We had “winter break” from July 26 – August 6, then started classes again Monday August 7. But not all schools started classes again….

Here at Refugio, we continued with classes normally, but for the rest of the public schools in the city, they all decided to join the teachers strike that had been occurring in Lima….So they began their own strike here. The strike continues to today, so they are now in their 4th week of the strike. The poor students of those schools are going to have to have classes for an entire extra month to make up these lost classes….

The main issues of the strike were/are 2 things – higher pay and concern for motivation behind teacher evaluations. The first issue has been resolved and the teachers will be receiving higher salaries!!! But the second issue continues to be unresolved.

As possibly the only public school in Pucallpa not striking, the strike has had a secondary effect on us here at Refugio:

• We’ve had lower attendance overall because parents thought we were striking too.

• We’ve had to instruct the students and staff to NOT come to school in uniform for their own safety in case individuals involved in the strike see them on their way to school ad cause them trouble.

• We’ve been threatened to have our school painted yellow because we aren’t participating in the strike.

The biggest change the strike has caused the staff here is that we were just informed yesterday that the teacher’s retreat scheduled for the week of Sept 10th in Lima has been cancelled…less than 2 weeks from the scheduled retreat….

Many of us have already purchased our flights, etc., we’ve already ordered our uniforms, and we already had a fundraiser scheduled for today that we couldn’t cancel last minute… So we are all deciding what we are going to do. It will still be a week off of classes, but now we have the time completely free!

I already bought my ticket to Lima, so I’m going to Lima for the week to enjoy time with friends, etc. But this has caused some frustration for many of the teachers.

Please pray that the strike issues are resolved soon and that everything can continue in peace.

#Peru #missions #provision #peru