The start of the school year

Assembly at La Hoya school

The DR is not a country that plans ahead well, but they do a good job of being flexible, thinking on their feet, and solving problems while under pressure.

For many years, the school in La Hoya has taught in two “tandas.” Tandas are sessions, so teaching in two tandas means that some students come in the mornings and others in the afternoon.  This is done when there isn’t enough space in the school for all of the students to be there at one time.

There’s been an initiative recently for all schools in the Dominican Republic to switch to a single tanda, or all students studying all day, from 8-3:30.  At this point, 70% of public school students study in a single tanda.  Bombita school has been single tanda for awhile, but La Hoya had two tandas until this year. The community of La Hoya has been pushing for single tanda, vehemently enough that just one week before school started the director (principal of the school) decided it was time to switch over.

There are, of course, many obstacles to this.  First and foremost is the issue of space, which prevented La Hoya from being single tanda earlier.  For all of last year, the school was under construction to make it earthquake safe, and the students met in churches around town.  Despite an entire year of being under construction, however, and the knowledge that the government was requiring schools to switch over to single tanda, the engineer still did not design the school with enough classrooms.  And so it was that, on the Saturday before teachers came back on Monday, I found myself with the COPA school board, standing in the community center in town, trying to figure out if we could hold classes there.  The roof had holes, there were no doors, and, worst of all, there was no bathroom.  We spent at least an hour discussing what would need be done, but in the end decided it was too much to accomplish in one week.  Instead, they decided to get a couple of mobile classrooms, which could take anywhere from 1 month to ??? to put in, and in the meantime use the library, art classroom and a church to make enough classrooms.

In addition to not having enough space, they don’t have enough furniture.  As of the 1^st day of classes for kids, I overheard the director wondering if Bombita school had some extra chairs that they could use.  For now, some students are sitting on broken chairs while others use tables instead of desks.

The day before teachers got their paychecks, the director asked me to write a letter to the man in charge of finances for COPA to ask to increase the pay for teachers who would now be teaching full day instead of half day.  Thankfully, I didn’t send the email that day, because he remembered someone else who needed their salary increased that evening.  So I sent the email asking for increased pay the day that he had to pay them.  Of course, this wasn’t enough time for the decision to be made and a reply to be sent, so he said we would just give them their old salary this month and then increase it if we got approval next month.

One big issue with having a single tanda is the need for lunch.  The DR doesn’t have a culture of packing sack lunches, so the kids either need to eat in a school cafeteria or at home.  Because the school doesn’t have a kitchen, or cafeteria, the decision was made to send the kids home for lunch, at least until the government pays to put in a cafeteria.  Unfortunately, if the kids are sent home for lunch, many of them will probably not come back to school in the afternoon.  So, the decision was made to put “nonessential” classes, such as art, PE, and the like in the afternoon so that if kids don’t come back after lunch they won’t be missing reading, writing and math.

After several weeks, we found a company who will supply ready-to-eat food to the school, so we’re now serving lunch and the schedule has been completely rearranged so that “non-essential” classes are mixed throughout the day.  The students still had to bring their own plates and utensils for eating, though.

In general, I’ve noticed that people in the DR tend to operate under the assumption that things are going to go wrong, so just wait until they do go wrong, and then fix them.  Sometimes, it feels like you’re in a constant state of emergency, running from one problem to another.  But Dominicans are incredibly flexible and laid back, so even an “emergency” can take quite a few days to resolve itself.  People might not be particularly organized, but they’re also not stressed or anxious, and in general people tend to live by the Bible verse, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)