And now, back to the hecticity... (Google, stop telling me that's not a word!)
In these last couple of weeks, we've had four different sets of visitors include John and Kate Lapp and family who were here to visit for an afternoon. They had stayed with the Ramos family for a week, but came over on a Friday to participate in our afternoon devotions with the children. I got to introduce them and show them around. After devotions, I traveled with Loncho's and John's to the nearby town of Suchitoto to eat. It was great fun! Thanks so much for coming John and Kate!
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| Wow, who is that taaalll guy? :) Everyone pauses for a quick pic before starting to eat. Thanks waitress for operating the camera! |
There are more visitors coming in the future, the most important ones for me including... (drumroll, please) MY PARENTS! Dad, Mom, and Katelyn are coming on the 24th of June and staying until July 2. Needless to say, I have the heebeejeebees! (a type of illness akin to having mariposas en su estomago) Don't you love it when you look up a definition, only to need to look up more words 'cause you didn't understand it? :) Anyway, so I'm excited. It's the first time flying for everyone coming down, so barring them getting on the wrong airplane or missing a flight, I expect to post pictures later on of their stay here. I really doubt there'll be a hitch though, because Dad is super organized and usually has his ducks in a row.
This coming weekend from Thursday to Saturday we are having a youth retreat here at CICS where all the youth from different Mennonite churches come for a time of sermons and activities. I'm looking forward to meeting new friends and reconnecting with a few people I already know a little. Loncho Ramos will be in charge here over that time since Nata won't be here due to a trip to the States. And speaking of people leaving...
Matthias recently found out that his visa won't permit him to be here even until August vacation due to some paperwork issues. So he's going to the states for a little bit to be with some of his married siblings. I was drafted to be the chauffeur, so I'll be busy for awhile transporting people to and from the airport, including my parents, which will be no problem for me! :)
This past week, my youth group was on singing tour to the southern United States (SC, GA, TN, etc.) Seeing all the pictures of my friends being posted on Facebook, make me a bit homesick for awhile. But that was soon taken care of! On Saturday, I was given the opportunity to Skype with a whole bunch of different people from my youth group on the tour bus, using James Weaver's phone. That filled the void for a little bit! Seriously, it was just glorious hearing all those voices and seeing faces that I hadn't encountered in a while. Wow, now that I see that last sentence, I realize how much I'm sounding like the female variety, but hey it's the truth! What I just said is the truth... not that I'm a girl... cause... I'm definitely not and believe me, I know!
While on Skype on the bus, I got to hear the "meet your minister" Q&A session with Nate Bange, the minister that was along on tour with his family. And get this, I even spoke on the mic(!) with the assistance of Lyndon Beiler who held the phone up to it. I said a few words. People clapped. I felt special. Thanks everyone, you're the best! It was the closest thing to being on tour without actually going. And I will continue praying for y'all.
School here is going well. We are getting close to having our second competencia which means two-thirds of the year is already over. I can hardly believe it. Joel, my 8 year old, has been the one doing the best in the last while. He is catching up to Eduardo in math and language. For a while I had been keeping him back a bit so that he could be on the same level as Jairo, but after a while I saw that it wasn't going to work. I'm trying to push all my students as much as I can without hurrying, and it's working wonders with Joel. I've also been trying some new things to make class more interesting. Jairo still doesn't always know his word order and he is bored with fill-in-the-blanks, so I started using dice. He rolls the dice, counts the number of dots, and writes down the number that comes next (or before). It strengthens his counting and makes it fun for him as well. He loves it!
I've also used dice for spelling practice for Joel and Eduardo since they're are learning the same words. I give them each a dice and five popsicle sticks and then we play a form of "horse". Whoever rolls the highest dice has to spell the given word. If there's a mistake a stick gets taken away. The winner is the one who survives the longest. That's been working pretty well, also.
Sometimes for spelling, I wasn't sure if my students were just lazy and not studying, so I started making them write a word maybe 10 times in their book if they make a mistake. That has helped them to remember words better, and it also given them a motivator to do better on tests and quizzes. I've found out that there's almost never a time when a child can't learn something. You just need to get creative and you will find a way!
Another more sobering development that has just come up in school is the regression of stealing for two of the older boys. This had been a previous problem for both Carlos and José, but we hoped it had gone away. They both know better and we don't quite know what to do about it. Pray for them that they would seriously think about this and where they are with God during these next weeks. Pray that God would engineer a miracle and transform their hearts from the inside out. We can punish all we want, but only God can change the heart.
Last Thursday, also for school, everyone went to the zoo for the day and then mall and picnic lunch afterwards. For many of these children, this was the first time being at a zoo or at a mall. My one charge, Joel, was pretty much dragging me all over the place the whole day. Oooooh look at the tiger!--oh wow, there's an alligator over there!--please can I go see the monkeys now! And all the while, Eduardo was patiently at my heels, like the calm, cool, and collected guy that he is. :)
As I said, for many of these students this was their first time such establishments. So when we arrived at the mall, we went straight to the escalators and had a glorious time going up and right back down. Up. Down. Up. Down. Shrieks of laughter. What fun! Some of them were a bit afraid and would only go with someone else. No doubt we were looked at strangely by a number of people, but who cares, right? We also took a ride on a one-story elevator. Joel, I think, saw his life flashing before his eyes. :)
As for other random bits... We now have a new-and-improved fart and burp rating system around here. It's a simple 1-10 scale, but oh the competition! (Of which I'm not a part of I might add, being the self-righteous person that I am. I'm much too polite to burp or fart in public!) Elmer, in order to amplify, will quickly rush over to a door, plant his butt firmly against it, and let it rip! It's all fun and games until he happens to do something like that in front of a visitor, which actually happened. He was mortified and terrified and promptly went on his knees to ask for forgiveness--it was hilarious!
Prayer Requests:
- Pray for Carlos and José, not just that they would quit stealing, but rather that God would change them from the inside out. Also pray for the rest of the students in this manner.
- Pray for Silvia. She still has a lot of issues. Pray for Andrea and Melody as well as they try to teach her a better way to express herself other than getting angry and fighting.
- Pray for all the travelers in the next couple weeks.
- Pray for us teachers and staff, that we would be able to exemplify Christ to our students, besides just teaching about math, language, and science.
- Pray for this weekend's youth retreat.
- Praise God that Beatriz is able to continue coming to school, in spite of her dad being drunk. Also pray for her dad that he could become a Christian.
- Praise God that school is going well.
That's it for today. Thanks so much for reading and for your support! God bless you all! If you would like to contact me, check out the right sidebar.
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| Me doing my job! |
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| Joel peers intently through the chain link pen housing a tiger. |
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| Ride 'em cowboys! |
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| While everyone else stops to rest for a little, Elmer tries to mimic a monkey's actions in tree a little bit away. Left to right: Nata, Elmer, Miguel, José |
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| Resting for a spell... Front to back: Eduardo, Mauricio, Beatriz, Teresa, Melody, Verónica, Ana, Mary, Andrea. |
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| Jairo and Joel excitedly motion the boat closer, seemingly forgetting about the laws of physics. |
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| We didn't put a coin into the machine, but it's still fun to ride it! Left to right: Mauricio, Eduardo, Jairo, Joel |
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