Every year we go through the same thing on the supposed first day of school, the kids insist, “The teacher says we must have everything ready!”, and every year we tell them the same thing, “No you don’t, your teachers won’t get organized for another week!” and every year they respond with, “but this year it will be different”, and so every year we get them all their uniforms, book bags, pens, pencils, rulers, erasers, and new shoes and send them off to school, hoping that this year the school really will be better organized.

Our four new students all ready to go to their first day of school.

Going through the new front gate is difficult to get use to. I caught some of them trying to climb over the back gate, which is the way they use to go to school and had to send them back. For security reasons we now keep the back gate locked.

I had just settled down with a relaxing hot cup of coffee when I saw the kids walking back. No teachers showed up and so opening day was postponed. For our children it is only a short walk to school but other children had come several kilometers on foot.

Such is life in the countryside, in a country that does not really want its future manual labor force to receive a good education; for fear that knowledge will give them the confidence to demand change.

The Watopotians