Today was our monthly lunch meeting at Shore96. Don Martin was our presenter. He provided an update on the "Light of The World" Academy in Liberia, Africa with which he has been involved. This school was founded by Reverend Sylvester Johnson, who visited one of our meetings last year. This is a novel teaching concept which uses "Smart Box" computer technology to aid in reaching students in a remote region of Liberia. The Smart Box is a self-contained computer lab which runs on battery power and does not require an internet connection. It has proven to be very effective. Students in West Africa are required to pass a uniform standardized test and test scores for those utilizing the Smart Box have gone from a 25% passing rate prior to Smart Box to 88% currently. As background information, we learned that Liberia was first settled in 1822 by freed slaves. It became a republic in 1847. It has about the same population as the state of MN and there are many former Liberians now living in MN. Their government structure is similar to the U.S. However, there were 2 civil wars between 1989 and 2003, resulting in a total of 250,000 deaths. So - as polarized as our current U.S. political situation is, it was good to be reminded that things could indeed be much more fraught with challenge here!