Volume 2: Knocking on Heaven's Door Chapter 45 Only Honor on Paper Required
At the Theodore Joshua Airport on St. Vincent, which has only one runway, Tommy Hawke walked out of the airport with a travel bag on his back, accompanied by Ottilia, Dennis and Pam.
"I didn't expect that for a ticket price of 125 yuan, I could enjoy a charter flight service. It's just that the service attitude is a bit poor and the plane model is too old." Ottilia said as she walked.
The fact that she, who has such excellent character and upbringing, could even complain out loud shows how bad the service on this cheap flight is.
Tommy Hawke looked at the capital of the country in front of him, and said in a weak voice: "I am afraid that even the oldest models are much newer than the capital in front of us. I once thought it was small, but apparently my imagination was still insufficient."
Pam, who had been holding up the camera, slowly put it down as she saw the scene clearly. She said to Tommy Hawke, "I think it's best not to take a long-range photo of the capital of this country and put it in the publicity. Tommy, this city is not even half the size of Warwick. If we put a long-range photo on it, people will think we are taking photos in the countryside of Warwick."
"The travel brochure in my hand says that Kingston has only 12,000 people. If I remember correctly, Warwick, which is mocked by Boston as a rural city, has a population of 80,000." Dennis looked at Kingston in front of him and said in a vague voice, "I feel that the parks I went to last time were bigger than this one."
"You remember correctly, the total population of this country is less than 90,000." Tommy Hawke said, "But this is the only official country recognized by the United Nations that we have found that is willing to exchange culture with us and is inexpensive. If we don't choose this place, we can only go to Africa."
The airport is right next to Kingston. The capital of Saint Vincent and Grenada is right in front of the four people. It looks like a small town surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea. The town has British-style buildings with red bricks and white stones. Fishing boats and cargo ships are floating on the blue sea.
This white city or town is surrounded by lush forests. From a distance, it looks like a pearl lost on the seashore.
"Excuse me, are you Miss Ottilia Farrell, Mr. Tommy Hawke, Mr. Dennis Herbers, or Ms. Pam Marvell?" A black woman, about 26 or 27 years old, walked over from the parking lot in the distance and asked in standard fluent English.
Otilia nodded, extended her hand, and responded with a friendly smile: "Hello, I am Otilia Farrell, the instructor of the CSLS program at Lincoln High School in Warwick, USA."
"I'm Susan Ryan, the principal of Thomas Sanders Middle School and the chief education officer of the city of Kingston." The black woman named Susan smiled and shook hands with Otilia, introducing herself: "We talked on the phone before, Miss Farrell."
"Hello, Ms. Susan Ryan, Tommy Hawke, the initiator of the CSLS program." Tommy Hawke took the initiative to introduce himself to the other party.
"I'm very happy to see that students from other countries are willing to come to St. Vincent for exchange studies. This plan is very good, Mr. Tommy Hawke." Susan shook hands with Tommy.
After shaking hands and introducing the four people, Susan took them to the parking lot. There were only a few old British or American cars parked in the empty parking lot . Susan opened a bright blue old JEEP and motioned for the four people to get in.
"This country has just gained independence for three years, and many people are still not used to it, so development is a bit slow. In addition, when independence came, the British vacated many positions that were previously inaccessible to locals, and left without any guidance. We had to figure out our own work. For example, I was still studying at a university in the UK three years ago, but was suddenly called back to become the principal of the only secondary school in the country, the city's chief education director, and a teacher of many courses. In fact, I prefer studying, but there is no way, the country needs us. There are less than 30 people in this country who have studied abroad and have been to university." Susan started the car while introducing the situation in the country.
"Ms. Ryan, how many students are there at Thomas Sanders Middle School?" Tommy Hawke didn't care about the country and asked directly about the school.
Susan thought for a moment and said, "If I remember correctly, there are 113 students in the whole school."
"Write it down in your notebook, Dennis." Tommy reminded Dennis quietly in the back seat, and then continued to ask, "What sports are the students in your school good at?"
"Cricket. English cricket is very popular in the Caribbean. There are also track and field events, such as short-distance running, middle-distance running, etc. You American students can compete with them." Susan smiled and said to Tommy Hawke, "Due to the venue and the current situation, the school cannot encourage students to participate in other sports with complicated rules."
Tommy continued to whisper to Dennis who was writing furiously, "OK, write this down, Dennis, don't include these competitive sports in summer camp activities, replace them with other activities, such as table tennis, fencing, etc."
Otilia, who was sitting in the passenger seat and heard Tommy's words, turned her head, gave Tommy a dissatisfied frown, and reminded him in a low voice: "Tommy? Your words are very rude."
Tommy Hawke made an apologetic expression and continued to ask, "Excuse me, are chess activities popular here, Principal Ryan?"
"There's a serious shortage of teachers here, so of course there's no time to develop other interests." Susan said with a smile, as if she didn't hear Tommy and Dennis's whispered conversation in the back seat.
"Add to that various competitions that American students are good at, such as chess, checkers, flying chess, etc., and I guarantee they will get good rankings." Tommy Hawke reminded Dennis with shining eyes.
"But the country strives to provide the best resources to schools, because we know that knowledge and young people can make this country better . We now provide clean and tidy campuses, school uniforms for children, and clean drinking water... Here we are, that's our campus. If it weren't for the sake of showing respect, you can actually reach the school from the airport in fifteen minutes on foot." Susan Ryan turned her head and pointed to the building in front of the left to several people.
The people in the car looked in the direction of the sound and saw a three-story building that was very conspicuous among the single-story buildings.
After parking the car on the roadside, Susan led a few people into the middle school. Not to mention compared with Lincoln High School, the environment here is even much smaller than Sinclair Elementary School where Tommy's aunt Melonie works.
A simply leveled piece of land is the playground, a row of bungalows is the principal's office, and all other classrooms and activity rooms are concentrated in the three-story building.
At this time, a group of black high school students with happy faces were happily playing a cricket game on the dusty sports field. Seeing the appearance of several white people at this time, they all showed surprised expressions and stopped what they were doing, but did not approach to watch rudely. Instead, they stood where they were and responded to several people with polite smiles.
Susan Ryan accompanied Ottilia towards her office, but Tommy and the other two stayed where they were, observing the middle school.
"I don't think anyone would want to spend their summer camp in a place like this, Tommy. It's terrible here." Pam said, holding a camera that she hadn't used since landing.
Tommy Hawke took a deep breath. "Those high school students who pay the fees need shiny materials on paper. In order to get into prestigious schools and have a dazzling resume, they have to accept this reality. I guarantee that all American universities have never heard of this country, and they don't know that the high schools in this country can be so bad. So just act according to the plan. Dennis, go to this village... go to the capital of this country to find the best hotel and find out the best price for group check-in. Pam, take some beautiful photos of this country to use as promotional materials. I'll go to the campus here to check the chess and sports equipment that need to be prepared, and then after counting, call back to Lincoln High School to see if we can borrow them for free for a while. Speed up, we only have two days here, and after understanding the general situation, we need to go back and do a lot of preparation work."
"American news has been saying that armed riots often occur in black countries. Are you sure that won't happen here?" Dennis looked around this seemingly peaceful mini city full of black people, swallowed his saliva, and said nervously, "To be honest, this is the first time I've been in a place with so many black people. I don't feel good to be surrounded by so many black people."
Tommy nodded. "Of course, I promise it's safe here. The crime rate in St. Vincent is many times lower than that of the former colonial master, the United Kingdom. This is not Africa with famine, nor is it the United States with poor public security. This country has no army. The most powerful armed forces in the country are 170 police officers and 200 reserve militiamen who can only be deployed when the country encounters a major crisis. Let's put it this way, if our summer camp is carried out, we only need to carry weapons and ammunition from any gun store in the United States to land in St. Vincent and we can easily occupy this country."
