Good News & Bad News

Let's share the good news first...

The boys' tutoring lessons are going so well!! Good enough that their teachers have taken notice. They both had failing grades before, but now are slowly improving. They went through the letters this week and both only missed 2! Yoandi has come huge strides since last week, and Andi is maintaining all that he learned. They went through sounds like:

ca co ci ce cu
do di de du da
fi fu fa fo fe
cho cha chu che chi

which they did well with. Lastly, they wrote sentences about themselves (ex. My name is Yoandi, I like sports, I have 1 brother and 1 sister) to work on spelling and handwriting. Andi's handwriting is quite neat, but Yoandi's is messier and he often blends words together. Andi is often nervous answering questions, not wanting to answer incorrectly and have his younger brother know the answer and not him, but so far he has been doing better than Yoandi (to his happiness).

This week they were more motivated than usual, and were encouraging and cheering each other on, which makes me proud. Yoandi told Caitlin (their tutor) a secret; that they buy candles and study at night secretly when they are supposed to be in bed!

Now, the bad news...

Colegio San Jose, the private school I intended on enrolling all three kids, will not accept Andi. He is 16 years old, and in grade 5, and they don't want a child this old in their grade 5 class. They are not sure about Yoandi yet (11, grade 3) and are going to let us know soon after they decide. They will accept Andrielis.

On Monday the kids went to the school to inquire about enrollment for September. When they told Andi they wouldn't accept him, he got teary, and Andrielis told me he later cried, and so did his Mom. It breaks my heart. I think this unleashed a lot of insecurities in both Andi and Sonia that they had previously been hiding, but are now forced to talk about.

After the meeting at the school, Sonia began blaming Andi; it is his fault he is so old and in such a young grade- he never studies, he is disruptive, he doesn't listen, etc. Andi, in turn, blamed his mom. When he was age 8 and living with his father in the capital, Andrielis was sent to school while he was sent to shoe shine. He blames Sonia for not interfering. Sonia, in turn, responded that Andi doesn't have respect for her and doesn't know what it is like to be a single mom. Her relatinship with the kids' father was an abusive one, and life at that time (when Andi wasn't in school) was difficult for them all. Additionally, Sonia's mom couldn't read or write, and discouraged Sonia from going to school. They have a Mom who encourages them, but she feels like Andi isn't grateful. She threatened to send him to his father's family's city (his father is now dead) to work in the rice fields if he doesn't work harder.

It was quite emotional for the both of them, as they are at a point where Andi is getting older, but opportunities are more difficult for him because he is "slow". They both wanted to blame the other. Caitlin talked to them about respect, and about learning from the past, and learning from his father's mistakes, and not becoming his father. She told Andi he has to learn that his parents aren't perfect, that they make mistakes, but to focus on the future and to move forward from here. Andi was really receptive to this, and in the lesson with Caitlin afterwards, he was extra-motivated and worked really hard.

We are looking into other colegios (private schools) that may accept him. If worse comes to worse, we will keep him where he is, and increase the number of lessons he has weekly with Caitlin (if the funding comes in), but I still have hope that we can get him into a colegio.