First Day of School

The children got their uniforms Sunday afternoon and posed for a pic.

We were up early Monday morning with excitement and headed off to school at 7:30

Through a grove of banana trees with Eloise leading the way, of course.

Along an irrigation canal....

to the Community School of Bellevue.

There are over 100 children enrolled in the school this year.  However, for various reasons attendance today was only 10.  Chris waited with our kids until others arrived and school commenced around 8:30. The children spent the morning in devotions followed by play time.  Kate made it about one hour, was whimpering, and then saw a familiar face, Maxo.  When she saw Maxo she burst in tears and he offered her a ride home on his moto.  She gladly accepted.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for Kate.  Eloise enjoyed singing during devotion time.  The girls asked her to join in jump roping but she chose just to watch today.  Luke joked with the kids, showed them how to do the moon walk, and arm wrestled.  His comment of the day, "The girls at school are really tall and muscular".  Luke called us around 11:00 and said school was ending soon so we should come pick them up.  Glad we sent along his cellphone.

School here is expensive by Haiti standards.  It cost us approximately $150 USD per child to send our kids to school this year.  For us that isn't much.  But the average wage in our town is around $7.50/day or about $150/month.  So a month's pay per child, that is expensive!  Many Haitians are still attempting to get their children's uniform, school books, supplies, and tuition gathered.  So as the month goes on more and more children will join the school as they are prepared and funded.

Could you imagine paying one month's salary per child to send your children to school?