What does 100 look like?

If you were a 4-yr old girl learning to count at St Bakhita School in Narus, South Sudan, you wouldn't have much trouble visualizing "100."  You'd just look around the room!  That's how many pre-schoolers squeeze into each class.  Counting to 100 would be as simple as ticking off the names of all your new friends.
Pity the teacher besieged by two hundred little hands wanting her attention? No, not really. These girls are eager to learn and happy to be in school.  Sure, they're squirmy. And yes, their attention sometimes wanders. But certainly there is no place else they'd rather be!

Peanuts (but no popcorn)

The annual peanut harvest: it's a joyful community event.  Students are excused from school; everyone from young to old pitches in to pick, dry, shuck and sack the bounty.  There are no corner grocery stores in rural South Sudan, so for most families a good harvest of "groundnuts" (as they are called in Africa) means they will not starve during "the hungry months" each year.

Here we see a family in South Sudan  with MBB Scholar in the foreground working together to transfer the nuts --well, actually, legumes -- to a sack for safe storage.

High Fives, Everybody!

Do you remember your teen years? Lots of personal changes, academic stresses, worries about fitting in with your peers....  Our MBB scholars in Haiti are not immune to such things, and so the excitement of going out-of-town to the annual Leadership Week brings welcome relief. Besides learning new skills, the Scholars have time for making new friends while having good ol' fashioned let-down-your-hair fun.

All fur fun

No doubt about it: Manchu is a big hit wherever he goes in Haiti. He literally stole the show at MBB's annual Leadership Week in August.  Haiti, of course, has plenty of dogs--but they are mostly street dogs or guard dogs, not really pets.  Manchu's owner, Valki, is MBB's new Scholarship Coordinator in Haiti.