Women Lutheran Jr. Secondary School

This afternoon while waiting for my rescheduled airplane tomorrow, Celistina G. Daudu the principal of the Women Lutheran Jr. Secondary School stopped in the office to buy a LCCN Receipt Book. Yakubu was not here so I found her a book and sold it to her. We then talked about the school. She told me it was here in the compound. They meet in the afternoons in the Catherdal Academy rooms. The school has women who were not able to continue school as children and now are going to school. There are 34 women in the school. They are mothers and grandmothers. One lady has three children who have graduated from college now she is going back to school. Classes opened this February. I was surprised to find that the women wear school uniforms. I assume as adults they would not be in uniform. They are proud that they are going to school and proud to show it by wearing the uniform.

They hope to move into the Yola Women’s Center being built out at the Yola Diocese Secretariat. The diocese is currently finishing the walls and will see how much money they have to start on the roof. Some of the women are not able to pay the school fees and may not be able to continue. The school is new and gets little outside support. One of their dreams is to have a computer center in the new building when it opens.

If my plane had not been canceled yesterday I would not have met these school "girls" today. The principal is retired. She was principal for several schools, then she worked her way up to Adamawa Commissioner of Education, then worked for the Federal Government in the Ministry for Mass Education as a Director. Some people ask her why she would go back to being a principal of a small private school. She says it is because she is connected to these women that did not get a chance for an education when they were younger. While the students may not have had a formal education they have still been working hard. One of them is the President of the Lutheran Women Fellowship. She says Hi to Margaret and Carol.

They have been asking for artist to create a logo for the school. The suggestions have been rather boring to me. Things like a women cooking with a child while at the same time reading her lessons. This last Sunday I was seated next to the Dr. Bimba, Chairman of the LCCN Health Services Management Board at the English Service and told him that it could be a man cooking and taking care of the children while the wife studies. He laughed and said that would never happen.