If you’ve been following the blog the past few days you know it’s been difficult to say the least. If not you can go here and here to catch up. However, let me fill you in on what happened after yesterdays blog post. I was able to contact the principal and discuss the situation with him. He agreed the student “must go back to school” and said he would call the person in charge at the school (the principal is out of the office until Thursday) to allow the student back to school. I confirmed the conversation with him…the student can return to school that day without his mom going to the school? Yes.
When I was finally able to contact the student he was elated to head back to school and he headed there immediately after he got off the phone with me.
Fast forward a few hours and at 7pm we get a call from the student saying he was kicked off the school compound, by the same person in charge the principal had called, and told to come back tomorrow (which is today) with his mom. He was kicked outside after dark, no phone, no money, no provision for him to get home. The student was able to find a stranger willing to allow him the use of his phone (call us, tell us to call back and hang up so we’ll spend the shilling…which is ok in this instance just an aggravation) and give the student money (which we sent back using a phone to phone money transfer system called mPesa) so the student was able to head home. Let me explain another thing here….boarding schools require students to arrive on campus for school before 5pm because they don’t want the students out after dark but apparently it’s ok for the administration to kick a student out after dark with no help whatsoever.
It was confirmed by another teacher at the school (to the student as he was escorted off the compound) that yes the principal called the in charge person and was told to kick the student out and tell him to come back the next day with his mom…so basically the principal lied directly to me over the phone the previous day. I attempted to call the principal, he didn’t answer my calls. I text him with a request to call the in charge person and allow the student to stay, he never responded to my text.
Now today the student is heading back to school and as of 5pm I haven’t heard if he has been able to stay or not. He visited me this morning and both Chuck and I gave him a pep talk, encouraged him and told him we would be standing behind him whatever occurs next…you just never really know here in Kenya.
We were told the school has done this with other students and depending on the economic state of the parent they will either have the student admit wrong doing, sign a paper and have that in the students permanent record or accept a bribe.
I would love to go on but I’m afraid I will say something I really shouldn’t. I told the student this has definitely been a test for both of us to see how we will represent Christ throughout the ordeal and I admit I have failed miserably. But I continue to trust God and He continues to hold me, even when I fail. Or should I say especially when I fail.