Enabling

Today was the first normal (ish) day of school since the “Great Quake” as the media here are calling it. But how has the quake affected KISC? And what has been our role in it?

The damage in the hall

Within hours of the quake striking 9 days ago photos appeared on Facebook of the school hall. The back wall was down and the rubble had come nearly a third of the way down the hall. Apart from this, a cracked staircase in a small, lesser used building, and the ubiquitous fallen chimney stack, the school had survived pretty much intact, an appearance confirmed by a day spent with architects and engineers last Monday.

But what about the staff and the students? Last Thursday we called a staff meeting for those able to attend, and most staff did, although some weren’t able to because they were directly involved in the aid or relief work, or they were busy helping their families or dealing with homes that were destroyed or severely damaged. In fact, about a dozen members of staff, all Nepali staff, and their families either had their home destroyed or it is too damaged to live in. Those who were able to attend heard from a psychologist trained in dealing with family trauma and then we shared our stories together.

Then on Friday we had a short, special program, including a short assembly, time for students to spend with their class teachers in the primary, and their form teachers in the secondary, and time for games and activities, and just hanging out.  Today saw the restart of more normal classes, although Primary students are on a half day for this week, and for all students it’s optional, to allow them to integrate back gently and build up energy. Tomorrow (5 May) our Year 11-13 students start their IGCSE and A level examinations. Unsurprisingly they are finding studying hard at this time.

Special Assembly on Friday, on the basketball court
that days before had been a campsite for many

As we considered when to restart school there was the constant worry of, will it make a difference, is it too soon, too late, too normal, too different. Shouldn’t we be out there making a real difference? But then over the weekend one teacher shared this on Facebook “I keep telling [my husband], "we aren't helping enough... We need to do more." But this is a time to trust the body of believers and the many organizations and we can all work together. Tomorrow, I will have my students back in the classroom for a half day. I need to focus on teaching them and know that [my husband] along with many others will continue to work to reach the villagers.”

Another teacher said to Becky that they had been wanting to do more, and ended up at a meeting of several aid and development workers. They quickly realised that this was outside of their skill set, but that their skills were teaching. They looked round the room and realised that several of people there had children in her class. They knew the best thing they could do to help was to get back in the classroom and support their children through this time enabling the relief work to

continue.

This has always been our goal as a couple, to be at KISC to enable all the work that is going on to develop Nepal. Never has it been so important, never has it had the potential to impact this nation so much. 

A reminder, that if you would like to give to the relief effort, we recommend our organisation BMS World Mission's own disaster relief fund.