Chicken pox!

We had several of our little ones out today. It seems they've come down with chicken pox. Several of the hearing kids at the school have it, so I guess we are going to have a mini-epidemic. Probably for the next couple of weeks attendance is going to be down--maybe longer, since the incubation period is two weeks.

Frequent hand-washing is recommended to keep the virus from spreading. Well, our kids probably don't wash their hands twice a day! I know that sounds awful, but they are not taught to do so at home. At school, as at home, bathrooms often do not have any running water. We have to open a heavy cistern door in the floor, and pull water up with a bucket. Younger kids cannot do that. That's just one of the realities of living in a developing country.

Sadly

Dominican culture has long regarded deaf people in a negative light. Many times I have been with deaf people on the bus, signing with them, and been mistaken for being deaf. And in this situation, I've heard the ugly comments.

I've seen deaf children be ridiculed--not only by other children, but by adults, who should know better.

But the most difficult blow is always when it comes from the church. Christians here often don't see the need for deaf people to participate in the church. We've been told we are "profaning the temple" for having a group of deaf children doing a daily 15 minute Bible study in the church building. Announcement: deaf people also have souls that need Jesus.

Twice we've been invited to leave for only one reason: because the children are deaf.

This is one of the reasons we've always wanted to have our own school building. We want a place where the children will be safe, and will not have to leave due to someone's prejudices.

For now, we have a place alloted to us. It's not a really nice place. It's not in a good location. But it has four walls and a roof, and we are grateful that the dept. of education has at least allowed us that.

We don't know if we will have it for a year or for ten years. It all depends on the person who comes into power next, whether s/he be favorable toward the deaf.

Freduar

One of the most rewarding things for a teacher is to have the opportunity to see her students all grown up, and with a fond memory of being in her class. This happened to me today at church, when I saw Freduar, whom I hadn't seen for about 15 years.

When he was seven, I taught him how to sign. He learned his name at school. All the things that hearing kids know by that age, he learned with us. The alphabet, colors, counting, and so much more. Amazingly, he can remember all this! He even reminded me of exactly how I taught him the days of the week!

But the best thing of all was to see him in church. The most important thing he learned, was about Jesus.

The chickens have hatched!

We have classrooms for CCES at last! The director (principal), Maria, plans to first paint, and clean up the place a bit, then move over after Easter week. The Sabana Perdida school will join them later, probably in the fall. Thank you for your prayers.

Lots has happened in the Deaf world here lately.

The World Federation of the Deaf has two days of meetings here in Santo Domingo this week.

A new Baptist Deaf ministry (with separate meetings taught in Sign, by Deaf leaders) was initiated by Bob Bell of Voice for the Deaf, this past week. The Deaf finally have a church service on this side of the river, which has a huge Deaf population, previously with no Deaf church/ministry in the area.

Educators working in the government are showing more interest in training teachers of the deaf, and we've been invited by two different government organizations to help with the training.

On a personal note, I have been involved in so many things, along with the regular responsibilities at the schools, that I haven't had much time to go apt. hunting. Pray that I'll find something appropriate and soon! I need to move this month.

Vision Trust's board was here this week, and we had a pleasant meeting with them. They asked what some of our greatest needs were. My response...workers! If I were triplets I couldn't move on all that needs to be done! That's another prayer request: That the Lord of the harvest will send out workers.

One down, one to go

We think we may have a place for the deaf school. We've been talking with the Dept. of Education here, and they say they are willing to help. They took us around to several possibilities. Most of the places were way too small, and in a location too far from our current students. But there was one that we thought would be okay.

It is very third-worldish, you might say, with a zinc roof that made the classroom hot, and this is the cool time of the year. But there was more space than we've had, and the promise of being able to switch to a full day schedule next year, which is important to us. Mornings there is some electricity there, but usually none in the afternoon.

The classrooms look like they haven't had a paint job for quite some time. In fact the whole place could use renovating. If all the final details get worked out, CCES will probably go ahead and move over there this year. The school in Sabana Perdida has a less urgent need to move, and will finish out the school year and move in the fall.

I do remember the saying "Don't count your chickens before they hatch." A lot can happen. The people in charge are regularly replaced, so if you get help from one, you have to hope s/he stays in "power" till you get what you were promised!

The Dept. of Ed. is also offering us another location in a nearby city to start yet another deaf class. They are trying to work it out for us to do some teacher workshops for a local college so that some teachers will graduate with at least basic Sign Language skills and some understanding of what it is to teach deaf children. It is really a good opportunity, if it works out. In fact, another dept. in the government is also asking us to contribute to their own teacher-training post grad class.

More trained teachers means more deaf people who will learn a language, and get educated. Without language, deaf people don't have access to the gospel. Without education, they don't have language. That's the major driving force in the mission here: providing that opportunity for deaf people. And for those who become Christians, wouldn't it be nice if they could read their Bibles?

Love spoken here

I spent the afternoon in the beginner's class at the deaf school. There is a student, Leslie, who has only been there a couple of months. She is in a wheelchair and has CP, in addition to being deaf. But the children treat her just as well as they would any other friend. They include her in everything. They fight over who can push her chair for her. Some of the older kids have to pick Leslie up and carry her when she needs to go up or down the stairs, and they help her willingly.

Leslie's teacher, Maria, told me of how she put the girl on the floor one day, during break, so she could stretch out after such a long time seated. Leslie started to roll around; she doesn't have the motor skills to crawl. All the other kids started to roll around too, and made a game of it!I know she feels loved and accepted, as do all the children in her classroom. School is a safe haven for her.

Maria has taught this love and acceptance to the children, for the most part not with signs, but by example. It is more important than all the reading, writing and arithmetic she can ever teach them.

I can't tell you how great it felt to see Engel doing his math. The first time I met him he threw a cup of water in my face, and punched me in the arm. He punched another teacher in the stomach. He was a little terror. Back then, if you put a puzzle on the table for him to do, he would shove it onto the floor. With patience and love, he has conquered a lot of his behavioral issues. He has come to love school. He has a new language, and can communicate well now. He has friends like he has never had before. He is a happy and confident child.

Telling the love of Jesus is important. But the deaf need visuals; showing it makes it so much clearer.

Looking for a place

Today the principals of both schools, and I, went out to look at a house, with the possibility of renting it for school next year. Both schools really need to move.

The Sabana Perdida school is located at a church which has built on classrooms for the school. The church has decided it doesn't want any classes in the afternoon next year. That means both deaf classes and three hearing classes will be displaced or closed down.

The Christian Deaf Education Center has needed to move for a couple of years, but now it is more critical than ever. The dept. of education insists that we have a separate room for a library. That's pretty unnecessary for three classrooms of kids who are all beginning readers--they will use the books much more if they remain in the classroom. (It isn't like in the US, where the kids can check out books. If we did that, then within a month, we wouldn't have any left!)

They also want us to have an office. Right now our office is a small part of a larger room that is sectioned off. And I think they are right that we need an office, because there is a lot of paperwork to be done.

But the biggest reason for the new place is that we cannot add another classroom.

Back to the house we looked at. It was in so-so shape. It needs a lot of work, and some amount of remodeling to make it work for us.

But I noticed next door on both sides, and another house down the street, all for rent or sale. Why was everyone leaving, I wanted to know. What was wrong? Oh nothing really...just that every time it rains, the whole street floods. But they are going to fix it. It's the government that would have to do that, and as elections aren't happening right now, the fixing may have to wait.

Well, we wouldn't be moving till July or August anyway, so perhaps they will fix it before then. I'm not holding my breath. The house next door was a palace! It had three or four large bedrooms with cedar lined closets, marble counter tops in the kitchen, beautiful tiling everywhere on the floors. All for less than $500US a month "negotiable." But in a flood zone.

I'm also continuing my search for a new apt. It's tricky to find one that meets my security requirements. It almost needs to be a second floor housetop apt., because then the people below naturally inhibit burglers from breaking in. If I have a ground floor house or apt., burglars can easily wait till I leave for school, and clear out the whole place. This is a city with more than its share of break-ins.

Please pray for a suitable place to be found for me, and for the schools. We could merge the schools if the place is in certain locations, or they can remain separate, in which case they'll need two locations. We need to consider location, security, safe neighborhood, price, and condition.

Blessings!