To put it simply, figuring out the school situation for Naomi and Isaac was very time consuming and felt like it took forever. This was especially so when I found out after our first visit to Green Hills Academy that Isaac would not be allowed to be in the 11th grade. Granted, I had made a lot of assumptions back in September without confirming them with the school. I knew I was being over-optimistic that "everything was set". Probably I just didn't have the strength to continue the arduous emailing and phone calling required to learn and confirm anything about the schools in Kigali.
So on Nov. 10, the day before what I thought would be Isaac and Naomi's first day of school, we learned that my assumption was wrong that Isaac would be allowed to join the 11th grade of this International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum "mid year". I had made this assumption because a family member had recently been allowed to join an IB high school in Germany for her 12th grade year. She told me she was allowed to do this as an exception because she didn't require an official IB certificate at graduation. Guess what -- Rwanda is different than Germany!
Long story short, Green Hills' principal said he could not risk any precedent of students being allowed to start the intense 11th-12th grade 'block' of studies mid-stream. In other words, the problem was we were arriving in the middle of the school year, not at the beginning (in August). So the only solution was to have Isaac enroll in the 10th grade (even though he just completed that grade in the US.) I checked with Isaac's counselor in Ann Arbor, and she said she can still transfer the credits and Isaac will still be able to graduate on time (in June 2017) in the US system.
So Naomi had her first day at Green Hills Academy (GHA) on Nov. 12, and on Friday, Nov. 13, we had things straightened out enough that both kids could start!
[Author: Ruth Ann]
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| Morning drop-off on Isaac's first day: Isaac, Naomi and Mom... all happy to finally have things worked out to go to Green Hills. |
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| Bad photo of Isaac in his homeroom class. There is a tuft of blond hair if you look closely! |
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| The amazing line-up of Toyota Land Cruisers at pick-up time at the end of the school-day! |
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| End of first day for Isaac -- day 2 for Naomi! |
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| The following week we even got the custom bus pick-up and drop-off arranged! (Critical, when you don't have a car.) |
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