THE VILLAGE VOICE (2)

VilNews started last month a new series of articles under the heading 'The Village Voice'. The articles

are written by a retired Englishman, David Holliday, who for the past fifteen years has lived with

his wife Migle in the village Lapiai 30 km from Klaipeda. Here comes the second in the row of

David's subtle tales and stories from his life out there – so far off the beaten track ...

A letter from Miss Marple

Dear Ann,

I will send the cheque to my UK bank and then take out the money in Litas here and give it to the Headmistress.  It will go onto the „fund for special treats“.  We have several excursions to the village during the summer season, so this year I already have about another £200 in various currencies which I will also give her.  Over the last few years since we started offering the postcards designed by the children, we have averaged £500 per year which pays for outings and equipment for their use, such as a wide screen TV, DVD player, inflatable swimming pool and toys which they can all use.

There are about twenty children with special needs and they suffer from Downs syndrome, autism, psychological problems and learning difficulties.  These children are divided into small groups and have their own teachers in class and assistant teachers for the rest of the time.

There is another small group who stay in the dormitory during the week and go home at the weekend and for the long holidays.  These are able children who come for difficult or dysfunctional families.  They attend normal school, but need the additional supervision that the school provides.  Although the dormitory is old and rundown, the children are happy and well cared for.

In total the village school has 150 children, which includes the 45 in the dormitory.  Most of the children come from our village, but a large proportion live in the surrounding villages and come in by public transport or our own new school bus, which arrived last year.  Lapiai is sort of “twinned” with Mikoliskiai, which is a village about 5 km for us.  They have the church and the cemetery, whereas we have the school.  I think we got the better deal!

Lapiai village school caters for children up to tenth grade, what we would call secondary school in England.  They then go for further study or vocational training to our nearest town Gargzdai or Klaipeda.

The village school was built ninety years ago and occupied what is now the dormitory.  The main school was built in 1965 and was completely refurbished three years ago.  Sadly, the dormitory was not included in the project and is in a very poor state of repair and difficult to keep warm in the winter.

However, we do have a brilliant Headmistress who is full of energy and ideas.  She is working on a project to create a regional centre for children in need.  As you can imagine at the moment the dormitory fails to meet many of the EU rules and regulations.  The new project will cater for all these requirements.  Lapiai has the advantage of being in a quiet village, but still within 30 minutes reach of Klaipeda and there is plenty of room to expand on the existing site we already have.  But at the moment in this time of national crisis money is tight.  The money we raise from the children’s postcards and donations from people like you is always very welcome, but falls far short of the £500,000 required for a new centre.

But we live in hope and trust in God.  It may take some time, but it will happen.  Our children are at the bottom of the pile.  And for no fault of their own.  We must give them a helping hand and the opportunity to live a normal life.  It is their right.

Thank you for your help Ann.  I shall always remember you as our Miss Marple!

Sincerely yours,

David