School Heavies

The word heavy is a very versatile Pidgin word (although it's spelled hevi in that language). It refers to just about any difficulty you can encounter from illness to a car breakdown to a broken relationship. As such, it's a good word to describe the situation with our Christian school at the moment.

 

As I think I mentioned a few weeks ago, we had to expel some students for their conduct over the summer months. One of the student's parents has taken it very hard and is causing numerous difficulties. First, he is trying to say that we don't actually own the land on which the school is built. He says that when a previous missionary bought the land, he actually bought a different plot of land and paid a different individual. (Land ownership is always a challenge to figure out here.) When this man brought the problem to the missionary's attention, the missionary suggested that he and this other man work it out. The two land owners worked out a deal that when we purchased the land for the airstrip, we would pay the owner of the school land (who just happens to be the upset dad's father) for the purchase of the land owned by the man who was originally paid for the school land. (If you follow all that, you deserve a prize.) At any rate, the man who was originally paid has since died, and his son either didn't know about the deal or didn't want to mention it, so we paid him for his airstrip land, not this other family. So the first "heavy" of this student's father is that he wants to be paid for the school land.

 

His second "heavy" is that he wants 800 kina compensation from us for expelling his son from school. 800 kina would be around $300 and "compensation" is the PNG equivalent of suing for "pain and suffering." Of course, we cannot pay him as it would set a terrible precedent and defeat the purpose of the punishment altogether. Unfortunately, this man claims to be a believer which makes his behavior all the more difficult.

 

Until this situation is worked out (the timing of which is anyone's guess), we will be holding school at the duplex where Tiffany and I live. We have converted both of our living/dining room areas into school rooms. My house has 3 2-person desk and Tiffany's (as the main classroom) has 6. It gives a whole new meaning to the term "home school."

 

Please pray that school will go well (starting October 19th) and that the students will continue to learn well despite the new surroundings.