The royal family
That much-anticipated first kiss!
An insider's glimpse of those reception hijinks
The first picture taken on our honeymoon (as we waited for our flight to Italy, though we did end up walking yesterday's parade route -- how prophetic is that!)
Back to the present day and I should start with last weekend's Easter service, for which we had requested much prayer. It all went off without a hitch, the Sunday School and youth group performed their sections with real finesse (not least the choir!) and, most importantly, the church was packed out, with a few new faces in the congregation who, perhaps for the first time, heard the gospel message explained simply and clearly by the church pastor, Elías. Here's a picture of the choir in full-flow, though it's been grabbed from Facebook so, to paraphrase the great Dr. Emmett Brown, please excuse the crudity of this image.
No bank holiday here, so it was back behind our desks on Monday and largely business as usual. I've found myself at times this week having to deal with mounting frustration over the education system here. You'll be aware that I began teaching English to two classes in a local school a couple of months ago. Well, the school has asked me to assess the class on their progress so that we can grade each pupil. And quite right too.
Except that I've been trying for the best part of a month to finally get this initial exam done and dusted. The month of April has not been one to savour in this regard. A couple of weeks ago we referred to the blockades and strikes that had brought everything to a halt, including education. There went two weeks of classes. Then last week I turn up on the Thursday and half of the class are on the football pitch, having opted to make an early exit before the Good Friday holiday. Not an eyelid batted among the staff.
But this week was a corker. Bolivia, for some reason, has a national obsession with what could politely be described in the developed world as Hallmark Holidays. You know, Day of the Nurse, Day of Friendship, Day of the Child...deary-me, there's doubtless a Day of the Day out there somewhere! Here's an illustration: about a month ago, it was Day of the Health Worker. It turned out to be the quietest day at FT in months, because the public all expected we'd all have the day off!
In a way, I can understand it. Folk round here don't have too much to look forward to, so might as well make the most of these little havens of celebration. Yet I hadn't realised till now that the authorities, too, are totally up for these things too.
So, for example, Day of the Child took place a couple of weeks ago when the strikes were taking place. The school had been due to have a celebration for this particular day, which was understandably cancelled. But we can't let an event of such significance pass us by, so the school's event was re-scheduled for Friday past. This meant that I spent our final revision lesson on Thursday trying to keep a track of the swathes of pupils who had just upped and left to practice a dance they were due to perform the next day. Furthermore, this being the May Day weekend, this coming Tuesday will involve a Day of the Worker celebration (though, I have to say, among the teachers, I haven't met too many of them at this particular school), so, despite the head-teacher's assurances, I'm already anticipating the Tuesday class's exam being half-empty.
It's hard to begrudge the locals the opportunity to celebrate. But what really gets me is the blind subservience to these events at the executive level. Nary a week goes by without some such event severely disrupting classroom education. Now don't get me wrong: I'm not saying by any means that the classroom should be the sole base of learning. But in constantly granting such disruptive importance to these events, I believe the school system here is: a) creating yet another generation of Day-slaves; b) deliberately avoiding hard work; and c) denying children a basic education. And when I see some of the work of my 8th-grade class on Tuesdays, I find the last point hard to deny.
Rant over. But I really wanted to get that off my chest and give readers an insight into the struggles that face anyone who aims to do a good job within the educational system here. We'll leave you with our prayer points for the week.
Prayer
• Keep praying for Amanda's visa (we went yesterday afternoon to check on it but Immigration was closed).
• For patience and grace for Craig as he gets to grips with the school system.
Praise
• For a fantastic Easter Sunday service last weekend, particularly for the visitors who came.
• For the chance to watch the Royal Wedding yesterday -- might seem a strange one, but it was really refreshing for us to get an extended glimpse of home (I can say that for both of us as Amanda's a subject too).
¡Que Dios les bendiga!
Craig & Amanda
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