Jun 26

Written by: reh
6/26/2008

June 26, 2008, Thursday

6:30AM Fernando and I took the GPS and went to each school, designated the school, and Fernando listed School name, Community name, Principal’s mane, number of teachers, and number of students. I will get that info to with coordinates to Hanan and have the website map updated and accurately labeled. Anyone that has been here knows the condition of the dirt roads and the distance between schools; even recognizing the correct designation of certain schools without driving all the way to them, this was still a full day’s job.
Stopped by the high school to pick up report cards of the two girls. We are 16 weeks into the school year. We were told that grades come out next week. It took a while but I finally got across that I wanted a copy of the report card for the previous term. The next part I couldn’t get so called Jessica. It seems that no report card was issued at the end of the first term; kids were only told their grades. I asked Jessica “you’re telling me that not a single parent has gotten a single written report from the school about their kids in 16 weeks?” Jessica: “Yes, this is the public school, you understand.” I was shown their grades. Basically, Waldina is doing high 70’s to low 90’s (very good according to staff); Helda is doing mostly 50’s (not good at all, she probably will not pull herself out of the hole).
After my first visit to the high school at the beginning of the year, Fernando warned me that L4L can expect no help from the high school staff “this is high school, the kids are expected to take care of themselves, the staff just does their job.” I saw some of that on this visit.

3:00PM Went to the bank where Fernando banks and opened a personal account so I don’t have to carry all my trip cash all the time. If you recall, we had to put our original L4L bank account in Roxana’s name because a non-resident cannot open an account. Fernando went with me, we used his home address, and everyone was happy.

5:00PM End of day.

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