Ecole de choix

DAY 4 

FRIDAY 20TH DEC

Wake up to the cockerels crowing and the one poor guy joining in weakly, who must be an adolescent....he has a much deeper, croakier call.

Mon Dieu!

Big surprise when we left the house to ritual drive up to 'Le hopital' for our daily shower (no water yet and not gonna happen while we're here...they've decided that digging the 10m well by hand, another few meters, is not a good option as someone recently died in a deep well digging, when the sides caved in on him! And our 'hole' is perilously close to the house, scenes of disaster...collapsing structures...ouch! So they're bringing in a digger...watch this space apparently!)

So we left the house and were immediately struck by how clean everything looked around us....someone had done a clear up of the litter!

That explained the letter that came in, written in French, which I hadn't properly understood..they were asking all the neighbours to help in a holiday litter clean up... I thought it was a local census...eek...must brush up on my French!!

What a difference! This place actually looks like a tropical country with palms & green indigenous foliage instead of shredded plastic bags clinging to trees & fences, broken bottles lying about, plastic containers, plastic tubs and cups and more and more plastic sh*t strewn about.

Our whole little neighbourhood was out en force, guys with machetes attacking the weeds and overgrown bushes, people raking up debris and stones and tidying up the road & their front gardens! And this is all in aid of the Public holidays...not sure if its Xmas itself or just because of holiday celebrations....such a shame I can't speak Creole and ask Nadej..she'd explain. It would be amazing if they could maintain this clean look....somehow I doubt this will be long term

Visited the new local charity-funded school where Lisa volunteers, running the library and a reading program. This was the condition so her 3 daughters can attend. We were met by Lisa who kindly showed us around and introduced us to the Head of school and various staff. Her three gorgeous little girls showed us their classrooms and chatted away happily about their school experience. They are taught in 3 languages, French, Creole and English and it seems that the core subjects are all taught in the 3 languages ...quite impressive to think you cover addition and subtraction in French, Creole and English...and pretty challenging too.

The school was created through a charity trust for the children of the lowest socio economic level in the local area of Mirebalais. It was a surprise. Pleasant, practical high ceilinged buildings with good resources, interactive white boards, a computer suite with enough computer notebooks for each child in a class, loads of textbooks and workbooks, a well stocked library and lovely, seemingly v motivated staff...mostly young men and happy kids running around in cute uniforms with the girls hair tied in coloured bunches all over their heads. The school not only provides a really good, sound and structured education, it also provides each child with a nutritious meal (for some, their only meal of the day) and drinks and snacks at  break times. If the hospital is an oasis in the desert this is a mini mirage... such an amazing facility in a poor and struggling community.

Of course their biggest challenge is maintaining ongoing funding....must be a nightmare. But they have over 50% 'sponsored children' whose food is paid for by overseas donors at $350 per annum. The "Kellogg's' group was also mentioned as a major funding contributor...I'll remember that next time I reach for the 'No name brand' cornflakes & I'll get the Kellogg's variety instead. 

Back to the hospital to catch up on some emails and to make use of the internet. Lunch at Construction House as per usual and back to the office with Bryan to have an afternoon of internet use!

Tonight.....probably a take away from one of the rickety little shack like 'restaurants' ...you really do not want to look in the kitchen or at the tethered pig snoring alongside the shack. 

Oh yes, did I say? ...not only do we have no running water, we also have no cooker (or stove as the American's call them.) No appliances at all in fact, except a small travel kettle that takes 20 min to boil! It's so weird not even being able to boil an egg!