FAQ's Part 1

There are many questions I have been asked in my travels last year about just what goes on here. Most of them were phrased out of curiosity, “Just what is going on there.” Only on two occasions was is asked in that same tone my mom used when I came home from that chilly November high school football game covered head-to-toe in purple body paint, “Just what is going on there.” You see, tone is everything. I hope you are asking it without the same sense of shock and disapproval as my mother.

And while a more careful reading of my prose (and sometimes poetry ) may yield answers to most of these questions, I don't expect you to study every line like I was Emily Dickinson and you were cramming for your final exam in American Literature. Instead, I'll just straight up answer your questions, many of which were frequently asked. (How about that!)

How many kids do you have?

We usually have close to fifty kids. About forty of live here at the orphanage with me. The number is usually fixed and hardly ever changes month to month. The reason for that is, as kids come in to the orphanage, usually at a young age, we keep them until they graduate or get job. They don't come and go as they please or stay for a couple months until their family has the means to support them again. We are committing to a larger investment in the kids than just giving them a bed a food. We are raising them, educating them, teaching them about Jesus, and laying the foundation for their whole life to change. We are not a shelter or a daycare. The ten or so that are not here are kids that are in higher education, job training, or apprenticeships that we support until they start getting a paycheck.

How do they come to be in the orphanage?

That is a really big and involved question. Everybody has an individual and unique story, so I can't really typecast anybody by their circumstance. Most all the kids here have lost at least one parent, leaving the other unable (or unwilling) to care for their kid. Quite a few have lost both parents and end up living with an uncle or grandparent before ending up with us.

How old, gender?

We have both boys and girls and ages 5-20. We have had as young as two years old, but usually about the age of 18 is when we look for them to move on (i.e. get a job). We don't have the means to care for infants, and as long as a kid is doing well in school and has a good attitude and behavior we will look to get them in a higher ed program. The others get jobs straight away or apprenticeships to learn a trade.

Where do they study?

All the kids study in the public schools. When you only have about four or five kids to each grade level it makes it difficult to teach them in house. Instead, what I do is supplement their school heavily with tutoring and more lessons here at the orphanage. So the learning doesn't stop when they leave school.

What are their schools like?

The primary school students sit on the ground under the shade of big cashew trees with about sixty other kids in their classroom. If it rains, school is canceled for obvious reasons. Primary school is grades 1-7. For grades 8-12 they are in the high school, which is also about a five minute walk. The high school is quite new and all the kids have chairs and desks. They too, however, are with anywhere between 70 and 120 kids in a classroom. Elementary school lasts for three hours and high school for five hours a day. Including breaks. The school year runs from February to the end of October with November reserved for national exams for grades 5, 7, 10, and 12. Teacher delinquency is also very high, and near the end the of the year it is normal for students to only receive lessons about a third of the time.

What do kids do when they leave the orphanage?

That again is a big involved question. As I've said before in this space, some go on to be teachers, others get jobs at factories, become technicians, lots of things. In Mozambique, if you finish tenth grade you can attend teaching academy for a year and become an elementary school teacher. It's not ideal in terms of teaching standards or quality, but the choice has been made for availability. And even at that class sizes are still anywhere from seventy to a hundred (and often more) students in a classroom. Because of this opportunity, we encourage lots of kids to study hard, finish school, and become teachers. Teaching is a well respected, well paying, and guaranteed job in Mozambique.

Because many kids come to us not having been in school before they are a few years behind. Because of of that, if a kid has good grades and a good attitude we will allow him or her to stay past 18 in order to finish school and secure a good future, whether it means becoming a teacher or accountant or going to university or whatever. For kids that fall behind in school and fail classes repeatedly, and/or have bad behavior and attitudes (its surprising how one begets the others), when they turn 18 we try to find an apprenticeships or other work for them. This could be as a cook, hairdresser, factory worker, whatever we can get that doesn't require a high school diploma.

More to come later in the week, but let's pace ourselves for now.