The schools opened up again last Monday (the 15th) after two weeks of “government shutdown”. Sounds good, right? Except that this past Friday only 54% of the teachers showed up (in one municipality). ”How horrible!” you may say. I’d agree, except for the fact that only 17% of the kids showed up!

You see, it seems that most of the schools submitted their final grades before the school shutdown on the 1st of May. Plus, they closed out their attendance records. So, there’s no reason at all (except for leaning ) for the kids to attend classes. And since kids aren’t showing up, neither are the teachers.

A week ago kids were “starving” because they couldn’t get their school breakfast and lunch because of the shutdown. Now, a week later, they seem just fine. Kinda ironic, huh?

Oh, and did I forget to mention that everyone who was laid off is going to get paid for the time off–and keep their unemployment checks? (On the hopefully “bright” side, some are saying that if they get a check, it should be taken out of their vacation time, which at least seems more rational.)

It’s idiotic stuff like this that really makes Ev and I question whether raising a family down here is a good idea. If we do, then it would be either (a) private school and American tutors or (b) home schooling (if that’s even possible here). Actually, we could probably home school without a problem, since the concept of truant officers doesn’t appear to have reached the island yet.