School

Ah, back to school.  Always such an adventure :)

The fuel situation continues to be rather dire. As do some roadblocks, as do protests, as does life.

But these kiddos gotta get to school.  A few schools tried to open last Monday on time, and did the best they could.  More schools, most, are insisting they are opening tomorrow, with or without fuel, no matter what.

Parents are getting up even earlier, getting on the road even earlier, and more people than ever are walking their kiddos, some miles, to school.

This is gonna break, right? But until it does, life's just gotta go on.

I don't know what it looks like to send your kids to school in America...I've never done it.  But here, you gotta start EARLY.  For years we went to the market, bought the cloth for the appropriate school, the buttons, the zippers, the thread, the ribbons, went to a tailor, had the girls measured, went back weeks later, adjustments, done, custom, hand-made uniforms that I then had to sew their names on the bibs.  For years after that we sent a friend to the market to do all the shopping, and then went to the tailor, then switched schools, no more bib-name sewing.  

Last year, I wondered if the school would actually mind if they had VERY similar, $6 Old Navy uniforms, and that was it. You still have to plan way ahead (think: June in America ahead), but it's not such a crisis if a shirt is falling apart on month six, and man alive is it nice to have uniforms without having to buy those little tiny skirt hook thingies.

Then there are the book lists.  This year, we got our book lists for all three girls from the school and promptly handed them off to Noel.  Two challenging trips to town (remember: very little fuel, blocked roads) later, we have all the girls books, and their names on them.

No hard-back books, mostly copied workbooks, all three girls, almost $200 USD.

That's NOT a lot of money compared to what we have to pay for what we can't beg, borrow and trade off friends for homeschool...but that IS a lot of money for here. On top of paying for uniforms. On top of paying all your school fees and tuition costs...there IS no free education in Haiti.  It adds UP...and it's why so so so many children will not be going to school tomorrow.  May not ever.

One of our biggest burdens every August/September is the incredible number of friends and family who need help getting their kiddos in school.  Some families have kids take turns who gets to go which years.  Some families only are able to send the one or two children who seem to have the most academic promise.  Some families are only able to send some kids, some years.

One of the awesome things our Thursday community outreach and evangelism students pushed this year was getting notebooks, pens and pencils, and school supplies to kiddos in the community...and I love that...and loved that going out through our students.

Yesterday, we took the girls to Shayla's house, where she has a little shop, and they bought their snacks for the week.  I used to pack wonderful, hard-worked, hard-to-find American snacks for the girls, and they kept complaining that their friends all had the same snacks and that theirs were odd.  So now the girls take fried hot peppers, Chicos, cornflakes, and roasted peanuts like everyone else. I will NOT buy them catsup packets to suck on like all the good mamas.  I'm NOT paying for something that someone got FREE from McDonalds and shipped to Haiti, nor will I ever support the downing of heinz as a snack.  But I am sure they buy them with their own money.

I also make them read their back to school books, and make their first day signs :)  

Before dinner tonight I started braiding, because with THREE girls in ribbons and braids, and teaching at 8 am, tomorrow morning will hold enough craziness of it's own.  There are many silent understandings about hairstyles and braids for school that we still work hard to understand.  Certain hair styles and braids are for home. Others for church. Others for school.  You can't have home-braids at school, or show up at church with school ribbons and school braids.  

The school is very flexible with us, because I just can't make all the braids work and STAY with this corn silk hair.  However, the ribbons and the clips and balls are a MUST, and we work hard to keep up.  Like their snacks, the girls want me to do their hair the same way all the other mamas do their friends' hair, and I have taken MANY mom lessons from our mom friends and do my very best.  

And now there's Nora.  She is so ready. She's so excited, and so nervous, and today ended up being a very emotional day for sweet girl...praying for a GOOD day tomorrow, and I am proud of her. It takes quite an amount of brave to go to school in a classroom where NO ONE speaks or understands your first language.  I cherished the moments today of Lily and Sofie coaching her, for they have done it, and overcome. 

"If the teacher asks you all to do something and you don't understand, just look at your friends next to you. Do whatever they are doing!!  Soon, you will realize that you don't have to!"

She understands Creole well, and speaks all the basics, but tomorrow will be a big day for Nora Joy (and her mama. Pray for us).  I'm so thankful her sisters will be right upstairs from her classroom.

Something we love about school in Haiti is that it starts at 8 and is done at 12:30.  It is CRAZY hot, there is no electricity, they work hard, and are done at lunch.  Most schools then flip (elementary classes from 8-12:30, middle-school/high school 1-5), enabling schools to use some of their staff, their facilities, classrooms and resources twice each day.  By the time Matt picks them up at lunch, we have two very sweaty, very wiped, very happy girls.  Hopefully THREE, starting tomorrow :)

This weekend's biggest triumph wasn't prepping for school, but Matt fixed our washing machine!!!

In a country where there are SO few of them, it's impossible to find someone to fix them...and ever since the Heckman's moved back to New Jersey, when someone isn't here short-term to help with maintenance and repair, it's Matt and YouTube (and Ben.)

Thankfully, we found a great video that was sure our problem was a baby sock jammed in the pump, and after days of flooding the room and refusing to spin, Matt took it all apart and it was NOT a baby sock.  It was a baby washcloth :)  Thankful for these guys and for YouTube!!

Still mostly grounded, we walked to the village church once again and were blessed by a great, but incredibly hot, service. We were drenched long before we arrived.

And Ben sings the ENTIRE time :)

Bill preached today and it was great!

I taught Nora and her buddy how to trace their hands, and that was the next 2 hours!

Tomorrow's a big day for Haiti, and I love about her her refusal to quit and her creativity and resourcefulness to make the impossible happen. No matter the roads, no matter the crisis, no matter the worries...these are perseverant people who will push their children forward as hard as they can...to opportunities they never had.  

Pray for ALL our children as they go...and for the many children who will watch them.