Adjustment #2: School.

Maria, Jacob and Naomi in their spiffy pink and navy blue CRC uniforms. 

Maria, Jacob and Naomi began attending the CRC school here in Kabala today. While there were mixed reviews from my own children on wearing the pink uniforms, there was uniform nervous excitement (read: some fear and trepidation) about this new beginning. Ella will be joining them at school during the week, offering her gifts as a teacher to support, encourage and mentor classroom teachers. 

If you were wondering:  Yes, they are the only white kids in the school. 

Education is a huge part of the work of the CRC in Sierra Leone's Koinadugu district.  Class sizes in government (and most private) schools are ridiculous (a neighbour boy's report that there are 120 kids in his class is not uncommon), reading comprehension is atrocious (we met Dr. Jo Kuyvenhoven from Calvin College who is here for sabbatical - she has been working both with the Ministry of Education and Kabala CRC school and her word for her test results re: reading comprehension in the country was "catastrophic"), funding and resources are extremely limited and because we are in one of the poorest areas of the world, local folks can't afford education when daily sustenance is at stake.

We are privileged and humbled to have our kids learn with the kids in the CRC school and thankful that their presence does not displace any local folks. The school has class sizes of approximately 30 and has done tremendous work to improve the education standard for the area. It is considered a benchmark in the whole of the country. While the math and language arts are important for us, we aren't too worried about this for our kids (but we don't emphasize this too much to them!): In one sense, the entire trip, and their schooling is one big lesson in Social Studies for us all ...

For an update on the relationship between Surrey Christian School and the CRC School in Kabala, check this out:
http://www.surreychristian.com/about/sierra-leone/kabala-school-projects/
If you are not familiar with the history of the school, click on the history link on the left margin of that page.