Don't all jump at once!

Thanks to an awesome program I have the chance to help sponsor five children at my school. That’s great, isn’t it? In theory it is! Unfortunately my school is road blocking the endeavor. On March 10th I found out about the Tuition Assistance Program and immediately informed my counterpart and supervisor. They both seemed as eager and interested as I was. Well here it is May 5th and absolutely nothing has been done despite my asking for school records every single day since March 10th (minus March 21 through April 7th while I was away). The applications are due May 7th and when I informed my counterpart today that I was not going to be able to sponsor the students he seemed surprised and told me not to give up. Had I not been totally annoyed I might have believed that there was a way we could still get these applications completed and down to Maseru by four on Friday.

It’s so frustrating because I know there are way more than five children at my school who could use the support. If these grants covered tuition maybe there would be money for them to eat. I feel like my school basically turned away free money. The students were going to be responsible for everything on the application. ALL someone at my school had to do was open a filing cabinet and determine which “needy” student finished in the top 33% percent of their class in the 2009 fiscal year. How hard could that have possible been? No matter how disorganized the cabinet was I can’t imagine this task would have taken longer than an hour. Normally I have nothing except positive things to say about the Basotho, not today. The laziness put me in a sour mood. I can only do so much or nothing at all without any assistance.