The Great Records Search

One of the things that we noticed here in the fall was that many of the older kids were not in school, and just hung around all day.  When I asked about that, I learned that the kids cannot enroll in school without their records (birth certificate, testing done at previous schools, etc.) and that while DIF (Mexican Children’s Services) is happy to drop kids off here, the papers can be months behind the child. So until the papers are tracked down, no school.  This month, a couple of the staff members have been working on getting everyone enrolled in school. A few days ago, I asked if we could accompany them to get some records, just to see the process. Here is how our day went.  

Gabe was doing something else, so the kids and I piled in the van with Wendi and Sunny.  We headed first to a school in Rosarito.  To move on from each level of school, you have to pass a bunch of tests.  So one girl had finished secundaria (junior high), but did not have records of all of her tests, so she took a few of the tests last October.  For some reason, she had never gotten those results, so we wanted to check and see if she had passed or failed, so she knows what test to take next.  We were told we could only go to the school on Thursdays and Saturdays, so we went on Thursday. We arrived at 11 am. and were told that we had to come back at 3 p.m. as the right person was not there. 

We did a few other errands, including picking up a birth certificate for a different girl. You have to get the birth certificate in the city where you were born, so in some cases, that means finding a contact in another city or part of the country who is willing to go get the certificate. You go on one day and request it and pay, and have to go back three days later to pick it up. We picked this one up without any problem.   We also passed by the DIF office and I took a picture, although we did not go in.  DIF is similar to children’s services in the US in that there are not enough caseworkers, so everything takes forever!  However, unlike the US, here, DIF does not give any financial help to the orphanages who are caring for the kids.  They just give you the kids ! Hence, the fundraising we do, as this place is totally funded by donations. 

We ended up having some extra time, so we had to stop by Dairy Queen 🙂 Notice Aliya has the same size cone as the adults!?!  She ate it all too! 

We went back to the school, but still had 15 minutes til 3.  We had to go to the bathroom, so they sent us around back where there was a freestanding bathroom. We paid the attendant 5 pesos each (about 40 cents) and she was quite generous with the amount of toilet paper she gave us! 

Turned out there was a free museum (one room) right behind us, so we went ahead and learned about the history of Rosarito until it was time to go back to the school.

This time, the teacher was there. She at first had no records, but after a few phone calls and some record checking, she finally found the record of one of the tests, and the girl failed. There is no record of her even taking the other test. So basically, she will need to take both of those tests plus a few more. Once she passes those, she can move on to high school.

This took us most of the day, working on papers for two kids.  I can see why it takes a while to get everyone taken care of, but I am so glad they did it.  Starting next week, I think all the older kids here who are not in regular school will be attending “adult school”, where they have tutors who help them to study and pass whichever tests they need to take before high school.

The other option which we talked about is finding vocational programs for kids who have difficulty with academics but could learn another trade.  These schools exist, but cost more.  For example, there is one 18 year old boy who struggles with basic reading.  He always came to our English class at the very end, when we were doing review games (with candy prizes).  I gave him a hard time that he only wanted the candy.  We were talking about him in the van, and Aliya said, “Mom, I think he only came at the end because he was too embarrassed that he couldn’t read, so he didn’t want to come for the other part.”  Uh, yeah. How did she get so smart? I am sure she is right! But hopefully we can encourage him to go to the adult school and learn enough reading to function in life.  And then hopefully he can be trained in something else, perhaps construction.

A couple of other girls are going to start a nail technician program, so that is another good option. I wrote a blog post for TCM trying to find someone to pay for those girls to go through the program. 

I wish my Spanish was better so I could actually help teach the kids, but I will settle for  raising funds for the vocational style programs and just generally encouraging the staff and kids not to give up on their education!   Have I mentioned how happy I am that it is being addressed?  Education is a good thing.