Dirty From Dirt

For children and adults alike, the arrival of any Friday is very much anticipated. The last Friday in May was not an ordinary day; it was a day of celebration for the school children of the Institution Chretienne de Sous-Rigole (ICS). It was certainly a beautiful day to celebrate. Each student had spent many months caring for their tree, and the time had arrived to have a field trip: They were about to have their own Journée Verte, meaning Green Day, when each student gets to plant his or her own tree.

 Teachers have helped organize the event. They provided a bountiful source of encouragement to the kids and to each other because they have fully devoted themselves to the cause of replanting the country.

Two young men, John Jacobson Etienne, IT technician and Wood Vilnéat, elementary teacher, proudly wear their Cadeau Vert T-shirt to show their support as they volunteer as collaborators for the work of Cadeau Vert in the area.  They are from the local community but have been part of the work of ICS de Sous-Rigole since 2019.

 The school’s administrator, Madame Gina Pierre-Louis, along with the other leaders, had decided that the school children would wear their uniforms during their first Journée Verte. That decision to wear the uniform was deliberate to captivate the attention of the whole community. Lime green and yellow shirts for all the children; grey pants for the boys and pleated grey skirts for the girls. Since their Journée Verte happened on a Friday, it would be expected for their uniforms to get dirty - a good way of being dirty: dirty from dirt, while planting a tree. 

Indeed, it was quite a pleasant surprise for the schoolchildren walking in single file, somewhat chaotic, under the guidance of the school leaders, each carrying their tree.  They paraded out of the campus of ICS into the main road outside the large campus gate.

From the top of their lungs, they were singing energetically their Journée Verte theme song:

“I am planting a tree, I am planting a tree, so my country can move forward!”

This time the students were not singing in a classroom setting; they were marching with determination to contribute to the wellbeing of their own surroundings.