Right around the time school let out last year, I started thinking that maybe Orrin could go next year. He would be four years old, and it would give him something to do from 8-noon every day. Other than going up to the hospital and the occasional visit to Platt's to jump on the "tramp", it can go weeks without going anywhere or doing much away from home activities. So this may be a good way for him to wear off some energy, make some more friends, and hopefully REALLY learn Creole!
I talked to the school director about it, saying that Orrin doesn't speak much Creole yet, that we would be gone until mid-October, and that I didn't know if he'd even stay if I sent him! She said it was ok, he could come, so we started making preparation.
First, we started by telling Orrin. "When you're four, you're going to go to school with Kenny!" His eyes lit up, and he was so excited. We have found that setting a date, and prepping him for it has worked well in the past....potty training, pumping on the swing....maybe it would work for school too.
I asked the tailor that I know if he could buy material for Orrin's uniform and sew it. He went to Cayes and bought the fabric, and took measurements. The fabric for two sets of uniforms cost about $10, and the sewing cost about the same.
Madam Ino's son is the president of the Gai Foyer school board. He bought Orrin's books (for 125 gds...or about $2) while we were on furlough. Madam Ino gave us the books when we got back, saying she had taken them out of her house to her son's house with some other things during the hurricane to try to keep them dry.
When the tailor came with Orrin's uniforms, he was so excited and was carrying them around showing everyone in the house and on skype with the grandparents :) We took it as a good sign....
The school had hurricane damage, so it wasn't open when we got back to Haiti. It took a few weeks for the repairs and clean-up to get done, so school started on Monday, Nov 7th. The cost for the school year is 3,750gds, or around $56 US.
Over the summer, Kenny's mom decided to send him to the MEBSH church school that's really close to the Gai Foyer school. We were a little nervous that Orrin would not want to go without someone he knew. So we asked Madam Ino's granddaughters (who he knows) to come walk him to school that first day.
We prepped his school bag with his books, a notebook, pencils, crayons, and a package of crackers and sippy cup of water. We prepped him by talking about things he may encounter. Like only eating his snack when the other kids eat. Or learning to sit and be quiet. Or peeing by a tree on the bathroom break :D We prepped him that the girls would come and get him for school, and that when he came home, he would have a treat.
Our house is right on the other side of the "fence" from school. All morning long, I kept looking out the window to see if I could see him, or waiting to hear him come through our door and say he was done. By 10:00, I had seen him washing his hands after the teacher's aid poured water out of a bucket onto his hands. That must have been the bathroom break. Then he went back inside the school. Then recess came, and he came home...to ask for a drink refill. But he went right back and stayed the whole day.
When the bell rings at noon, either David or I go down and pick him up and walk him home (since he obviously isn't capable of doing that himself lol ;) ). Then he comes home and eats lunch, tells us what happened, and gets a treat...some chips, ice cream, juice, or a trip up to Platt's to jump on the tramp.
It's been about two weeks since he started school, and he usually does pretty well. If you ask him how school is, he will say, "Pretty much good" and then tell you all about it. The second and third days were kind of rough. I told him he could cry if he's sad, but he can't yell for me like he did the second day :( So after that, he's done fine. I walk him down, put him in line, then go back up and watch him from the yard until he goes into the school. He usually makes it home a few times to get more drink, give me his cracker wrapper, tell me about the kids who are pushing him, or ask what we are doing tonight :)
Last Thursday, Eric and Jami's family was back at the hospital visiting (!) and we had them over for breakfast. After breakfast, he got dressed in his uniform and left to go to school with them still at our house playing toys. He made it back to the house once (for his belt) while they were still there, and he put on his belt and headed right back to school. So he really must enjoy it or find some fulfillment in it.
He has come home speaking a few more words in Creole. He said he told his teacher, "M bezwen pipi (I need to pee) and she took me outside." Or we practiced saying "Kouman ou rele (what's your name)?" He said he asked a few kids their names after that. The other day he was singing a line of a song they were singing in school, so he must be picking up something.
I went to school with him one day for about an hour to try to help him understand what is going on, and tell him what the teacher wants him to do. The room is split into two classes, filled with kids from Cassia's age (yes, it's really daycare...not school) to Orrin's age. Orrin's teacher, Veleine, sits at a small desk in the corner of the room, and was individually helping out each student do a page in their workbook, occasionally looking over her shoulder and trying to lead a song for the rest of the class to sing along with. While they wait, the kids sit in their chairs, talk a little, cry, fall over in their chairs, or go out to pee. There is a teacher's aid who sits by the door of the room and helps right tipped over chairs and take kids out to the bathroom. On the other side of the room, the 2nd year kindergartners are having their writing lesson, and since I didn't know what was up, I asked Orrin if he wanted to try. He said yes, and so the teacher said he could. He went up to the chalkboard and tried to write the cursive letters. The teacher then told me that he will learn them in his class before going to the next class :) so I guess he was supposed to only watch the one teacher. I think I finally figured out how these kiddos sit so long and so good in church....from 3 years old, they're used to sitting and waiting for the teacher, with nothing to do but tossing a hairbow back and forth across the table.
When it was Orrin's turn to work in his workbook, he was glad to get to do something :) He was to put dots on the watering can to make the second picture look like the first. He was making huge circles, so his teacher erased his work and had him do it over again. Then we went back to sit down. He intermittently plugged his ears when the volume level went from a dull roar to a full roar. (Taking after his grandpa G I think....) After all the kids were finished, the teacher lifted a tiny girl onto a tall chair and the whole room was taught the names of the head, forehead, eyes, cheeks, mouth, tongue, teeth, and tears in French. Then there were a few more songs, and a prayer and the bell rang and it was done!
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