Prayer Requests Oct 2011 - Pt II

[For some reason the blogger program is not liking when I do scheduled posts anymore. This one was automatically set to go out Wednesday with another set for today, Friday. When I plopped on my site today I noticed it did not automatically post itself, a recurring problem lately. Instead you'll get this today and the next one either Saturday or next week, depending on when I remember to post it.]


I play solitaire on the computer every now and then. Its really just to pass the time as I load web pages. With our slow internet in Africa, in the 30 seconds it takes to load the stats from last nights baseball games I'd rather be doing even the tiniest thing than just staring at a blank screen. I have the solitaire on the computer set so that it turns over three cards at a time from the deck and I can't undo moves. I figure if I was playing with physical cards I couldn't undo to the start of the game, so why should I on the computer. The game is also wired to tell me when there is no more moves and I have no chance of winning the game. This saves me from turning through the deck five or six times till I realize I've lost.

The other day I turned to play a new hand as I was reading about that extremely hilarious Iranian-Saudi assassination plot. As I started a new game, the little animation of shuffling the cards happened, it dealt out the cards, and then popped up a message. The message said there were no more available moves and the game was over. I had lost the game. I had lost the game before I even started it! It actually took me back a bit. The solitaire didn't even give me the chance of clicking through the deck to see if there was a card to play or not. And since I was not in control of the game and playing with physical cards I couldn't just turn down one card or shuffle the un-dealt cards. I was shocked, and a little mad that I didn't even get a fair chance. From the very start there was nothing to do.

School can be like that sometimes. Here, at least. I know that many of you are thinking, “Yeah, school is/was totally unfair sometimes.” But whatever ever teacher you swear had it in for you is just scratching the surface of what things can be like here. Kids that can't read or write pass at the end of the year simply because a teacher doesn't want to teach them again while kids at the top of the class are failed because their success and ability to get a job threatens the privileged status of the teachers themselves. Sending a parent to talk with the administration doesn't result in the parent becoming an advocate. It results in the child having a target put on it's back for the parent's haughtiness. If you don't have enough money for a bribe at the end of the year you risk failing because the higher grades have a certain quota of kids that are allowed to pass. Kids often will go weeks without seeing their teacher because the teacher has come down with malaria, is visiting another province, is taking a quarter off, or is too drunk to remember they have a job---during all of which you will not even have a substitute. And when classes are over 60 people there is no space for you to sit in another class.

We were told from a teacher at the high school that the headmaster held a meeting and told the teacher to make life hard for the kids from our orphanage because she thought that life is too easy for us and we need to be reminded how life is really like. On one hand, yes, we are very blessed here. On the other hand, try telling someone here who watched their father murder their mother that life is too easy. Or try telling that to children that were denied education because they were locked inside and used to make beer. Or try telling that to someone that watched their family die one-by-one until they were alone and unwanted.

So what am I trying to say? Sometime the deck is intentionally stacked against you so that there is no way for you to win. Other times, it just comes down to luck.

At the end of the school year the difference between passing or failing can come down to whether the teacher remembers your name, whether or not you spurned any sexual advances they made on you, or if you happened to spell the name of your school correctly on your final exam. Since I've started working with kids on their schoolwork I've gotten to know each one and all of their strengths and weaknesses. Last year I arrived as kids were taking their exams and there was not much I could do to even give them a crash course. Since then, I can tell you that we have kids that are functionality illiterate pass with great marks and kids who all their schoolmates would say are the brightest in their class fail in spectacular fashion. Not all is unfair, however. We also have lots of smart kids that earn their teachers' praise and not-so-smart kids that earn their teachers' ire.

School is wrapping up this week for all the kids here. For many, this will be their last official week of class. Unofficially, most of their teacher stopped showing up two weeks ago and the kids has been sitting around ever since. I wouldn't have a problem with the slacking attendance if this was the only time of the year it happened. The kids have 2, two-week breaks during the year which are unofficially four-week breaks because the weeks before and after the teachers skip out early and come back late.

For most of the kids now, all there is to do is sit around and wait to hear whether or not they passed. And since the system is the exact opposite of transparent, there's no such thing like asking to see grades on final exams or seeing how your grade was calculated. For many of our kids, passing is contingent on taking national exams at the end of the year. Unfortunately, for our kids in five kids in 2nd grade, one in 5th, seven in 7th, two in 10th, and two in 12th grade, They will now sit without doing anything for OVER THREE WEEKS before they start this process. I'll try my best to keep them acclimated to school and acctually thinking, but its not easy as the kids themselves have already mentally checked out.

I am glad that school is out. The year was pretty exhausting managing the kids and schedules and study hour and lessons and recess... it was a lot. They all attend school, but as school lasts for only 3 hours a day I try to do a lot in house to supplement what they're (not) getting. But we're not out of the woods yet. Even after the year is finished, if it's like last year, we'll wait until January to hear their grades. The system is very disorganized and understaffed. I won't say underfunded, because it is funded. (The funds are just misappropriated). Last year we waited until 10 days before the start of school before the national head of education announced when the new school year would start.

Here is how you can pray for us as we wrap up another school year here in Nampula at the orphanage:

• There are many injustices in the school system, and I've barely scratched the surface. Pray that at we await grades and results that the kids who have studied and worked hard would be rewarded and receive justice and their rightful grades.

• For the kids who have struggled in school and need to make progress, pray that they would receive mercy and be able to move up a class.

• Last year we had 6 kids that failed and held back to repeat a grade. Yes, unlike wussy America, kids get failed here and held back. Of these, I believe only two really did not deserve to fail. That means that four kids deserved it. I also think there are three more kids that did not fail but should have, and are still in danger of failing this year. They are not failing because they are discouraged, but because they are complacent. So pray against complacency in those that struggle in their schoolwork. When a kid fails fifth grade for the second time and is on pace to finish grade ten by the time they are thirty years old it becomes difficult for them to motivate themselves. (More on that later in the week). Things get hard and people quit to find something easy, and school is hard so I'll just find something easier. That is the mindset of many a kid here.

• Kids taking exams will sit upwards of three weeks out of school. Pray against laziness and complacency. And pray for me to have the energy for just three more weeks to keep them going on their studies.

The deck stacked against these kids here, and many of them understand that. They know that many times from the very start there is no way to win. It is discouraging. Pray that God opens up avenues for those in danger of failing to pass, and for those that are successful to be recognized for it.