Teacher took educational skills to Africa

BY KATE BLAIN
ASSISTANT EDITOR

It's a rare person who gets to teach sixth-graders in both the Albany City School District and a leper colony in Jimma, Ethiopia.

"I'm not a terribly gutsy person," remarked Krissy Bennett, the teacher in question. "It was just neat, the way this all came together."

Miss Bennett spent last July in Ethiopia as a volunteer with the Vincentian Lay Missionaries, teaching conversational English to children whose families have been stigmatized by leprosy.

Kids 'thrilled'

"These are not the most popular kids," Miss Bennett explained. "The kids were so thrilled to be part of the program and to go to school."

Every morning, she added, "a massive swarm of kids would run up to us; they'd want to carry our bags and our books."

Miss Bennett has a long history with the Vincentians. After attending Niagara University, which is run by the religious order, she volunteered with the Vincentian Service Corps to teach fourth grade at a Catholic school in California.

Ss. Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, who founded orders of Vincentian priests and sisters, "preached that the best way to stay close to God is through service to the poor," Miss Bennett explained.

Serving others

Returning to the Albany Diocese -- and, incidentally, her home parish of St. Vincent de Paul in Albany -- she began teaching in a public school, but yearned to do more full-time service work.

Last summer, she got her wish: A sister she knew through the VSC emailed her about the lay missionaries.

Reading the request, Miss Bennett felt "like God had gotten a laptop" and was sending her a message to join.

Lepers

Miss Bennett learned that Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in Africa, and that the Daughters of Charity religious order had set up two villages there for people with Hansen's disease (leprosy) and their families.

Along with five other volunteers, she became one of the first group of Vincentian Lay Missionaries to travel to Jimma and teach there.

The students came from families that had been living in a graveyard, shunned by local residents, until the Daughters of Charity helped them get access to clean water, farming supplies and livestock, and set up work projects like sewing so the women had items to sell.

Learning English

"English is the language of advancement in Ethiopia," Miss Bennett told The Evangelist.

Though her students spoke Amharic or a local dialect at home, by teaching as much conversational English as she could in four weeks, she was giving the children a chance to move up in society.

An aide in each classroom and Ethiopian Daughters of Charity helped to translate the teacher's directions. Miss Bennett also taught by example, dancing the "Hokey Pokey" with students to teach the English words for body parts and using demonstrations to teach "sit down," "stand up" and other phrases.

Ethiopian culture

The teacher also learned from her students and Ethiopian peers about the culture of the country.

Some things were "very frustrating," she said. "You'd see people suffering from polio and things they'd be in and out of the hospital in a week for here. Six- to ten-year-olds, you'd see shining shoes or selling packets of tissues."

She also struggled to understand why students who didn't speak her language sometimes got upset with each other. One girl was described as angry, "just like her mother."

Miss Bennett later learned that the mother and children had been abandoned by the father after he learned his mother-in-law had leprosy.

Differences

The Ethiopian sisters chuckled at photos of Miss Bennett holding a family pet, saying, "Why are you hugging a dog? A dog is to protect your house, to keep someone from breaking in!"

More serious issues also showed cultural differences: Miss Bennett met children who had been orphaned and were living by themselves, with neighbors looking in on them to make sure they had enough food; she met grieving families who held funerals in their homes, scratching their heads over Miss Bennett's description of American funeral practices.

"Even to me, it started to seem unnatural," she told The Evangelist.

Lazarus

Having taught what she could in four weeks, Miss Bennett came home with a lot of memories -- and a different perspective on Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus, a leper who goes to heaven after a life of suffering while the wealthy neighbor does not.

"When you're living in a culture of survival, faith isn't a luxury. It's a necessity," the teacher learned.

Since her return, parishioners at St. Vincent's have been enthusiastically supporting Miss Bennett's efforts to keep helping the people of Jimma. She spoke at the church, held a clothing drive and created an email address for people to write about donations.

"I keep waiting for people to tell me, 'Shut up already!'" she joked.

Lesson learned

The teacher is determined to continue her work, which itself has continued to affect her faith and daily life. She recounted the story of standing in line at the post office recently to mail a care package to Ethiopia, only to find out it needed to be repackaged.

At first, she became frustrated -- but then realized, "I have shoes and crayons here, because both of these girls [receiving the items] are walking around barefoot right now.

"You just can't be mad" at having to stand in line twice, she concluded.

Going back

Miss Bennett told The Evangelist that the next lay missionary group will go to Ethiopia before the school year ends here, so she doesn't think she can take that trip.

But "I'd like to go back," she said, noting that she believes God "had a plan last summer, and it worked out perfectly, so I'm staying out" of predicting the future.

(Miss Bennett has taught religious education and led the children's Liturgy of the Word at her parish. The 20-something teacher noted that the native Ethiopian sisters she met "weren't much older than me;" in fact, the group's provincial was just 35 years old. To donate to the Vincentian Lay Missionaries' work in Ethiopia, email Miss Bennett at [email protected].)

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