School Bus Reflection
SeaStar Services
I was driving a friend’s daughter to school this morning, and stopped for a school bus. Traffic built up a bit, as we watched the twenty or so children who had been waiting at the bus stop, board. Drivers were patient as we waited for one more parent and child to rush down the hill to join the others to get on for their ride to school.
I flashbacked to my first trip to Haiti. It was six months after the earthquake in 2010. In Leogane, the majority of buildings; homes and shops; had been destroyed, and there were piles of concrete, bricks, and rubble bordering the streets, which were cracked and full of huge potholes. As my colleague Marjorie and I toured the devastation, we were silent as our Haitian partner Fritz slowly maneuvered around the potholes.
I wondered how the people could continue. Because there they were, now living in homemade tents of all kinds of materials. Cooking, washing clothes in tubs, walking to and fro. Many smiled and waved as we passed by. I wasn’t sure that I would be so resilient. I wasn’t sure that my privileged upbringing, in a land that met all my needs, would enable me to be a survivor like these. How would I fare if I had lost everything with no government agency to help me? How would I make it without the many opportunities the United States has in place? With all their issues, what if there was no FEMA, no Red Cross, no Human Services, no Salvation Army? How would I make it?
But those are the facts of Haiti in 2010. No government aid to the crisis. No infrastructure – no garbage pickup, few hospitals and doctors; relief pouring in from world organizations, but not enough to reach everyone.
While I watched the children board their government sponsored, free school bus this morning, I remembered the school children in Haiti back then. We saw many who were walking to school that day. They were the ones who were still able to afford the $33.00 per year tuition. They were in their school uniforms, freshly pressed, girls with hair braided with brightly colored ribbons; boys with smooth hair cuts, book bags on their backs. They walked along, stepping and sometimes climbing over the mountains of cement and falling bricks, headed to school, which was quite a distance away. They were on a mission. They were determined to make the most of the day in the best way they could – getting to school to receive an education that would make a difference in their lives.
There was no school bus to pick them up. I would learn later that while they had money for tuition, often times their families did not have money for lunch, and there was no free school lunch available. When we were able to visit a school on a trip in 2015, we saw more than 30 children in each classroom, sometimes two grades in the same room, divided by a curtain. The children sat at wooden desks and chairs or benches. The teacher had a small desk of his/her own, in the corner of the room. There was a chalkboard in the front of the class, and as we walked around the building, there was only the sound of the teachers’ voices. The children were quiet, listening, writing, and paying attention. With very few supplies, one notebook and workbook per child, the tone of each classroom was of respect, commitment, and an obvious seriousness about their study. With our privilege in the United States, a lesson can be learned about appreciating what we have available to us.
It’s easy for some of us to take things for granted in America. Public, free school (even with all of the problems we face with public education), transportation for the children, free breakfast and lunch programs, free textbooks. We are fortunate, blessed and privileged to live in a society that affords our children the basic need of education. With that blessing, how can we ignore the plight of other children who are in such need?
On our last fact-finding trip, we learned that there are 26 children in the community we support, Barriere Jeudi, outside of Leogane, who cannot afford the tuition, and were not in school. Twenty-six families do not have $33.00 to pay for a year’s tuition. Most of us are not wealthy in American terms, but most of us can afford to help a child go to school in Haiti. Please visit our donations page, and contribute at least $33.00 to afford one student a year’s worth of education.