Well, Eddie and Greta left last night. In the few days leading up to their depature, I not so secretly kind of wanted to leave with them. It seemed like it was the thing I should be doing and also, it felt a little lonely anticipating the rest of this journey on my own. But I reminded myself that I was just fine before they arrived, and I will be just fine when the go. And there are still a few things to accomplish in my remaining time. As the Zion Train (Pastor's truck) pulled away with Eddie and Greta, Vivianne (the housekeeper who turned out to be related to Eddie!) and I stood on the front porch waiving, me feeling like I live here just as much as anywhere else.
It has been really important that we all be together here. Conversations, events, observations were great to have together and debrief together. I love sitting around the table talking about how we can help when it seems like an impossible task. But I have probably said all that already. I do fluctuate about whether or not I could live here, mostly leaning toward heck no! The heat and humidity are too much for me! Mostly I feel like I am melting and the Liberians just keep commenting on how hot I look. And not in the good looking way.
Today, Hawa and Pastor and I drove what felt like forever to Bridges of Hope School in Bensonville. I connected with Hope International through high school friends - the US organization is of all places, based in my hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota. It is an impressive compound with I am sure over 10 acres. There are multiple small buildigs as it started as an orphange and changed to a school. The houses now serve as teacher's lodging as the school is quite remote. Elijah, the principal, introduced us to twin girls who walk round trip 3 hours and 45 minutes a day AND their grandmother walks them to and from and goes home in between! The school has been open for 16 years and tuition is still free to students. They pay a registration fee along with a uniform fee. It won't be that way forever but for now, as the area is not developed, they have to draw families in. Elijah was talking about the issues still being the same, children come to school with no food and sometimes no shoes. And they do what they can.
It is an interesting point to me and one I have heard about funding in my other school visits. You have to start with lower tuition and get kids in seats. And then when they start doing well, passing national exams, and going on to other schools, the word gets out. But it the short term (ummm...16 years and counting?) tuition is less or free. It is interesting because I am continually considering what does it look like to help vs enable vs create entitlement. There has to be some investment on the family's part or they won't show. It is worth nothing to them even though free tuition is a generous gift. But that is the same everywhere, right? A price tag indicates worth and paying it means commitment.
We are currently supplementing the teacher salary at CMA. In case you missed it, we raised funds in December for this and some administrative start up costs on the States side. In our agreement with CMA however, it is clearly stated that we will only pay the supplemental amount and that CMA must continue paying what they had been paying. This is $33/month/teacher in case you are curious. And with our generous donors, we are able to double their monthly salary this year and funded that for the next school year as well. It just can't be a total reliance on donors and really, a handout to put it a little harsher.
It is all a work in progress and like Bridges of Hope, we are doing our best day to day with what we have to help without hurting.