Just last year at this time Sophia was being registered for Chinese first grade. This is an altogether different ball game than Chinese Kindergarten. Chinese Kindergarten is optional and expensive. Elementary school is free and 'public' and to get 'anywhere in life' you have to go to school. The pressure starts at six years old for this culture. And since they only have one child (though this is changing some), they put their all into that child, he/she is the parents' future!
Last year we were in the States and we knew it would be hard to get Soph in. We tried talking to the principle before we left, three months before sign up. He barely acknowledged our existence. He was new then and was instilling lots of new rules. The main one, handed down from the powers that be: NO more bribing. In fact many of those 'powers that be' instilled the death penalty for those found filled with such corruption.
We, of course were not going to bribe, but explain our situation and ask his advice on what to do. We didn't even get that hearing. We had to wait until the time of registration like everyone else. We got together all the documents and had two local friends and our American friend helping out. At that time the line for 'people holding documents from outside this town' started a day early. Our friends paid someone to camp out for us and wait in line. Sophia was number 21 and they only had 20 spots, but because some people missed their role call in the night, Sophia became number 17 and got in! But those who didn't were angry and JS said: "it was almost like a riot!"
This year, deciding that Bella would not do the extra year of Kindergarten (we missed the sign up and didn't want to fight for it) we knew we would have to go through the same thing for her that our friends did for us the year prior. And we knew the lines would start even earlier. David went down 3 days early and sure enough a few people were lingering. A list was forming somewhat but nothing formal. The guards were telling people not to worry, so people went home. But we knew better and so did a few others. David warned one couple that put their name down not to go home. This lady was SO thankful to David later because sure enough they would have lost their spot.
And so the camp out started. One parent kind of took charge and he was perfect for the job, very diplomatic, kind, and trying to help everyone. Even when people got quite angry at him, he kept his cool. Put your name on the list, we will call names every two hours all through the night! David took the first evening, we paid a friend to stay the two nights. David took the first morning and I took the rest of that day. David took the morning shift when sign up would begin.
I know this may seem utterly ridiculous, and I won't go into all of our reasons for working so hard to get her in, but for us it was worth it and Bella was praying hard for this opportunity, she REALLY wants to go to school. And honestly, being with these other parents out there talking for hours, worrying together, re-checking our documents, talking about our kids, etc. it was a valuable time of connecting with the community and feeling 'just like one of them'. This was not unlike my dancing with Bella and her kindergarten class. I didn't love all the practice and the time commitment but in the end I was always glad we participated and made some really good friends.
We did see some angry parents who didn't understand the methodology of what was going on, it all still seemed unfair to them. There were rumors that the school registered some 'danweis' (companies or hospitals where people work) separately and filled up spots for those with 'local' registration. By 8 p.m. the night before the actual sign-up, I was still on duty. The school posted the number of slots remaining:
This is the listing for all schools in our town. 35 slots for the school we were at. We were number 17, we were feeling good. But horrible. There were 110 people in our line! Do the math and figure out how many people were angry. The parent in charge tried to tell the group earlier that they should try to line up at different schools. No one listened to him.
By the next morning, the actual sign-up day, Police had arrived. The asst principle came out and tried to talk to all the folks. They slowly let the 35 people in to sign up, one man got hauled off in hand-cuffs. The 35 who signed up, David included, were reluctant to leave and face the angry parents. But things settled down and finally it was all done. Bella could not have been happier!
We prayed a ton about this whole situation,
and it seems the local school situation for our children is always on
the forefront of our minds and ignites pleas to God for wisdom, protection, and grace. We
really have seen Him answer very specific prayers thus far in this
process with Bella and are thankful.
