When two men barged into Sherrie Fausey's school a few months after the Jan. 12 quake and demanded all the food in the pantry, she calmly said no. The men threatened to kill her."That's really sad," the 62-year-old said, matter-of-factly. "Because I'm going to heaven and you're going to prison."
The men ran away.
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That's the kind of attitude -- maybe it's brash American optimism -- that has paid off for Fausey, a retired schoolteacher from Jacksonville, Fla. Her Christian school in Haiti was destroyed in the earthquake in January, and one child was killed. But she has rebuilt and kept the school going.
Like everything else in post-earthquake Haiti -- removing rubble, rebuilding government offices, putting people to work -- the reconstruction of the education system is moving at a snail's pace. So in the meantime, it's up to private school owners like Fausey and other aid groups to improvise.
In 1999, Fausey retired from the Jacksonville school system and came to Haiti on a weeklong mission trip. Her only son was grown, and she sold her house in Florida to return to Haiti the same year. She didn't speak Creole, or French, but she wasn't concerned. God, she said, had told her to open a school.
While most Haitian schools ran from 8 a.m. to noon, Fausey kept her kids in class from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., like in the U.S.
"I don't know what we would do without Miss Sherrie," said Jacqueline Auguste, a single mother whose three kids attend school there. Auguste said her kids probably wouldn't be able to attend school at all without Fausey -- and now, her 14-year-old son speaks English, French, Spanish and Creole.
Donations pay for breakfast, lunch, uniforms and salaries. Fausey's early-retirement check buys books. Parents pay $1.25 a year to send their child to the school.
Classes weren't in session at Fausey's Christian Light Mission school when the earthquake struck Jan. 12. Only Fausey and the orphans were in the building.
She moved the orphans, the staff and the school's four tawny guard dogs to a half-constructed building across the street, and everyone slept in tents. Nobody wanted to return inside.
Fausey started school Jan. 18, five days after the quake. Classes were held in a tent.
Fausey, a Baptist, is driven by her faith. She credits the Lord for helping her through the past seven months -- but also her teachers and the volunteers. And she says she believes God will guide to her the necessary money and manpower to expand the school.
Source: Tamara Lush, The Associated Press
