Back to School

San Nicolas streets in the morning are all of a sudden devoid of bike-riding, marble-playing, errand-running kids; last week, with the start of the 2015 school year, all of these kids were suddenly raptured up to school.

Then again, maybe it didn't really happen all that suddenly. About half of the kids we talked to before school started last Monday proudly reported that they weren't going to go to the first day of school. On the first day of school, they told us, the suckers that do show up just have to clean the entire school. Instead, these conscientious objectors proudly maintained the same positions they had held all summer, in front of their TVs, bored out of their minds.

There are, however, a few benefits to starting school again. For one thing, a new school year means new stuff. When we went to visit our friend Maria the other day, the first thing her eight-year-old daughter, Helen, wanted to do was show us each and every one of her new notebooks, the corners sharp and the pages completely blank. Lots of our students showed up at school last week wearing new uniforms: bright white-collared shirts and ironed navy-blue pants. And then there was the delivery of new textbooks and brooms and soccer balls from the Ministry of Education. So on the whole, kids seem to be excited.

We are certainly glad to see all of our old students again and are excited to get to know the new students in our seventh-grade class. We've put out a sign-up for the after-school English class that we'll hold this year on Mondays and Wednesdays, and almost 30 students have signed up for it already. Right after we put up the sign-up sheet, one girl was signing her name and looking up, asked me, “What is this for?” So we certainly don't expect all 30 of those students to follow through with our class, but at least there is some enthusiasm for it.

This year we're also planning to continue the English class for primary students that we offered last year. And since lots of adults in the community have expressed interest in learning English too, we're going to try doing a class for adults one day a week. At the high school, we'll also continue supporting the Nicaraguan English teacher by helping her during classes.

We have a few non-English-related goals for the school year too. For one thing, we're hoping to develop a library space in the director's office. On several occasions, people have stolen textbooks or money from the school, so with some money we've raised through our Balls and Books fundraiser, we're working on building a wooden bookcase with a lock on it, in which teachers can store textbooks safely. We're also using Balls and Books money to buy some paint to repaint the lines on the basketball court at the school so that P.E. classes can go a little more smoothly. And I'm hoping to host at least one more book club with some of the high school students and have them help me organize a reading program at the elementary school too.

Since Davie and I are leaving in September, we won't be here for the entire 2015 school year. So we hope we can take advantage of the next few months to accomplish some of these goals, teach a little English, and spend as much time with our students as we can.