We are\u00a0four days into the new school year here at Cowman.<\/p>\n\n\n
In many ways, the start of school here looked like any\nschool in the States.\u00a0 The students\nshowed up Monday, lugging backpacks, lunchboxes and water bottles and bubbling\nwith a sense of anticipation and anxiety.\u00a0\nThe teachers warmly greeted each student and showed them to their\nclassrooms, where posters adorn the walls and bulletin boards offer key\nlearning points.\u00a0 At eight o\u2019clock a bell\nrang and the students took their seats.<\/p>\n\n\n
But the bell is not electronic \u2013 it is a literal bell and it\u2019s\nin the hand of Mrs. Z, a 70-something missionary from the States who teaches 1st<\/sup>\nand 2nd<\/sup> grade.\u00a0 Electronics\nare not anything you want to put too much trust in here in Haiti.\u00a0 At about 9:30 every morning the power has\nbeen going out, leaving the classrooms without overhead lighting, but, more\nimportantly, without fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n My class is dependent on electronics and we are paying the\nprice for that dependency.\u00a0 I have just\nthree students, Caleb, Jacob and Julia, and they are supposed to be doing the\nmajority of their coursework online.\u00a0 Today\nis the\u00a0fourth day of school and still no internet connection.\u00a0 The fine men of Access Haiti would make\nstateside house contractors proud:\u00a0 \u201cWe\nwill be there Friday before the start of the school year.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cSaturday.\u201d\u00a0\n\u201cFirst thing Monday morning.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cSorry,\nour guy was sick.\u00a0 Tuesday?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWe didn\u2019t bring enough cable.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWe will finish the job tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n My students and I haven\u2019t been sitting around twiddling our\nthumbs.\u00a0 It has actually worked out well\nfor me.\u00a0 I have had plenty of time to\nteach some writing skills and to get to know the students individually.\u00a0 By the time I leave a week from today*, we\nwill have a good foundation from which I can teach long distance the rest of\nthe semester.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n I want desperately to come back with my family after\nChristmas, in time to start the second semester.\u00a0 \u00a0There\nis a good reason why I have only three students: the principal had to limit the\nnumber of upper grade enrollments as a result of not having a teacher \u2013 me! \u2013\non site this semester.\u00a0 Other students\nwere interested but were turned away and I am told that this is the only school\nin this area which offers the upper grade classes now.\u00a0 I read recently that the average Haitian\nadult has the equivalent of a third grade education.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n And then there is the kindergarten where Melissa is to\nteach.\u00a0 For now, the principal is\nteaching the class and so is only able to offer it three times a week.\u00a0 Even so, with all the other responsibilities\nAngie must juggle, I am hoping our family can get here and Melissa take the reins\nof the kindergarten before Angie is burned out completely.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n If I were handed a magic wand next Thursday when it\u2019s time for\nme to board a plane, and told I could use it to instantly be reunited with my\nfamily, I wouldn\u2019t hesitate to use it to bring Melissa and the kids here with a\ncouple of suitcases rather than to pop me back to Indiana.<\/p>\n\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n *\u00a0 Heard a rumor today that the Cap Haitien airport may be shut down for the next 5 weeks!\u00a0 We shall see.\u00a0 I would appreciate your prayers over this matter.\u00a0 Of course, it DOESN’T mean that I won’t be able to fly to Florida until October if the rumors are true.\u00a0 But it DOES mean that I would have to alter my plans quite a bit.\u00a0 First, I would have to get to Port-au-Prince somehow and book a new flight from there.\u00a0 Also, my rental for the trip home is from Ft. Pierce and I would likely be flying elsewhere out of Port.\u00a0 I already have lined up several friends I want to see on the way back and a speaking engagement in Flowery Branch, Georgia for the 16th of September.\u00a0 So… I am praying.<\/p>\n\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n P.S.\u00a0 I will try to post some pictures this evening if the internet around the compound is working!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are\u00a0four days into the new school year here at Cowman. In many ways, the start of school here looked like any school in the States.\u00a0 The students showed up Monday, lugging backpacks, lunchboxes and water bottles and bubbling with a sense of anticipation and anxiety.\u00a0 The teachers warmly greeted each student and showed them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9119,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9118\/revisions\/9119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}