"I want to go to school!"

The beginning of the school year is always hectic. Except here "the beginning" continues for weeks as students filter in day after day and need to be processed before getting their textbooks and going to class. The silver lining on this frustrating way of starting a year is that it gives me a better opportunity to touch base with each student, especially the new ones coming in.

Though that can be heartbreaking. Today a young girl, probably 13, come to the office alone. She sat across from me and said, "Please help me. I want to go to school, but my parents say they can't afford it." She did well in her standard 8 exams and probably got selected to go to a boarding school with impossible fees. I gave her our fee structure, emphasising the monthly payments once she was admitted and had bought her uniform and supplies.

Friday, it was one of last year's Form 1 (Grade 9) students who came to talk to me. Tears flowed down her face as she told me she wouldn't be coming back to Form 2 (Grade 10). In 2007 she was impregnated by a college man and had to drop out of school. I took her in several months after her baby boy was born in January last year. She repeated Form 1, and in spite of having to go home early to care for her baby and her two younger brothers, she did really well.

However the baby was being cared for during school hours by an aunt who is unable to care for him this year. The student's mom (widow?) is a nurse who can't afford both school fees and a maid (baby-sitter). So she will have to wait until the boy grows up and can go to "free" primary school, and then maybe she can continue her education.

All the time she's telling me this, the tears keep running into the kleenexes...

This afternoon it was a father, brought by a friend, desperate for a school for his daughter who is devastated that she can't go to high school. Maybe he will be able to find enough extended family who aren't already over-extended themselves to get her in. Then will come the monthly struggle to find fees. Some just can't do it, don't have it, and eventually their bill is so big I have to send them away permanently.

Add, "Give Gloria grace and wisdom" to your prayers!

On a more positive note - today I had 10 students in my Form 1 Art class! Only 26 left for God to bring in. Thanks for praying. :-)