Life for Kids at JOFC

Kids helping out in the fields - be careful with that knife!

Life for our kids at the JO Fraser Centre (JOFC) is so different from what they’ve experienced before in their lives. Before our time here, it was always a struggle to get the kids out of the door and they wanted us to play with them. My wife read of home schooling families in America where the kids would got out and play in the morning and the mother would call them back at dinner time. “We’ll that’s great from them, but it’s never going to happen with us” I thought to myself.

So it’s hard to believe the change in our kids. They are eager in the mornings to get through their homeschooling as quickly as possible so that they can be outside playing. But why wouldn’t they want to go outside? They can carve swords and bows from bamboo trees, go hunting in the woods with the students, play football (soccer), feeds the pigs, chase the chickens, climb the tamarind tree … there is so much potential for life but sadly the reality of death too.

The kids were looking after an injured chicken for a few days and our elders sobbed when little “chicka” died. “Charcoal” the centre’s dog was run over by a van just outside the centre and it soon died with its neck broken. They watched as one of the centre’s pigs was killed for food. The corn fields were tall and green when we arrived in December but now are but empty hollow stalks.

I’m sure that our kids will remember these days and reminisce as my wife’s family still do when they lived just north of here over 35 years ago.