Check this out. Apparently when you take a building, put chairs and tables, hire teachers and enroll kids the end result is a school!
Sunday evening, one week ago. We had 3 rooms without a roof, but construction was going on full speed to finish before the morning. After a busy day of preparing classes and making sure everything is ready, we decided to return at 6 AM to organize our roofless class.
Then it rained.
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| Night before opening |
At 6 AM, I was the first onsite. No roof. Quick re-grouping. Moving one class into the teachers ‘lounge’ (which at this point is an empty room the same size of a class), and stretching plastic tarps on one of the roofless classes so that at least there is shade.
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| Monday Morning |
Plenty of time to finish up, shower and come refreshed at 8 AM when kids are supposed to arrive.
Didn’t factor in that on the first day of a new school, children and parents are excited and come early, there are dozens of people on the waiting list hoping to get their kids in, and that some kids come from far away so they come at various times.
7 AM, we’re still in the middle of ‘building the last class’, school is already full of excited orange kids.
We have full classes since the first day which in Haiti
So there are still some glitches. We (the office) are not really sure which kid is going to what class as opposed to the class that they enrolled to. Need to get our lists straight. It took us the first day to find out what’s the best way to distribute water to 350 thirsty kids that are used to fight over water and food.
We are still trying to get the list of missing books from the teachers so that everyone can have all the books. But all-in-all, at 7:50 AM every morning, there’s a bell. Orange kids line up in lines in front of the flag, sing the national anthem and say a little prayer. Then go into classes in an orderly manner. Walking in the corridors – it sounds like a school.
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| We have a school! |
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