So this last Friday's competencia, our version of a spelling bee, was the culmination of the first third of the school year spent studying and learning new words. Students were required to know how to write a word when given a sign, how to fingerspell a word when given a sign, and the correct sign for a word being fingerspelled to them. Each group of students, grouped together by talent-level, competed for a small prize awarded to the person with the highest cumulative score.
It was a bit of a nerve-wracking experience for me at first. For starters, a student from my class behaving poorly would be a failure in my mind. Although I tried convincing myself that I did my best, my mind refused to co-operate. Don't you hate when it does that?! Also, on the day before the competition, when I had set aside a lot of time for practicing the final list of words, Jairo was sick! But ya know, as it always is, it went much better than expected. Jairo actually did better than Joel, which was a very pleasant surprise (on Jairo's part, that is).
As for Joel, well... Let's just say, he has a bit of a problem with overconfidence. It's a bit comical to watch sometimes. He will confidently boast that he knows ALL the words before a test, declare himself the predestined winner and then totally and completely bomb it. But hey, at least he has the I-think-I-can attitude, right? :) He's a really intelligent individual--he just needs to learn to slow down and make sure sometimes.
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| Jairo digs into his brain for correct sign for P-E-R-R-O (dog). |
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| The winner from my class! Eduardo studied hard and deserved to win. He wasn't perfect, though. Next time he'll do even better! :) |
On Saturday, some of guys went to a public pool place just down the road. It's a bit overgrown and small, but at least it's water! They do have these really cool water slides with a pool at the bottom. They have a red slide that's about 50 feet high with an near vertical drop. And of course, once the rush wears off just sliding down normally, you can go down backwards, or jump out at the top and get a 1 second free fall before you hit the slide again. :)
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| Much fun to be had! |
Starting the past Monday, the Ramos family is now living here to take the place of Nata and Becky while they are in Mexico to help start up a new deaf school there. I, for one, was and still am very excited about them being here. I think they'll make excellent house-parents! I'm sure it's quite a change for them, but they're doing a swell job as far as I can tell.
Not to say that this doesn't present it's challenges. The biggest one is the change in authority for the children. I'm sure I was bad for the substitute teacher, as well, but why do children think a change in authority merits misbehaving just to be sure that the substitute really is capable? You tell me... Anyway, that kinda leads me into the prayer requests:
- Pray HARD for these weeks while Nata and Becky are gone that the children would respect authority, just they are expected to do at other times.
- Pray especially for Silvia, one of the girls that stays here during the week, and a member of Melody's class. She is usually a bit of a handful, even with Nata's here, but ever since Monday, she has been out of control.
- Pray for Andrea, Silvia's dorm mom, and Melody, her teacher. Pray for wisdom and patience.
- Pray for the school in general, that God would protect this school and not let Satan divide, or in any other way, harm the ministry here.
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