Schools

I'm not sure what I would like to say about the schools. After we delivered the net ball posts and then visited three schools last week, I am just amazed what the schools are like in the Solomon's. First I need to say that there isn't free education here. The parents pay for their children to go to school and students are required to wear uniforms. (I have seen several teenagers put their school shirt on just before they get to school and then take it off as they leave school. Pretty typical!) It is pretty impressive to watch as the children go to school, with their different uniforms, with a parent or older sibling walking with them. The schools buildings themselves are pretty good for the Solomon Islands, nothing like our school buildings but considering the area, they are not too bad. Of course, to fit in here, the building is run down, needs paint, is in need of repairs, if the floor had linoleum, it is pretty worn through. All of the buildings are open air, the “playgrounds” are either dirt or a little green something. Sports equipment???? Not much that we could see. The offices are stacked with papers and most don't have computers to keep track of students. And yet, the families are sending their children and hoping for a good education. I have to applaud the parents for that. Some students walk a few miles to attend. The schools aren't neighborhood schools. So one family could have children in several different schools. I haven't quite figured out how the school is chosen. At first, I thought the government decided where the student goes to school. But then there are students transferring to other schools. Back in America, we are so blessed to have great buildings and curriculum.

We were driving through town (our one main road) as students were walking home from school. I noticed a young woman who seemed to have a problem walking. As we got closer to her, I saw that she had two club feet! She was actually walking on the side of her heels and she had flip-flops on. It broke my heart to see her that way. We are soooo blessed to have great medical care in America.

I have been helping several students who are attending USP (University of South Pacific) and have been sad to see what they are learning. One student is studying biology and used a microscope for the first time to see an onion cell. I taught that in 6^th grade. And then there are the papers from the “professors” that have grammar and spelling errors, that I want to correct before the student hands them in. One student had to do her assignment and email it in. She didn't know how to do that. She took all day to type a few simple pages. What can I say? We are sooo blessed to have technology in America.

We are involved with the P-13 program, which is a church program in the Pacific (actually a private donor), that will subsidize students education. This involves each student applying, requiring the Branch President to determine what the family can afford to pay and then how much the church will need to pay. So the church pays for the first term, the parents then pay what they specified and then we (the church) pays for the rest. We are trying to figure out the final payment that the church needs to pay and are hoping we get it right, from the records that were left by the couple we replaced. And then we have to go to each of the 25+ schools to check their records against what we have. So this could take us several weeks. Thank goodness we don't have to be finished until the end of September. Just finding the schools will be a challenge. It took us 3 hours to find 3 schools last week! And I am worried about their record keeping...We are so blessed to have free public education.

Amoana School

Bright Star

Shamma School