School

School in Indonesia can be rather hit-and-miss.  The children may go to school from, say, 7am-9am, then the teacher will say, "Come back at 1pm", when they'll have another couple of hours, or maybe only half hour before being sent home for the rest of the day.  And that's if the teacher turns up at all.
Here at Living Waters, the primary school that has been built accommodates just under 100 students, and currently caters for grades 1-3.  Next year grade 4 will be added.  The teachers have been sponsored by Rivers of Life Ministries to do their four years of teacher training, with the arrangement that they will repay that by six years of teaching here at Living Waters.  That's a year and a half for each year of training.  They get food and board here, plus some pay.  The pay is less than a teaching job elsewhere, but having their living expenses covered more than makes up for it.  Unfortunately, they don't always recognize that, and because of a shortage of leaders, many are also house parents (so they have the kids practically 24/7), so it is not uncommon for a teacher to up and leave, in spite of the training 'deal'.  We need more leaders/house parents, and faithful teachers.

There will eventually be four schools at Living Waters.  An upper primary school, and intermediate, and a high school.  The high schoolers currently travel into Nanga Pinoh by bus (50 minutes to cover 17kms), leaving at 6:30am (they have their breakfast at 5am, before prayer meeting).  I think their school beings at 7:30am.  They return for lunch, then join the afternoon work force here.  They seem to have several different uniforms, for different days of the week.  I've seen them in blue and white, and brown and orange.  I'll be watching more carefully next week.  The rest of the students travel into Manggala, which is only a couple of kilometers away.  They leave on buses about 7am, but I'm not sure if they get back for lunch or if they are the ones who get back at 3pm.  It's still a bit confusing for me.
There is space cleared for the upper primary school.  It will take about two years to complete, and it will be needed in two years' time, so it's high priority - along with several other buildings... but so far it has not been begun.  I don't know if there is even a floor plan for it yet.  I do know that it will cater for 200 students.

Lots of the children who come here haven't had any, or very little, education.  Quite a few have to go into a catch-up class.  That is a very challenging class to teach, because they are all different ages and at slightly different stages.  They spend a year in that class, and the aim is simply to teach them as much as possible to get them reasonably close to their age-related grade.  However, many work a grade or two behind that.  It doesn't seem to worry the children, though.  They highly value education, and generally count it a privilege, especially as many families cannot afford it.  Part of the mission here is to provide free, reliable education.