Hello Friends!
I started this post a while back about school but took a while to post because I wanted to include some pictures. So here goes, enjoy!
School has started and the adventure continues. Actually school is in session only for the international schools as the department of education postponed the beginning of the school year to October. A lot of private schools started functioning this week which is the previous official opening. There is a lot of grumbling about but this is Haiti and it is what it is.
So, about a month ago when the school contacted us for Christian's acceptance letter we were immediately invited to visit the accounting office to settle his tuition bill (of course!). When I asked about the uniforms they told me to go to Acra and I would just ask for Union School uniform and they would take care of me. Acra was right across from the hotel, so one Saturday we went. For those of you who remember the good old days, I was in line at least a dozen long patiently waiting to purchase the fabric. I had no clue who or where I would get the pants made, but I recall someone mentioning they can take care of it at the store. It was nice seeing all the different shades and patterns of fabric being sold and trying to identify which one went with what school. We finally made it to the clerk only to be told that if we wanted ready made uniforms we needed to go to the top floor, but if instead we needed the fabric we could come back down and not wait in line to get it. So up we went on the wooden staircase leading to the kids department.
As a side note, we were in Acra Department store in Pétion-Ville, and it was located in a nice big older house and I was always curious to know exactly how they fit a department store in a house! Well, I got my answer. Without tearing down any walls, they simply used each room of the house for a different department. So the kids department was in a room, the men's in another and the women's in the next,and since the house has really high ceilings merchandise is displayed all the way up the walls. I thought that was pretty clever. Each of the departments has a clerk and to my surprise, ours actually spoke English! Not only that, but he is also a tailor and when none of the sizes fit Christian he just had me place the order with him to make the pants. So two weeks, five phone calls, and 3 postponements later, I received them freshly pressed and dry cleaned.
So now, I had to hunt for the shirts or so I thought until I was reminded that they were sold at the school. Got there placed my order, the PE shirts wouldn't be available until after school started, and they only accept checks! Of course, I did not yet have my checkbooks from Sogebank so I just wrote them a Bank of America check and they were happy with it. Next, the school supplies. Well, since the container was still stuck at the shipping yard along with all of Christian's school supplies I had to repurchase everything. Luckily, we had packed his new backpack, pocket folders, flute and school shoes in the suitcases, so the extra accessories were purchased at Giant supermarket and L'Abeille office supplies. Shopping in Haiti is such an interesting experience! At L'Abeille, which was a small store probably the size of an ice cream parlor, there were at least 6 employees and the merchandise was neatly arranged. However, it probably would have taken me hours to figure out where everything was because nothing was labeled and I didn't know the layout. I was saved by one of the employees who just had me tell her what I was looking for and she got the items for me and even recommended some others I wouldn't have thought about. She was like my own personal shopper! Now, I understand why there were so many employees!
So all in all, Christian was ready for school. I dropped him off the first day and within 5 minutes he was already too busy with some other students to wave goodbye. That was a great sign! So far, he loves his new school. He has made many new friends, has already been invited to two birthday parties (yeah my social life is coming back!), attended a back to school barbecue, completed his first project on the life cycle of frogs, enjoyed the first bake sale of the year, and started his karate lessons. I'm just super happy about the lunch being served at school (full Haitian meal) since I still don't have a maid yet.
By the way, did I mention the government decided to change the traffic patterns all over Port-au-Prince and Petion-Ville to alleviate traffic during school but of course did not put any signs anywhere? Well as you can imagine, yesterday morning was a traffic nightmare. Even the policemen posted at the different intersections did not know where exactly traffic needed to go until someone with a map (because the ciy of PetionVille actually published a map with the changes) showed it to him. Only in Haiti!
Christian's Corner
The first day of school was fun and kind of scary,but my mom signed me up for karate. I made a lot of friends at school, and my best friend's name is Conrad. Everybody at school thinks we're brothers, even the teachers think we're brothers. Trust me if you saw him you would think we're brothers. It's crazy at school. In karate there is my friend Max, in second grade, Leon,in fifth grade, Jack but he quit, and two preschoolers(twin boys) Ryan and Ethan. Jack is a green belt, Max is a a blue belt and so is Leon, the twins and I are white belts and sensai is a black belt. I have 20 kids in my class and one only speaks french,but she is learning English. I'm in french class, beginners french class. That's all from Christian's Corner. :)
