Trajedy

On Monday we had a teacher's work day.  We met with all the teachers, gave workshops on active learning, talked about how everything was going, and enjoyed spending a day together.  It was a wonderful day of talking, learning, enjoying each other and growing as a school.  I arrived on Tuesday, re-energized and excited about the work I was doing.  And then we heard the news.

Juhenny, a little girl in our 4-year-old preschool class died the night before.  She had asthma and had been in the hospital over the weekend.  They did bring her back on Monday, but they couldn't save her.  Her two-year-old sister is a student at our school as well and also suffers from asthma.

I heard this news about two minutes before I had to teach my first English class.  As I was teaching my class, the other teachers at the new school building were all finding out.  Several of the teachers left to go to the family's house.  I needed to help take care of the classes of the teachers who had left so I didn't allow myself to think about it and I tried to distance myself from it because when you are standing in front of 30 children who don't understand what is going on, you have to keep it together. 

At noon, when all of the morning students were leaving, I found out that school would  be cancelled for the afternoon classes due to the fact that her burial would be at 3.  Eddy had to tell me this several times before I understood because in my mind I couldn't understand that if she died last night that she could possibly be buried today.  It was at this point that it all hit me.

This child of four years arrived every day with her dad and her little sister.  He was always very protective of them both and carried them up to their classrooms.  He is actually one of the few fathers that I know because he was here every morning.  Both of the girls have struggled with asthma and other complications and when the hurricane passed it made our weather crazy.  The temperature was rising and falling 20 or 30 degrees in a few hours time.  Everyone was feeling the effects of it, and for this child with asthma, it put her in the hospital.  I have been told that she had other complications, but I still can't help but believe that if this child had access to better health care that she might still be alive.  On top of the fact that this family lost their child, they needed to bury her in less than a day.  The family couldn't afford to treat the body.  Their child died on monday night, on tuesday morning her body was brought to their house for the funeral.  She was meant to be buried that morning at 11, but the family needed more time so she was buried at 3 pm instead.  Less than a day since she had died.  That is so fast.  It is too fast.  And it was necessary because of their financial situation. This fact hit me like a ton of bricks and in that moment my heart broke for this family and the tears started and didn't stop for several hours.  Not because it effected me directly, I did know Juhenny and she probably knew me too, but this wasn't my trajedy.  The tears were a result of the knowlege that what this family was going through might have been prevented if they were in a different situation.  I felt so helpless.  I also felt guilty because if I had a child who was sick, I would have the option of going to the US for medical help but this child didn't have that opportunity.

Juhenny's family are not Christians.  Juhenny, however had been in our school for two years and had been taught about Christ's love.  I was told that when she was in the hospital she was singing Christian songs that she had learned at our school.  Our focus now to figure out how we can best help this family.  Their grief is beyond what any of us can imagine but we want them to know that we are here for them and we want to share God's love with them.  We are all praying for this family and some have plans to counsel them as well. Our prayer is that God will give us wisdom and show us how to help them.  Please join us in these prayers.