PRESCOTT — Look into almost any home in America and you'll find those basic childhood staples: crayons and coloring books. It is hard to imagine any child not having crayons and coloring books.
However, the children in a small village in the West African nation of Senegal were unfamiliar with crayons.
Unfamiliar, that is, until the students in Jody Brown's fifth-grade class and Rudy Medal's fourth-grade class at Washington Traditional School in Prescott made coloring books for the African children.
Brown and Medal's daughter, Heather, is serving an 18-month stint with the Peace Corps. She currently is in Senegal and living in a compound within a small village.
Brown said her daughter thought it would be a great idea if her students did something for the African children, because "people in the village are not well-educated."
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The two women stayed in touch through e-mail and decided Brown's students would make coloring books for the children.
Brown said her daughter e-mailed the alphabet and numbers for the language of the Mandinka Tribe.
Working with the alphabet, the students made coloring books with pictures representing each letter.
In December, Brown and Medal visited their daughter in Senegal and brought 40 coloring books with them. The couple bought crayons to give to the children along with the books.
"This is something they don't do; they don't color," Brown said. "The pictures also helped the children learn their alphabet."
The coloring-books project was part of a study unit about the Peace Corps, which culminated in a slide show.
The Kennedy administration established the Peace Corps in 1961. Peace Corps volunteers serve around the world. Volunteers work in areas such as education, youth outreach, community development, the environment and information technology.
Brown said the Peace Corps has about 8,000 volunteers in 139 countries. It's one of the most successful volunteer organization, and more than 190,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps since its inception.
"The Peace Corps is a nice way for Americans to be liked," Brown said. "In Senegal, there are no tourists from the United States. As we traveled, people recognized our daughter as a Peace Corps representative and treated us very well."
During an assembly last Friday, Brown explained that the Peace Corps is an option for people who like to travel, meet other people and help others.
Brown said her daughter lives in a village with two schools.
The French school teaches reading, writing and math. However, few students attend that school.
Instead, parents give their children to the Islamic school, where they primarily learn about the Muslim religion.
The children in the village had never seen crayons. Brown said the biggest fear was that they "would try to eat them."
Thankfully, that didn't happen.
