Life is short

I was reminded of this while attending an El Salvadoran funeral this past Tuesday...

Let me explain a little bit further. In our church there was a very feeble, old lady named Hermana Rosa (Rosa is her name, with the Spanish "hermana" (sister) as a prefix which is used as a courtesy).

I never heard much from her. Actually, pretty much the only way I knew her name was because I took her to church sometimes when I drove my route to pick up the deaf children. But later last year, she stopped coming because she was just too sick to be able to do almost anything. We would occasionally go and visit as a church, but that was almost all we ever saw of her.

Last Tuesday, after a few years of battling with a bad heart, she finally went to be with Jesus. And it was good that she was finally able to leave. Now she can run, dance, sing, and not have to worry about anything anymore!

And so all of us went to the funeral which, in itself, was a very interesting cultural experience. For most El Salvadoran funerals, the procession is usually done sorta like the Amish do it in Lancaster County. Everyone stays behind the bier, and the whole line moves veeeeeery slowly sometimes walking and sometimes in vehicles. There were about 15 or 20 of us packed into an 11 passenger vehicle going about 2 mph. We were very glad we had air conditioning!

The pickup truck with the casket in the back.

Yeah that's a lot of people in a van!

Once we got to the graveyard, and after stepping over many graves to get to the tiny plot where Hermana Rosa's body was to be buried, we had a short devotional and some songs reminding us of the brevity of life and how we need to make sure we are living correctly right now and not waiting until tomorrow.

During the service I noticed a few strangers beginning to mingle with the crowd whispering, "candy, sweets, snacks... only a quarter". Now THAT was a shocker for me! I have known the market people to be very aggressive with selling fruits, vegetables, etc., but seriously?! At a funeral?! I asked Paty about it later and she said that it's pretty normal. She said that actually they like funerals, because they can usually sell more. (!) Anyway, that incident left me shaking my head, and realizing that there are still quite a few cultural nuances of El Salvador that I don't know about.

All the peddlers eager to sell us anything from sweets to ice cream.

School this week went well. We were blessed to have Christina Beiler come and work for us from close to home (I say close 'cause it's close compared to the distance between home and El Salvador. :) ). Christina arrived in El Salvador on February 2, and stayed at Strong Tower Children's Home for three weeks helping them with cleaning, cooking, and other jobs. She was initially going to stay only a week and come to the deaf school for the rest of her time here, but she did such a good job, that they weren't ready to let her go after a week!

She was still able to be at CICS for 10 days though. Those days came and went very fast! While Christina isn't an expert at ASL or Spanish, she got along pretty well and made a lot of progress while she was here. We were all very glad for her help. Nata said she should get married then move down and live here. :)

This weekend we are all staying at the AMA guest house in San Salvador and hope to go to the beach tomorrow, if everything goes according to plan. Can't wait to go to the beach again!

Thanks so much for all your prayers and support! I've really felt God helping me these days with school. Sometimes it feels overwhelming, but then I have such a wonderful day at school, and I know that God is telling me "just trust Me". Pray that I could do just that!

God bless y'all. 'Till next time!

It was Bethany's birthday on Tuesday! So we bought her a big ice cream
cake and sang happy birthday for her. Happy birthday, Bethany!

Soft pretzels on the menu!

Paty playing Rats with some of the school girls.

Not sure what's going on here.

Trying to teach the children how to walk just on their
hands and feet.

It didn't work out so well. :)

More tricks. Can you close your eyes, spread your arms and then bring
them together and touch your fingertips without looking?

Never one to be left out of a photo opportunity!

One down

As in the first full week of school!

It was a great week, really. A bunch of new things for me, but mostly enjoyable things. Challenging, sure, but nothing God and I couldn't handle.

In fact, I have been very thankful for the way God has helped me many times this week. School is going very smoothly and us staff have been getting along splendidly. Praise God for a lot of answered prayer!

I'm really excited about the rest of this year. Teaching is a lot more work than last year, but the ability to teach the older ones, have intelligent conversations about pretty much anything, and the students' longer attentions spans have made it worth it so far.

Perhaps to the chagrin of my students, I have decided to be fairly hard on them this year. No slacking! :) All of us, myself included, just started memorizing the Sermon on the Mount for Bible class. I'm hoping we'll at least get to the end of Matthew 5. The memorization includes the signs and being able to write it out in Spanish. And they all need to memorize at least 10 vocabulary words each week. Each word misspelled on the test on Fridays needs to written 20 times at home. Am I being cruel? :)

For math, I'm having them memorize all the math facts up to their level in math. Once all four of my students get their speed drills done under a certain time we'll have a party or celebration of some kind!

So why am I doing this? Well, believe it or not, there is actually a method to all my madness. My goal with all this is not just to inflict torture and hardship on my students, but to try to expand their brains. Some of my students, one in particular, just does what he has to in order to get by and I want to try to make it hurt a little when he or any of the others doesn't try his hardest. I keep pounding it into them that it doesn't matter as much where you are in the learning process, but rather the amount of effort you put into it! So when Samuel tells you to do something, you say "ok", or "I'll try". If you say "I can't", have fun running to the fence and back! :)

I did somewhat the same thing with Miguel at the end of last year. He had to have all his words memorized before he was allowed to go play in the evenings. And he did! He eventually learned that if he would quit crying and try instead of whining and moaning and just focus he would finish much faster.

Now at the beginning of this year, we were all amazed at how much Miguel retained from last year. Call me crazy, but I think all that pressure may have expanded his learning capacity. Plus as an added benefit, he now has more fun in school!

So yeah, that's what's been going on. I would love to hear from y'all if you have pointers, tips, or critiques. Some of you have been very helpful already! For some future posts, I hope to share with y'all some things about each of the different classes--how I teach, what I teach, etc. That way you can peek into life at school and (for all you teachers out there) help me out when I'm doing something wrong!

And finally, thank you so much for your support and prayers! God has been working here, and it's due to the prayers of people that love God. Thank you and God bless you!

My class for 2016! Left to right: Teresa, Paola, me, Eduardo, Beatriz

My class schedule translated into English for your convenience. :) I might
have gotten overly ambitious, but I'll see how it goes.

Whoa! Bethany delights young Anthony by making
knots disappear.

Beatriz shows off her balancing ability. Seriously, how do the El Salvadoran
girls do that?

Beatriz is not crying although it looks like it. :) She's laughing at one of
Elmer's stories.

Paty's classroom. Turn around Miguel! :) 

Not sure what's going on here, but it looks like they're planning something.

Refuge from the hot El Salvadoran sun under the big mango tree.

Miguel and I on the very first day of school.

Elmer was so proud of the big bee's nest he found
with lots of honey inside. It was very good, too!

Teresa placing a "crown" of flowers on Paty's head.

*huff* *puff* Almost got him!

"Teacher, I got a splinter!"

Oh rats! (For those of you that don't know, "Rats" is
what this game is called.)

???

Relaxation in current events class.

Joel and I take a break after lunch.

Such nice smiles!

"Joel hit me on the head, and it really hurts!" Liz tries
to console Antony after an accident at recess.

Meet the CICS staff

As promised last time I wrote, here's a rundown of all of us workers at CICS for 2016.

Let the freundschafting begin... :)

Bethany Thompson (USA)

Bethany is the new dorm mom this year. Her main responsibilities are taking care of the girls that stay here during the week, washing and cleaning for those of us that are less skilled in that area, and cooking once a week or so. On top of all that she has been learning as much Spanish and ASL as she can which is actually quite a bunch in this short time. Occasionally, conversations directed at her are met with a blank stare, but usually she knows what's going on. :)

Elmer Montano (El Salvador)

This is Elmer's fourth year working here at CICS, so you could say he knows most of what's going on. He is in charge of the boys that stay here during the week and general maintenance around the CICS property such wacking weeds and fixing stuff that decides to break. He also has the honorary title of "CICS clown". He is very good at making people laugh and does so often. You could say we're all a bit cray-crazy sometimes, but it helps keep us sane. 

Liz Jara (USA)

You might say Liz is an American since she lives there and speaks English, but she is really Paraguayan (Paraguayan American, maybe? :) ). Anyway, Liz is one of three of us teachers. She teaches the two newest students, Antony and Maria, which gives her a chance to learn ASL along with her students. She is still getting the hang of how we do things around school, but she has been doing a great job at it.

Paty Vasquez (El Salvador)

Now that Paty is more familiar with teaching in her second year here at CICS, she has been given the responsibility of teaching the three locos (Miguel, Jairo, and Joel) I had last year. Those three boys will definitely keep her on her toes, but I'm confident that she has strong toes. :) Paty will be a good teacher, I'm sure.

Samuel Stoltzfus (USA)

This is me. If you don't who I am, I included a picture, just in case. :) In my third year here teaching, I'm in charge of the four oldest (Teresa, Eduardo, Paola, and Beatriz), and I'll also help some with transporting the children, translating for them at church, and various other responsibilities.

Verónica Rosales (El Salvador)

The food expert. Verónica has been working here for five years, making her the longest tenured worker. Her responsibility this year is chief belly-filler-upper which takes up a great deal of her time. But she does an excellent job, to which my stomach will gladly testify.

And that's all of us!

There's only six of us this year, because of us having three teachers instead of four like last year. So far we have been getting along splendidly and I don't see any reason why that shouldn't continue.

Pray for us that we could work together as a team this year, for the good of the deaf children, and most of all, for the honor and glory of our Heavenly Father. And also, pray for protection from Satan's efforts to destroy this ministry in any way he can.

Thank you very much for your prayers and support. God bless you!