Top photo: Members from the Cercle de Reflection des Jeunes de Mayumba (Circle of Reflection of the Youth from Mayumba). Former Mayumba youth who now return to their village to run a summer education program.

Bottom photo: Students who voluntarily attended the summer school program founded by the group called "Cercle de Reflection des Jeunes de Mayumba." The group organized the program with their own limited resources and sacrificed their own vacation from college to uplift their village.

The guys pictured above are former students of the elementary school of Mayumba. I had the privilege of teaching them English while learning French and their native languages of Villi, Lumbu, and Bapunu. It was 1997-98, during that time we discussed politics, HIV/AIDS, sexuality, life in America, race relations, and of course, the black American-African connection.
I wanted to be more than their English teacher. I wanted us to share and touch lives in ways we never expected or imagined. I played basketball with the boys and danced with the girls. We traveled to the neighboring village of Tchibanga for a talent show and youth program. We comforted each other through bouts of malaria and shared meals when there was no electricity, or gas for cooking. We fetched water from the well and collected the rain off rooftops; we searched for bread and crossed the lagoon when there was none. We shared laughter with jokes told in broken English and shaky French- all the while hoping to reunite someday.