Hello.  My name is Troy Rysedorph and this is my 3rd trip to Cerca Carvajal, Haiti.  On the first full day of this visit, right after breakfast, our group of 7 visitors set out to visit all of the classrooms of the Holy Family School.  We were warmly welcomed by the school children who in most cases sung us songs which touched our hearts.  We had three translators with us, Joseph, Laprade, and Fednel--they of course, helped us to understand what the children were singing.  We would thank them for their warm greetings and ask what they were studying.  They answered with the subject, and so we would probe deeper.  We were thrilled to have youngsters working out math problems on the chalkboard and reading passages from their Catholic education class.  We were not the only ones asking the questions.  The students were curious about us, too!  Many students asked about our interests and our purpose in visiting them. One brave soul in the English language class asked me if I knew how to conjugate a verb.  The class got a good laugh when they saw that I was stumped.  They did not know that I am more of a math guy.
In the older grades, some very open discussions broke out.  The students were very curious about the drastic tuition increase that their families had experienced from one year to the next.  The students were curious why they did not have an English Teacher.  The students vocalized their dreams to have a science lab for chemistry and other experiments.  They dream of having a library.  They dream of having more computers in the computer lab.  They asked about scholarships.  We encountered some classrooms without a teacher present--just students diligently doing their work (until we arrived to disrupt and distract.)  All told, we were left with the distinct feeling that the student highly value their educational opportunity and want to make the very most of it.  And even though we were not in a position to promise them any of the things they were dreaming of, we were consistently given boisterous appreciation as we departed for the next classroom.