural training. Sue has been a missionary with LAMP for 26 years and is a great source of information and encouragement for our team. We learned much from her about the children we will be working with and how to adjust our Vacation Bible School to suit them and their learning styles/needs. Some of the things we learned are that the people are quiet and soft spoken and require additional time to process questions and formulate responses and that we need to be patient and offer plenty of "wait time." The people teach and learn by storytelling. They will not tell you openly if you've done something wrong but will model correct behavior by telling a story while demonstrating how something is done (such as tying a hook on a line..."My Uncle taught me how to tie a hook this way a long time ago"). The adults are likely to let children learn from their mistakes and figure things out on their own rather than correcting them. They may "lip point" to indicate direction/location rather than pointing with their fingers. We also learned how to structure our day with the children to accommodate their need for activity and how to teach in a way that is meaningful to them. Our team is very grateful to Sue! She eased our uncertainty about our upcoming trip and we look forward to the day when we will share her experience and knowledge. Until then...only 19 more sleeps until we depart! May God continue to guide and direct our preparations and be glorified in all we do and may the love of Christ flow freely! ~Sandy