Hitting the Ground Running

We have had 6 days of school, so far. Thankfully tomorrow is a holiday. We all need it!  It seems the school year started like a motorized car that you wind up tight and then lay it on the ground and it speeds off in some direction...usually crashing into something before it completely winds down.  I hope we don't crash, but we have the fast and furious part down pat.

This is a view of one of the four buildings that make up our school.

Sulmi is in Standard Six which is the year that the students take the standardized test which is used for high school admittance, but primarily to rank the schools across the country. Our school has been climbing its way out of the bottom since they started giving the test 6 years ago. We've improved every year... but, we're still the last of the Anglican Schools. That means the Anglican management is putting pressure on our principal, who is putting pressure on the teacher, who is putting pressure on the Standard Six kids. Sulmi has been in tears 3 of these first 6 days of school. Hmmmm. I saw another girl outside of the class crying as well. The teacher is going fast, giving several tests already, assigning lots of homework. ARGH!  We need a battle plan. Sulmi, Chelsea and I had a talk tonight to figure out how to make it work better.  I think, by God's grace, we found some points of agreement and strategies to make it easier.   We'll see how it goes.

This is a picture of Chelsea and Sulmi on the first day of school.

These are some of the deaf students.  I took the picture after school.  Everyone disperses when the dismissal bell rings, but the deaf kids hang around to talk to their friends lonnnnng after the hearing kids have gone home.  Sulmi always joins their after school chat session.

I'm interpreting for Morine in the kindergarten classroom. That's a lot of fun.  The children say funny honest things.  It makes us laugh and feel thankful for the opportunity to spend our day with their fresh ways of looking at the world.  I'm not a great interpreter.  I can't hear a lot of what is going on, but Morine is learning many new words and doing well.  It's "ok" until we find another interpreter....hopefully someone will join us by January.

Chelsea is doing great as Sulmi's interpreter.  In this picture she is signing "Jesus".  It was during the first all-school assembly.

Please continue to pray for all of us as we adjust to a new school year and new requirements and expectations.