Some more thoughts from yesterday . . .
The school has 320 students enrolled this year.
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Below, Dale, Esaie and I on the pre-school veranda. I think he was trying to recall names from a team ( from Village Seven PCA in Colorado Springs) who had served here in the past. Interesting to us because we used to live there when Dale was principal at ECA!
The two First grade classes that we observed were working on math. They were learning about the number three and working in their notebooks. Observation – every one of them colored in their three banana pictures very very carefully.
Grades 2 through 9 observations: the common theme in every classroom was that each student had a composition notebook, and each teacher had carefully written the lesson on the blackboard for the students to copy into their notebook. No classroom had textbooks, some had workbooks. Everything was in French or French Creole. Every student was either wearing a backpack or had one sitting on the bench next to them. There was nothing extra in the classrooms but desks (3 to 4 students at each desk), a teacher’s desk, a cubical bookcase (although all cubes were empty), and a blackboard. There was a universal hairstyle for the elementary girls, not so much in grades 7 – 9.
The school day is from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm, and the students are fed a nutritious meal about 10:30. For some, this is the first or only meal of the day. They get the same rice fortified with protein meal each day, with a sauce that has small bits of chicken or fish in it. Yesterday the sauce had sardines.
Then there were the pre-schoolers. They are in school from 8 to noon and are in a separate building. They also are fed a nutritious meal. All I can say about them is the word “adorable!”
Today, we are getting ready for a week of teacher training. It will take place here at the mission guest house. The same as the church services tomorrow where Dale will be preaching both morning and evening.
Below are photos of where church services are held (literally right outside our back door) and hopefully this construction will be done by tomorrow! Local men built the back wall yesterday and are working on the side walls today.
Esaie looks familiar. Have you worked with him before? That stool in the last 2 pics looks strangely out of place. Those kids ARE adorable.