Home stretch

Whoosh! There went three more months!

Two weeks ago, we held our second spelling competition of the year. Each trimester, we plan out a list of vocabulary words for our students to learn for the competition. All of my students that were present did very well, although I was surprised at the final result. Teresa, usually the most accurate speller, made two mistakes which put her in third place this time, behind Paola and Beatriz.

Paola and Beatriz both worked very hard on memorizing the words and did very well. All it took was one mistake from Beatriz to put her in second place since Paola finished without a single one.

I mentioned that all my students that were present did great. Well, Eduardo wasn't present. His excuse was sickness, which I'm still skeptical about. Sadly, you can't always believe what students say or even what parents claim about their own children.

When Eduardo was sick the first time, I didn't think much about it. But then it happened again and again. Excuse? Sickness/coughing. However it was mighty convenient that it also just happened to be test week. School isn't the easiest for Eduardo, and instead of doing what's necessary to learn, he would much rather go the easy route of not learning at all!

The week following the spelling competition--the first week of August--was vacation week! Ahhh... a week of mornings with no electronic machinery getting me up with it's much-too-loud *beep* *beep* *beep*. (Can you tell I don't like heeding alarms?) :)

During vacation, there were only a few of us here at CICS. Nata had gone stateside to bring back cars to fix up. Everyone that could (Paty, Verónica, David) went home to be with family. Which left us three Americanos and Zulma who has been staying with us for a while now, while her grandparents are in the states for a visit.

So what did I do with all that free time? I would like to tell you I used every single moment doing something productive, but I didn't. And you know, I don't seem to regret it that much. :) I did get a lot of things done, though, make no mistake. My to-do list shrank considerably, for one. I gave my school room a good cleaning, fixed a hole in the trampoline, etc. And I made and ate a lot of french fries!

But I was glad by the time it was over. I had been looking forward to vacation, but then I was anxious to see the smiling faces of my students again.

Please pray for me these last couple weeks (about 10). Satan is very good at making me feel like I can't do teach well, or that I should just coast until October when I can go home again. I want to stand up and do the best job I possibly can and make the last weeks of this year count!

One night we all decided to color for a while. It was really relaxing, and it
is one of the few things that can keep Miguel quite and interested for over
five minutes. :)

My students saw my finished page and wanted to do
the same, so we had a coloring class.

Giving and receiving back rubs.

Trampoline is back! Everyone was excited to exercise in a novel way.

Joel practicing that front flip...

And Miguel now wanting to be outdone.

Something interesting is happening on Bethany's laptop.
Not sure what, though.

Who can pick up the most sticks?
(a certain way of course)

Everyone was excited to meet our newest staff member,
Rocky. (It's a dog) :)

Are you daddy?

Cliffton, the self proclaimed protector of Rocky. :)

I know it doesn't look like it, but Miguel is sleeping
in this picture. Just couldn't stay awake in
church anymore. :)

Hit that one dead, Zulma! When Zulma hits an insect with a fly swatter, it's
not dead straight away, even though its insides are spattered all
over the place. It's not dead until the insides inside those insides are
splattered all over the place. :)

Welcoming new staff

This news isn't quite new anymore, but I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce y'all to not one, but two, new staff members!

But first, a bit of background...

Last month wasn't the easiest for anyone here. Staff issues are never fun, and this one was a bit more painful yet, because of having to say goodbye to one of the current workers. I'm not going to go into details, but due to some things that were taking place among us staff, it was decided that Elmer would no longer be able to work at CICS. He wasn't the only one at fault, but the committee agreed that it would be better if Elmer would take a break from working here.

So that left a substantial void among us that wasn't easy to adjust to. Elmer had been responsible for maintenance and taking care of the boys that stayed here overnight (just Miguel this year). But thankfully, by the next week we already had a replacement! 

Since July, David Glick had been staying here Monday to Wednesday to teach English at a nearby mission school. Naturally, since he stayed here several days, he started picking up sign language and interacting with us in our work with the deaf. All of this made him a good candidate to also help work here at CICS, which he agreed to do. 

David helping Miguel build a parachute from an
old umbrella during a break from work.

David had his work cut out for him, especially with Miguel. Small children, and especially small children like Miguel, do not adapt well to changes. For Miguel, new authority is a new challenge. It's like the substitute-teacher syndrome. How much can I get away with until the new person notices and/or does something about it? I'm sure Miguel doesn't actively think that, but that's what it seems like sometimes.

So it hasn't always been easy. In fact, I would venture to say it has been more hard than easy for David. But he does well and gives it all he has. By now Miguel has calmed down and learned that when papa says do this, then you better obey and do that or there definitely will be undesirable consequences. And as it is with teaching sometimes, I think Miguel is teaching David as much or more than vice versa.

As for me, I'm glad for a companion again. Don't get me wrong, girls are nice and all, but having someone like me to talk to is great! 

Pray for David and his new responsibilities. He needs lots of wisdom and strength to do the right thing even when it isn't always the most desirable.

Pray for all of us staff as we adapt and attempt to finish out the year having done our best!

...

Did I say two new staff? Let see, David and ...

Oh yes, how could I have forgotten?!

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Rocky! And please, don't ask what kind it is. I asked, and all I got was aguacatero. Not completely sure what that means, but I'm guessing it doesn't mean purebred.

Joel spending some quality time with his new friend, Rocky.

Familiar friends

Last week I was able to enjoy the presence of my first visitors of the year!

Shawn and Ivan arrived at CICS in the first hour (yes, just after midnight) of Friday, July 5 and stayed until the following Thursday night. I was a little tired doing the driving late at night both times, but it was worth it!

And lest you think a week is too little time to get much done, let me tell you about what all we did in those six short days!

We had work lined up for them before they came, but since they came so early on Friday, we had mercy and let them sleep in. :) Later that morning, they came out to school then for a short visit. They got to see a bit of my classroom and the students.

Then on Friday afternoon, we headed to the guest house in San Salvador ready for a long weekend of relaxation! After arriving at the guest house, we went in search of some "restaurant ". Shawn was adamant that there be no "American" restaurants included in the search. He wanted to "experience" a good El Salvadoran restaurant. Unfortunately, I didn't really know of any good El Salvadoran restaurants, so we decided on the next best thing--a fancy China Wok. It wasn't El Salvadoran, but at least it wasn't American!

The next day we packed up again and headed to the beach where we spend a few hours splashing around in the surf, getting sand in our shorts, and eating. Yes, we packed snacks and were we ever glad we did!

At noon, we had enough of the Pacific, so we headed to another sightseeing spot, the volcano El Boqueron. We spent some time viewing the crater and then headed a bit further down to a coffee shop and a nice restaurant that has arguably the best pupusas in El Salvador. From that point on, Ivan and Shawn were hooked on them.

A little boy offered to take our picture. His dad told him he should keep one
so he could sell it for a lot of money. :)

View of the crater and two nice gentlemen. 

Enjoying a snack at the coffee shop with the city of
San Salvador in the background.

Then came the what-do-we-do-now time. In the end we decided to go to a fancy mall, La Gran Vía, and ended the day by getting a snack at *gasp* at McDonalds. (Shawn was converted after seeing how much nicer they are here. And it is a fact.)

'Cause who doesn't like minions?

The outside area of La Gran Vía.

The rest of their time here was spent mostly working in the forenoons while I was in school, and then exploring in the afternoons with me. During those times exploring, we rode a few packed buses (ask Shawn and Ivan about them!), ate at pupuserías and other restaurants, bartered for hammocks, and did a lot of walking.

Helping Elmer spread gravel on the driveway.

Oh, no he's taking a picture. I gotta make it look like I'm working hard!

Shawn swinging a machete. And let me tell you, you didn't want to get
anywhere close to the hurricane of destruction that was Shawn!

And when the time came to leave, we enjoyed a final hurrah, by again eating at that China Wok one last time before leaving for the airport.

I really enjoyed having Shawn and Ivan come. It was great seeing my friends again and perhaps gave me even a bit more homesickness. They sweated a lot while they were here and greatly blessed us with all their hard work. And for me they brought a bunch of gifts including bacon, candy, and waaaay more oreo cookies than I'll ever eat by myself because "they were a good deal at Sharp Shopper". :)

Thank you so much for all your prayer and support in various ways! I feel super blessed to have friends like you. Again, thank you. I don't even know who all to thank always, so if you read this, consider yourself thanked!

Pray for Eduardo

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about Eduardo, the young man above. He is super nice and rarely gets riled up. Pretty much everything he does is done in a matter-of-fact way. We are pretty good friends in school and I try to encourage him as much as I can, even though he often would rather give up instead of study.

But he needs Jesus just the way the rest of us do.

Eduardo is approaching a point of his life where he needs to start making decisions that will affect the rest of his life. But he is very passive and seems to be content to just let things ride and see where they lead.

Some of his passivity may come from his insecurity about himself. He is an intelligent student, but he is terrified of making mistakes. This could be due to his age (15) even though he is only coming to school for about four years now. There are younger students who know about as much as he does.

Eduardo knows about God. He has heard about Him pretty much every day since he has started school. We pray and talk about scripture in class. Some of his classmates have accepted Christ. He knows about all that.

But it isn't personal.

Like I said, Eduardo needs to start making some decisions soon, where he wants too or not. And there are a lot of bad influences around him that he could easily follow. I may have said this before, but sometimes it feels like everything is stacked against these deaf youth. Many of their families could not fully support a Christian (and by Christian, I do NOT exclusively mean Mennonite) lifestyle which makes it very hard for them decide to follow Jesus.

I feel inadequate to be a mentor for this young man, but I feel like God has placed me here for a reason. I want to do the best I can.

So pray for Eduardo. Passivity is one of the devil's best tools and I'm afraid of what could happen to Eduardo should he not stand up and make hard decisions. Pray that Eduardo could begin understand his insurmountable value to God, even if he feels pretty small sometimes. Pray that God would keep "knocking at his door" as the Bible puts it.

And pray for me. I am a flawed human being. However, I desire to live so that Christ could be glorified, and if God can use me to provide a means of mentoring and providing an example to Eduardo, I will endeavor to fulfill that responsibility to the best of my ability.

Down and up

This week was rough. Let me just put that out there right away. But it did end well, and for that I thank God! Now I have a nice weekend to get ready for another school week.

But let me tell you a bit about what happened.

It all started today in math class. It was test day. Of course, with tests it's always better to focus and think hard in order to finish confidently. But that was not to be.

Paola and Beatriz have always had this problem with cheating. I have reminded them again and again with varying success. Anyway, I saw them signing again while they were supposed to be doing their tests, but whenever I looked their way they just looked at me innocently.

I asked them what they were doing and of course I was told it was just random conversation. I knew better (why hide your signing if it's normal conversation?), but I decided to let it go and let them finish their tests. Plus that would give me some time to think and ask God about what to do.

As class went on, they began to finish their tests after which I told them to study. Teresa was the only one still working. She had been working hard the entire time. Eduardo, Beatriz, and Paola (now finished with their tests) began talking and laughing even though I had told them to focus on their studying.

Then Teresa started acting strangely. She couldn’t focus on her work and she was doing awfully on her test. I figured maybe it was because she knew what was going on. But I didn’t ask her about it until break time. She said nothing was going on, and that she didn’t want to talk to anyone.

Finally school was out and I asked Teresa again what was the matter. Still nothing. I asked her about Paola and Beatriz and she said she had seen it too. Of course, I told her I wouldn’t tell anyone she told me that. Then I called in Paola and Beatriz separately and they both admitted they had cheated. Beatriz had been asking Paola for test answers, which Paola had been furnishing when I wasn't looking.

So I told them that because they had cheated, and because I had warned them before, their punishments would be, among other things, getting a score of zero for their tests. I also wrote a note explaining what had happened for their parents (Bethany in Beatriz's case) to read.

As for Eduardo, I told him he had been disrespectful for talking and laughing when I had asked him not to. Another punishment for him, which he understood and accepted.

I decided to ask Paola and Beatriz further why they had cheated. I asked Beatriz if she was afraid to make mistakes. She admitted that yes she thought I might be mad if she gets a lot of mistakes. That was pretty hard to swallow on my part. I had wanted them to get good grades, but it had not been my intention to make them be so terrified of making mistakes!

And Paola confirmed what I thought might have been happening in her case. Paola has always wanted to be friends with Beatriz and Teresa, but she never seems to be able to fit in. Paola sometimes feels like an outcast, and will do whatever is necessary to garner favor from either of those two girls. So when Beatriz asked her for help, she thought this might be her chance to make Beatriz like her for a while.

I explained to Paola, that although her intentions were good, helping someone cheat is just as bad as cheating yourself. Beatriz is responsible for her own work and needs to think on her own.

Anyway, that was my day pretty much in ruins. The day ended on that sour note. And up until they left, some of the girls were still angry and hadn't accepted the consequences for their actions.

...

The next day was not much better. Although Beatriz had repented and was trying to be happy, Teresa and Paola came to school angry and would hardly crack a smile all morning. I had hoped that a new day would erase the previous one's griefs, but unfortunately that didn't happen.

However, I wasn't about to let any of that stop me. I was determined to be happy regardless!

First period: gone. Still no change.

Then at recess I talked with my fellow teachers about what had happened. They advised me to deal with the anger issue head on. I really did not want to, and I resisted the idea for a while, but I decided they were right.

So I called a meeting and told Teresa and Paola very clearly, that this behavior could not continue. Their anger was not just ruining their day, but also everyone else's. I explained that while it might be feel good for a while to be angry and ignore others to get revenge, that type of behavior is a mistake.

I asked Paola how it felt when others ignored her, and if she was really sure she wanted to inflict that kind of pain on others.

I advised Teresa to really think about what she was doing. Was it God or satan that she was giving space to when she harbored ill will in her heart? I also told her that since, she is the oldest of the girls, she bears the brunt of the responsibility, since the others learn from and copy her behavior.

...

Looking back, my fellow teachers were very wise indeed. The girls owned up to their mistakes and tried to improve, leading up until today which was such a good day! We had more tests, but this time they tried their best and left it at that. Such a huge difference in their attitudes!

I should probably close my epistle soon, but maybe just a little bit more: please pray for wisdom for this inexperienced teacher! I may know sign language, but there is so much more to learn. I want the best for all my students and I hope I may be able in some small way to help them on their way to Christ. It really hurts that someday I'll have to leave them and it's hard to think about it, but I want to do what I can for them while I'm here.

Also pray for my students: Teresa, Eduardo, Beatriz, and Paola. They are not young anymore and some of them have yet to make a commitment to follow Christ. Pray for them and that they could make good decisions and heed the Father's voice.

My Sunday School class at church. Left to right: Maria, Teresa, Paola,
Eduardo, Mauricio, Kevin, Elmer, Verónica, Ana, Zulma

Let's see how far we can run up the tree. I won. :)

Miguel gets a much needed clip.

Nice shoes, Miguel! And the color is just...

Miguel "ironing". You can see by Verónica's expression,
that he probably still has much to learn. :)

Today's art class focused on shading and drawing curves.

Paola gives my Rubik's cube a go.

Back again

Hello there!

Yes, yes I know... It's been a while.

Anyway, life has been going fairly well here. Time keeps flying by as usual. I'm sitting here right now listening to the wonderful sound of raindrops pummeling the tin roof above me. Grass is getting greener now and it's the start of my favorite El Salvador season--the rainy one!

The last two weekends (when I usually write updates) I was at the guest house in San Salvador. It was really nice being able to take it easy for a few days.

But getting back to school related news--last weekend we had the first of the thrice-annual spelling competitions. My students all did well and some of them even surprised me with their final scores. Paola had been getting in excess of 20 words wrong on her tests, and according to my rule, she had to write each one 20 times, equaling a total of 400 words or sometimes more. But a few weeks prior to the competition, I guess she decided the situation was serious enough to put in extra studying. When test day came, Paola only had three words wrong. I was stunned! (But now I know she can learn faster than she lets on!)

For the competition, all of the girls were fairly close. Teresa won with a perfect score in the written exam and the spelling competition. Paola was second with only one mistake in each part, and Beatriz was third with a perfect exam, but two mistakes in the spelling competition. Standing up in front of everyone and spelling words makes her really nervous. I think she might have won if it hadn't been for that. Eduardo also did well, but hopefully he'll do better next time!

We've had a few visitors these past weeks. Two of Liz's friends are here from the states and helping us with some work. Today, two people came to scout out El Salvador to see about voluntary service opportunities. They arrived at school this morning and sat in several classes. And two weeks ago on the way to the cemetery to bury an aunt of Becky (Nata's wife) I look over and see Thomas Fisher calmly sitting in a minivan. Since he was there, I knew a certain special someone wouldn't be far away. Sure enough, I spotted Susanna and Cecilia Ramos a few feet away talking excitedly with all their old Salvadoran friends. I had known the three of them were coming sometime, but they didn't tell very many people the details of their trip so they could surprise everyone. I think they succeeded...

Answers to prayer are really exciting, so I'll share one with y'all. Beatriz has had a rough life at home every since she was small. Her dad has always had a problem with drinking and mistreating his family. Her mom has moved away from him at least once just to get away from it all. I'm sure we haven't even heard half of what has happened there, but it has been very hard on Beatriz. Ever since she became a Christian and started wearing a veil and a dress, she has had to endure anything from weird glances to downright abuse from her parents and those around her. But she has never stopped being faithful. She always comes to school with a big smile and a desire to do what's right no matter what others do or say. You can read more details about that in a post that Melody Eash wrote last year.

But God has been at work in that family and has answered many prayers. Beatriz's dad knew that drinking was not good for him or his family, but he wasn't able to quit completely. However, these last few months he has started going to church regularly and has quit drinking completely. He even came to school for a parents' day which I thought was really unusual. Beatriz says he has changed and she is so happy that she can go with her dad to church! She has experienced first-hand the power of God and it is so encouraging for her to finally see her prayers being answered in that regard.

So join me in thanking God for the miracle he has done! Sometimes it feels like these deaf children have everything in life against them. But sometimes things like this happen and we again remember that God is in control and that he will perform His will in His own time. And also keep praying for that family. Beatriz's mom had always wanted her husband to improve his life so he would stop drinking, but now that God has done that, she fails to encourage him. She is Catholic and so the idea of him attending a Christian church doesn't appeal to her. It somewhat feels like she wanted to use God to make her husband stop drinking, but now she isn't happy with how He did it. Please pray for her as well.

Thank you to all of you for your continued support and prayers. God has been very faithful here and y'all have played a big role in that! God bless y'all...

Liz, the surgeon, along with nurse Tiffany attempt to remove a splinter
from Paty's toe.

Getting in some practice time...

We took some time off of school to make our Mother's day gifts. Paty and
Liz helped the girls, and I helped the boys.

Yea, you're going anywhere, Miguel. :)

Sisterly love.

Maria and Paola have been good friends ever since
they met at the beginning of this year.

Making the El Salvador specialty--pupusas!

Joel tries to concentrate on the word he is spelling during the competition
while Jairo and Miguel wait their turn.

Some of the guys looking at books at the tail end
of our weekly guys devotional time.

When there's a lizard in the church house, you drop everything
and chase it out!

Either Antony grew five inches overnight, or those pants are a bit short.

How high can we stack it?