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| Our kids say goodbye to Abby |
I foolishly took the announcement at its word. I guess I was thinking of France where punctuality is important. Island schools often try to copy French culture. So when I was leaving the house and it was already 3pm-- I walked quickly and kept my greetings to people along the way short. Even as I rounded the corner to the school I imagined the meeting as having already started...but as soon as I entered the school gate and saw the rows of empty chairs I remembered-- I’m in Africa.
I was “late” but no one else was there except a few people who work at the school. I sat for awhile when one of the administrators greeted me, “You came early.” “Well it said 3pm,” I said as my excuse. A lady next to me says, “Well they won’t come until after prayers.” Not long after we heard the call to prayer.
By 3:30 a handful of other parents had arrived and they steered us to actually sit in the chairs that had been set-up-- rows of little preschool-sized chairs painted pink. I took a seat. At 3:40pm a woman sat right next to me, forgoing entire empty rows.The seats were a little close together so you couldn’t avoid being squished against the person next to you...but this is Africa.
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| Our youngest finds the bathroom water bucket |
At 3:50pm the first of two directrices (school principals) arrived. She promptly complained when she saw so few parents and teachers, “People here NEVER follow the schedule!” After another five minutes she started complaining more, “We said 3pm and now it’s almost 4pm!” I held back a smile and thought, “You just arrived 5 minutes ago!”
At 4:15 the second directrice arrived and the place started to fill in. It was hot, even in the open courtyard and one of the women beside me decided to move over a seat to give us some air. At 4:20pm the two directrices started addressing the group and I was in for my second surprise. They weren’t speaking French! This is the school where they take pride in only allowing the kids to speak French (no local language). This is the school where they have written in their materials that people should try to speak French at home to their kids instead of the local language. Mentally, I had prepared my mind to hear a lot of French-- but it was all local language. After a quick mental switch I started to follow along.
At 4:30 a larger women squeezed into our row and moved toward the tiny space between me and the woman who had moved over. The seated woman made some comment about the entering woman being a little wide but in she came-- pushing me halfway off my little kids seat and putting me in close body contact with both her and the other woman next to me.
A hot and long hour later (5:30) they were just closing things up. I only needed to know about three things-- the last day of school, the price for next year and the pre-inscription form, but I sat through several speeches and debates as they discussed how parents should help their kids at home, who gets to move to the next grade and why exactly they are raising the fees. It was in the local language because people needed to understand. At one point a directrice caught my eye-- I was the only white face in the crowd. “Ça va? Vous avez compris?” she mouthed to me. I gave her a reassuring smile from my pinned-in position-- I understand, this is Africa and this is how things work.
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| Our kids & friend |
PRAYERS ANSWERED
Everyone got home safely from the conference (although some of our friends were stuck on a boat for over 12 hours!) In spite of the long meeting, Megan did meet a female English speaker and was able to invite her to our English club which is starting next month. (We’ve been looking for female English speakers to invite.) Grace continues to like school.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
Megan continues to suffer with leg pain (sitting in little preschool seats doesn’t help.) Pray for our teammates who are at various stages in the process of preparation to come and join us here in just 6 more months! Pray for the continued stability of this country in the wake of the coup attempt. Pray that our daughter would have a good birthday this coming week (She turns 5 on Tuesday!)
