No School!!!

Yesterday I woke up and went to work as usual. I was preparing my lessons for the day at my desk before school started when a parent came in announcing that the government schools had all just announced they were canceling school for the day due to an approaching storm. The news was confirmed by Kelly, and of course the students who were sitting in class all yelled for joy.

It reminded me when growing up on Bainbridge Island there would be a thin layer of snow on the ground and the whole school district would cancel classes much to the delight of me and my classmates.

I hung around the school for another three hours waiting for parents to come back and retrieve their kids. Kari was in especially cankerous mood. He assigned his students who were unfortunately in his class with a board full of homework they were to do at home. "This is ridiculous!" He kept telling me, "It starts to rain a little bit and the minister of education shuts school down all over the island! I'm having all my students write a letter to the ministry of education to voice our outcry! All the Catholic schools are still in session. That is why the Catholic schools will always be superior to government schools!" He went on and on. I couldn't help but laugh at his irritation. In fact I was rather enjoying all the excitement and chaos that an impeding storm brings.

However as all the teachers were waiting for parents, Kari checked his email and found an email from the bishop of the Windwood Islands (off the coast of South America in the Caribbean) who said he would like Kari to come and be ordained in his diocese in December. Kari had been waiting for that letter for months, and he became elated, crying, and praising God. The rest of the day he alternated between trembling with excitement and breathing deep sighs of relief. "My poor kids," he said laughing, "they don't get to enjoy having their teacher in such a good mood! If only they would have been dismissed a couple hours later, they won't have had any homework!"



At around 11am Kari, Mrs. Bailey, and the Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Rolle all went out for an early lunch at the Cricket Club near the beach. (Cricket is still the National Sport of the Bahamas...an ironic legacy from British colonialism.) On nice sunny days the Cricket Club is a wonderful place to sit and sip on a beer and eat a hamburger and look out on the tiny strip of ocean and the cricket field visible from your table.  

I went to work in the Public Library until they shut down the library due to the impeding storm around 4pm. I then relaxed the rest of the afternoon in my apartment, and went out with Kari again at around 8:30 to celebrate the news of his ordination at a little Caribbean bungalow restaurant on the beach.

Throughout the night I could hear spurts of hard rain and strong gusts of wind. This morning I called into school from my doorstep as I looked out on the light rain that was falling in my yard. Kelly said that school had been canceled again because the government school had. Because so many students walk to school, they cancel public schools when there is a big rain storm or when there is flooding. So I've got another day off today!