School uniforms

Today we handed out the school uniform shirts. In Haiti, uniforms are a BIG deal and kids are very proud to wear their uniforms. They love to show off that they are able to go to school and sometimes they like to show off what school they go to since each school has a different uniform and they are quite distinct. In fact sometimes I wonder if there is a contest between the schools to have the most interesting uniform. Before school starts the students must go to their school and pick up a small peice of paper with a picture drawn on it and sample pieces of material attached. They then need to go to a seamstress and have the uniform made. It's sort of expensive and they can't go to school if it's not correct. I also recently discovered that many schools specify what colour shoes the students must wear as well what colour ribbons girls wear in their hair. The students at my old school would die if they heard that.
At our school we do it a bit differently. The students recieve two uniform shirts for free and they are responsible to provide their own jean pants or skirt. We chose the boring colour of grey because it doesn't fade and therefore looks nice all year long. The teachers would much prefer a brighter colour though:) We had our school crest embrodered on, it looks really good and the students proudly wear their shirts.
Tomorrow we have a meeting with all the parents to go over the school rules and have them meet their child's teacher. Hopefully we have a good turn out.