As soon as we were settled in Mary’s home, the first thing she asked Sam and Will was “Are you ready to teach my class tomorrow?” She then gave them her teacher’s manual and told them to go and prepare their lesson plan.

Mary is a high school science teacher. The students in her classroom are between 13 and 18 years of age. Sam and Will took on her challenge with amazing grace and determination.

Niko and I stood in the back of the room as Sam and Will stood before 50 Besotho young people and taught them about heat conduction. As I watched them, I was full of awe and I wondered, how is this experience going to impact their life? How will standing before 5 different classrooms of students today and teaching, impact the way they see their own teachers, or the way they see themselves? Will this plant a seed for them to pursue teaching one day? How does it feel to them to be the minority? There was not another white face in the school, nor had we seen another white person since arriving in Lesotho. This was the first time in their life that they experienced being the minority. I tried to imagine what it would be like to be 16 or 17 and to have such an experience. I was filled with awe at how well they were prepared and at their incredible willingness and spirit of adventure in taking this on.