adult education

i ended up staying later than usual at the isaac a. david school where i have been teaching. i had heard and had seen adults pass by on their way to one of the classrooms for adult education, but i had never had the time or the energy to sit in. today i did.
packed into one of the classrooms was fifty ladies. when i entered, they all stood and greeted me. shyly, i smiled and squatted next to a lady near the door. i introduced myself and asked a few questions. what are you studying right now? our numbers. what grade level is this? silence. how much education have you had? [a shake of the head.] have you had any schooling before this? no.
one of the teachers kindly brought be over a chair. i sat mesmerized as i observed for some thirty minutes as these women, some younger twenties (?) to older fifties (?), recited aloud various math solutions and liberian history facts. it was moving to have these ladies belt out the liberian national anthem.
at one point, one of the teachers who had sat in on my teacher training course introduced me to the class. she was extraordinarily generous in her introduction and the impact i had on her as a teacher despite her many years of teaching. the class applauded me.
but i felt compelled to stand up instead and applaud them. here were fifty women who has been overlooked by the system and who live difficult lives of selling various and sundry things at the market and who had decided to undertake the difficult and humbling process of education. how remarkable these simple yet motivated women these were. my heart beat at a different rate as it expanded just looking at their weathered faces. the depth of the obstacles they were attempting to overcome was exemplified by a lady in the third row was looking at me full in the face with eagerness to learn while breast-feeding her child on her lap.
i pray for God's grace on these women as they learn. may God reward their hard and courageous work.