Feliz Navidad

Or Merry Christmas!

Please keep us in your prayers even during this break from classes. The barrios where many of our students live can be dangerous places during the holidays, even moreso than during the rest of the year. There is a lot of drinking, and with so many people armed, sometimes things get out of hand.

Also pray that the students will be able to come back to school on the appointed day! It is considered totally normal here to take an extra week or even more, during the Christmas vacation. Parents often take their children back to their native town, and the kids really have no say about getting back to school on time.

School was scheduled to start on January 7th, the day following Three Kings Day, when children traditionally get their gifts. But that would fall on a Wednesday, and the logic would be, "Why bother when there are only a few days left in the week? We'll send our child back on Monday." Probably only a few students would show up. (This is in ALL the schools here, except the private schools for the wealthy.) So we decided to make Wednesday through Friday a special time of teacher workshop and prep for the second semester, so as not to waste the time.

We wish you a joy-filled time with family and friends during these holidays.

The kids in Sabana Perdida are enjoying their rehearsals for the Christmas event on Friday. Each class does a song or something, so we put together a brief Christmas play.

At the bottom of the picture you see three teachers: Mela, who teaches the older kids, Yulissa (deaf) who teaches Bible and acts as a TA at both schools, and Yoselin, who teaches the younger kids in Sabana Perdida.

Most of the students are in this photo, although there are a few absent.

There is a new missionary family working with the Deaf in Santo Domingo. This is great news! Santo Domingo is a city of 3 million people and counting. The deaf population is double what you would have in a more developed country, so you can imagine that we are continually short of workers.

We have invited them to do a weekly mini-church service with our students, since most of the students aren't able to get to church on Sundays. We do have Bible studies a couple of days a week too, but this will be more like a church service. Several of the students have come to know the Lord at this point, so the timing is good.

The deaf pastor from another church sat me down on Sunday, and said "We need more missionary workers." Enough said. Please pray for God to send these workers. Life is difficult here, and it isn't easy to find people who are willing and/or able to come, and even harder to find people who will stay long term. But we put that in the Lord's hands where it belongs; he is the one who calls.

There is a new Christian school for the deaf in Hato Mayor, established by a short term (one year) missionary . Every city does not yet have a school for the deaf, Christian or otherwise, and we are all concerned that each city have at least one; we are rejoicing over the new one. We look forward to the day when every deaf child will be able to attend school, and learn a language through which they can understand the good news.

Our new teachers are working hard at improving their Sign Language. Many of the newer students came in without Sign, and are already communicating in formal SL at a basic level.

The hearing school where we have two self-contained deaf classrooms has been having some serious problems. They have lost two teachers as a result. The director and admin. have taken over teaching those two classes till January at least, as it is too close to vacation to hire a teacher immediately. They've brought the classes downstairs as a result.

This is causing some problems with the deaf classes, as there is so much noise and confusion going on, it makes it difficult to teach. Our facilities are very basic. Most of the classrooms consist of a large room that has been subdivided with thin plywood. It doesn't reach to the top, and noise travels. You might think it wouldn't bother the deaf children, but it really does. It distracts them greatly.

The children are practicing a Christmas song at one school, and a drama at the other, to present to friends and families.

Please pray with us that God will continue to supply all our needs, and that is so much more than just finances; needs for dedicated workers, qualified teachers, classroom space, and all the other things that belong in a Christian school are on our prayer list. We want to see these kids come to know the Lord. That is our heart.

Sign language classes are just around the corner in January!

Back at last!

It is so good to be back at school on a daily basis! My arm is officially healed, although it is going to take some work to get back my full range of motion. The important thing is that I can now sign two-handed again, pretty well, as long as the sign doesn't involve lifting my left hand very high.

The new teachers are still working on their Sign Language. If you can imagine, it is like it was in the USA 20 years ago, where basically there were no Sign classes, and no hearing people except those with deaf parents knew Sign. (Here even a lot of CODAS (Children of Deaf Adults) in their 20's don't know formal sign.) So we have to hire people with no Sign skills and get them signing as well/fast as possible. If there were deaf college (or even high school) graduates available to hire as teachers, we would gladly hire them. So please pray for our teachers: to learn well and quickly, to be teachable, and to have a real heart for their deaf students. Also pray for the Lord to send more workers into the Harvest.

In January we'll be having a Sign class co-taught by Yulissa (deaf) and myself. This will be for parents, and other interested parties.

This Friday is our monthly teacher workshop, where we invite teachers of the deaf from the various little Christian schools around the country to come and learn how to do their job more effectively.

One of the deaf students had a problem recently. Her cat had disappeared. She searched and searched for it with no result. When she asked her mom if she had seen the cat, her mom told her that her grandma had eaten it! Not too many people eat cats here these days, but 20 years ago it wasn't uncommon at all. Grandma was from that era. I hear they taste like chicken.

Although the economic crisis has presented many difficulties, it has helped us in one way: gas has gone down, and thus bus fares, have gone down. Since many of our students take public transportation to school, low fares are essential to their coming. Right now it is 45¢ to take most buses, and 39¢ to take a public car (just like a bus but smaller--goes on a regular route.) Some students take more than one vehicle to get to school.

We are getting close to the Christmas break. There is so much to teach, and so little time! Thank you for your prayers for us.

Popping in and out

Here's an update on my broken arm: At today's Dr. appointment, although I had hoped to be able to begin therapy, I was told that it would be at least another two weeks.

Popping in and out is about all I can do right now at the schools, and of course we can communicate by phone. I try to get into the schools at least once a week. Yesterday we accepted a new 7 year old (girl) student in Sabana Perdida. This is her first time at school, and she will be learning Sign Language with us this year.

We are working on plans for a week of camp at the end of the school year.

broken

Well, if you are wondering why you haven't had an update in a bit, I'll tell you why: I broke my arm! That was about a week and a half ago. I was just leaving with the deaf pastor and his wife, to go pick up some boxes of school materials I had sent from the US from my recent visit. I tripped and fell, cutting my head badly (9 stitches) and breaking my left arm high up on the humerus. The doctor said it would be 6 weeks before I could use it and it had to be immobilized during that time. Because of the location of the break, I have a sling rather than a cast, and a strap that goes around my arm & body to keep my arm from moving much.

You can imagine that I haven't been able to work much lately. The Lord has a plan in everything, and I can only think that he is taking our new teachers through something they need to learn, and the same for me.

The doctor says I must sleep sitting up. :( Very uncomfortable. But my friends have a recliner, and so that has become my bed for the time being. I think his point is that I will not be able to turn over and hurt my arm while I'm asleep.

For a few weeks, I'm back in the same house where I was previously housesitting. My missionary friends are helping me out, as I'm pretty limited in what I can do for myself.

At last I've gotten to the point that I can type with more than one finger, using a laptop.

The Wycliffe missionaries are in the country doing their survey of the Sign Language here. I was able to meet with them on Friday at our monthly teacher's workshop, and they got to interview some of the teachers as well. We desperately want a Sign translation of the Bible, and have been waiting already for three years for the process of translation to begin. Please pray for a translator for us.

I cannot yet go out on public transportation, because there is too much jostling around, and the old sardine can approach to filling the cars and buses would be painful and not good for my arm. Taxis are okay for an occasional trip, but too expensive to use daily, so getting to the school is practically off limits for the time being. I'm staying in touch by phone. It's just as well, because my signing abilities are severely impeded by this sling.

The country is having an epidemic of conjuncivitus. Last week in Sabana Perdida, both teachers of the deaf had it, along with four of the teachers of the hearing kids, plus innumerable kids. Classes were cancelled for two days. It is everywhere, and a particularly bad strain.

The school in Ozama is doing well, and has about 38 students now.

Our storm season continues with tropical waves, storms, and disturbances, passing through on a regular basis, leaving behind lots of rain and flooding. This happens yearly at the beginning of school. I think maybe they should just make August and September our school holiday months, so that so much school will not be missed due to hurricane season!

Please pray for a good recovery for me. In a few weeks I will begin therapy. I don't know what that entails, whether weeks or months, but hope that I'll be able to be back at work at the school while that is going on. Now that I have the go-ahead from the doctor, and my arm is less painful than at first, I'm starting to work on the curriculum on my little laptop. Almost two weeks of forced sitting around has been very annoying!

Blessings!

Hurricanes and Tropical Storms

School started on Monday for the Sabana Perdida group. Returning students were very glad to get started at last, as happens with children all over the world.

We have several new students, and went to work right away teaching them Sign Language. They seemed to enjoy this very much.

We have two new teachers, both with minimal Sign Language skills. One worked with us last year, so she has been signing for a year, but is still limited in her skills, especially of understanding the children. The second teacher is just a beginner, and is paired in the classroom with our deaf TA while she is learning. Both will be heavily supervised, to enable them to improve their teaching skills, and avoid lack of progress in their students.

This is not a matter of not hiring qualified people by choice; there simply are no qualified people available. Our choices are either that the children have no school at all, or that they have school with less than adequate teachers. It's the old sad song of "better than nothing." However, the second verse is, that we are committed to constant improvement.

My job this year is largely centered on teacher training and curriculum development. We are already receiving requests for Sign classes for parents, so that also is in the works.

Tuesday and Wednesday, the storms moved in. The weather was very severe, with wind gusts up to 45 mph reported at our airport. The rain came down in buckets. Tuesday only a handful showed up, and Wednesday school was actually cancelled.

We are in the height of hurricane season, the time when we usually get our most dangerous storms. There is a category 4 (that's very strong) storm heading our way, but it is too soon to know if it will hit land or not. Right now we are in the best guess trajectory, but that may well change. Unfortunately even if it misses us, it is big enough to cause us torrential downpours, and--you guessed it---absences and/or cancellations.

I'm beginning to think that they should change their summer vacation months to Aug. and Sept., as this pretty much happens every year.

School opens next Monday and some personal notes

Can't wait! This last week and this week have been dedicated to teacher training and getting materials in order. Several new children have come in to sign up for classes.

We think we will have three classrooms at Sabana Perdida "Mi Esperanza" school this year. We cannot make the final decision until we see who actually comes!

Some of the kids from last year have expressed their great desire for school to start again. Like most kids, by the summer's end, they've had enough of vacation, and want to study and to see their friends again.

Please pray for us as we begin. We especially pray for our new teachers to become very competent in their new work.

We've had lots and lots of rain from Tropical Storm Gustav, and there seem to be a few more tropical storms in the making coming on Gustav's heels. School starts right in the height of the season.

This year I will be in the classroom as a teacher trainer, working alongside the new teachers, but not having my own classroom. This is important, because some of the teachers are new signers and have not worked with deaf children before.

Cell phone number four was stolen this past week. The phone company gave me a five page list of phone numbers the thief had called since stealing the phone. But when I took it to a government office as instructed, I was sent to another place quite far away, then from there to another. Everyone said it was someone else's job. After talking with people at three different places, I ran out of time. No one seemed even the slightest bit interested in catching the guy, even though they could easily track him down with all the phone numbers. That is life here.

I'm in my new apt., still trying to get settled in. As one visitor said "Everything takes so much longer here." So true! For example, getting my electricity turned on took three visits to the electric company, plus hiring a man to hook it up, once the company installed the meter! Now I'm working on the phone. Tomorrow will be visit number two, trying to get that installed.

Summer break is ending

The summer was great. I flew to the US, for the first time in a couple of years, and visited some of my family, and church friends.

It was a blessing to be able to meet the members of three deaf churches, and to share with them about the deaf schools here. I was also able to visit a church in FL that is very interested in deaf ministry, and to sit down and talk with their youth pastor about an upcoming work team visit.

Upon my return, I had to hit the ground running. With just a couple of days to spare, I had to quickly put some final touches on my new apt., and prepare to teach some teacher workshops.

The deaf camp here had over 300 people in attendance, mostly deaf, some children of the deaf, and a smaller amount who are hearing teachers, interpreters, and church workers. There were two deaf pastors from the US who preached, and their ministry and message was well-received, as always.

I don't want to go into great detail about my new apt., because this blog is more about the schools, but let me slip in a couple of paragraphs.

My first week here included a brush with tropical storm Fay. Now my apt. is not quite finished. It is missing a couple of windows, as well as a front door. (They have bars where the door and windows go, so it isn't as much a security issue as you would think.) When Fay came along and it poured down rain all night, I had a friend, an NTID interpreter here for the weekend. She and I scrambled to close the windows with a patchwork of cardboard, awning tarp, garbage bags, and clothespins. It was an interesting experience. We also had no electricity for over 24 hours, and were doing this by flashlight and lamplight. Towards the end, we also had no running water, since the water is pumped up to a rooftop tank, and it requires electricity to do so. It was an interesting experience.

Tomorrow teacher training begins at the schools. This is a very important time, and we would appreciate your prayers.

We've had several new students come, and really need to open up a new classroom, if we can find a teacher for it. We are still short one other teacher, and may have to hire a non-signer to work alongside the deaf TA. We don't want to do this, but it is very difficult to find a signing teacher, and of course, we add to that that we expect the teacher to be a committed Christian. I will be in the classroom many hours a week, working alongside the new teacher however.

Maria has taken over as director of the school in Ensanche Ozama (Christian Deaf Education Center), and I will be working in Sabana Perdida again this year for the foreseeable future. My new apt. is much closer to both schools, and I can get to either in 15-20 minutes by bus.

The students will begin at the beginning of September in Sabana Perdida, and one week later in Ensanche Ozama.

After a couple of weeks with no internet, it is good to at last have it installed in my apt. It only works when there is electricity, but I hope to soon have an inverter that will allow me to have electricity most of the time. This area is plagued by daily blackouts of several hours.

Please pray for all the many details of getting the school year started again, and especially that God will give our children understanding of his grace and love in this coming year. And pray the Lord of the Harvest will send workers!

School is out

The kids had a wonderful time the last few days of the year, with a team from Vision Trust headed by my friend Andy. He was the only nonsigner on the team of four deaf and four hearing. Andy frequently heads teams, and it was a rather unusual experience for him; this time, he was the one most in need of a translator when working with the local folks.

The team chaperoned the kids on a trip to the Colonial City. Amazingly, some of the kids had never been there before! The Colonial city has a wealth of historical sites, from as far back as Colombus' days. I was especially glad they were able to see Independence Park, one of the most famous sites in the country. There independence was declared from Haiti, and the DR became a country in its own right, and there the fathers of the country, Duarte, Sanchez, and Mella have their tombs.

The highlight of the week, though, was the day the kids had the opportunity to go for a day of camp. They had races, swam, played basketball, had a Bible study, sang, prayed, watched some mimes do drama, and ate till their heart's content. The very next day they were asking me when they get to do that again!

It was excellent having the team here. There are very few educated deaf adults here, and even less who follow the Lord. It makes a big impression on the children when they meet genuine Christians who are deaf. They are wonderful role models, and the students value their opinions greatly. They also love to be able to talk with hearing people who sign; rather unusual here. It broadens their world.

There is a lot more to say, but I'll hold off for a while, so as not to make this into a book!

I'm heading to the US on the 4th of July, and hope to see many of you who read this blog. I wish I could see ALL of you! Thank you all for your prayers and support this past school year. Now let's get going on the next one! :)

Here's the article

Here is the article referred to in the previous post. I just found it in an English translation. Article

An interesing but sad article

The front page of El Día newspaper today declared that 57% of the Dominican people want to leave the island to live and work.

Here are a few more points in the study, which was done by an outside agency.

• "The limited development...is the result of a style of economic growth and institutional arrangements that creates wealth by reproducing misery."

• Having access to the Internet last year cost between 43% and 57% of the minimum wage, depending on the company.

• The average daily classes taught in public schools are [a total of] two hours and 36 minutes long, ie 65% of the scheduled time. In Santo Domingo is where less class time is issued: 2 hours and 22 minutes.

___________

One of our students just underwent a quite unnecessary surgery. His mom had the strange idea, that repairing a small crack in his skull, which he has had since he was 10 months old, would restore his hearing. It had nothing to do with his hearing, and was not recommended by most doctors she consulted, as he had no symptoms, but she continued to shop around till she found someone who would do the expensive procedure.

School continues. There is so much more to teach, and so little time left! We are looking forward to an American team of 8 coming for the last week of school. The team includes both deaf and hearing signers, so they can communicate directly with the kids. It is especially nice to have them here the last week of school, since that is a week that parents often opt to keep their children home. We can be pretty sure of their attendance for this event, and we know it will be a benefit to them.

Learning to pray, elections, photos

It's important for children to learn to pray. They need to see prayer as more than just some ritual before they eat or go to sleep. They need to see it as a way to speak to God. They need to see that God will answer their prayers.

When Yulissa was out with the chicken pox, we were praying that her young baby would not get it. He didn't.

A classmate didn't show up for a few weeks. His mom had been sick and not working, so there was no money for busfare. We prayed for him to be able to come. He was back the next day.

We are praying for more teachers now.

The presidential elections are next Friday. All schools will be out Thursday and Friday, (some Wednesday and Monday as well) because many of the parents have to return to their own native towns to vote. I hear arguments over politics going on in all the public transportation. There are traffic jams everywhere, caused by political rallies. So far, the polls have the incumbent with a strong lead--unbeatable. Traditionally the military is out in full force to protect the election process, although military personnel are not allowed to vote, nor to participate in any way in politics.

See our new pictures at www.flickr.com/alabemos.
Blessings!

April highlights

We enjoyed having a team from Florida this month. They did a variety of things while they were here, including participating in medical operatives, one of which was in Sabana Perdida. While part of the team worked at that, our teens worked alongside their teens under the direction of other adults on the team, to build a much-needed storage cabinet, and do some painting at the school in SP. The teens also had the opportunity to strike up a few friendly games of chess, battleship, and connect four.

Later in the week, the team invited students from both Sabana Perdida, and CCES to go to the science museum. This was a special treat, and the kids enjoyed it a lot. We adults enjoyed just watching the kids having such fun. Afterward, in the courtyard, one of the team members showed the students how to make little rockets out of film cannisters, vinegar, and soda.

We look forward to their return next year.

The students are progressing in their studies. We have two classes at SP. One is for the students who are totally beginners--that don't know Sign, can't count, don't know the abc's etc. The second is all those who do know those things. This past month we've been able to move two students from the first classroom to the second. They are very excited to be with the more advanced group.

Our more advanced students learned this month how to find a Bible passage by chapter and verse. They are learning to read some simple verses, and they highlight them so they can find them again. These are very important baby steps. Several of them attend the Sunday School as well.

We made a trip to the annual Dominican Book Fair this week. Our SP students went along with the hearing students and teachers, for a total of about 100 people in a single American style school bus. The book fair is mainly a large book sale. There are vendors from Central & South American countries, and Spain. Field trips here are quite different from in the US. The children aren't nearly as closely supervised. Yet, when it was time to go, no one had gotten lost, even though there were hundreds of other school children in the same kind of uniforms. Any time we get out of the regular classroom is special. Twice in a month is unheard of!

This Friday we had another teacher workshop. It's encouraging to see that the teachers really want to improve their skills. We are also getting lots of requests for a Sign Language class, from parents, siblings of the deaf students, teachers, and people interested in deaf ministry. We have been trying to put it off until the summer, as there is so much going on. There are probably enough students for two or three classes.

Please continue to remember us in your prayers. The DR presidential elections are just a few weeks away. Politics affects everything here.

Book Alert!

Our beginners class in Sabana Perdida is showing progress. Yesterday I told the children a story with a picture book, Good night Gorilla. In the book were animals, and one was an armadillo. Now in the DR, you won't find any armadillos. I decided to fingerspell the word, rather than invent a sign, because I want them to know that sometimes that is the best choice.

When I finished the story, I asked who wanted to retell it. Almost everyone did! I chose Meri Luz first. She went through the story, doing an excellent job for someone who has only been signing for a few months. When she got to the armadillo, she spelled random letters. F-L-X-Y. I was very impressed to see her try her hand at fingerspelling. Her doing that is very similar to baby sign language, where babies wiggle their fingers to indicate they are spelling something. It's a good sign that she gets it.

The kids loved story time. Unfortunately, I only have a couple of picture books for that class. We really need to add to the collection. There are no libraries to visit here, and good children's books are very rare. Dr. Seuss hasn't come to the DR. So if you have picture books your children have outgrown, that are still in reasonably good condition--even board books--we would be glad to provide a new home for them. Let me emphasize that the books I'm looking for are specifically for the beginner group. They should be either totally wordless, or just have a few words per page (English is no problem when it is just a word or two.) The preferred book size is large enough to read to a group of 4-5 students.

We have a new teacher trainee. Well, we did have one for a day! One of the hearing teachers is out sick, evidently with something serious, so they pulled our trainee to go work with her class. Silvia will be working with the teens, if she ever comes back to us.

But we do have another one starting at the beginning of April. Her name is Julia. She has a deaf brother, but she does not sign yet herself. She is a Christian. She would like to learn Sign. She has a teaching degree. She'll be working with the younger class.

We are still turning away students for lack of qualified teachers. I hope I'll be able to fully train Silvia and Julia to be ready for the fall semester, but even so, we will need at least one or two more, if we are to avoid turning students away.

We are beginning teacher workshops tomorrow, to enable current teachers to improve their skills, and allow new teachers to learn the basics. There will be teachers of the deaf from several cities outside of the capital attending. We plan to have these half day workshops twice a month.

A little of everything

We were very blessed to have two teachers here from the NC school for the deaf this past month. They were a great help at both schools. Jana worked primarily with teaching the students how to use the video camera, and making some videos of them. Mary Jo worked with individual students on cognitive skills, and gave me a personalized teacher workshop as well.

The audiologist is visiting today, to do whatever is necessary (new audiogram, earmoulds etc.) for any children who are in need of a hearing aid. There is a group that comes from the US annually, that provides this for the deaf students here in the DR. They will be coming soon, so all the preparation must be ready, in order for the children to be eligible for the hearing aids.

We are still suffering from a shortage of teachers in the school in Sabana Perdida, and turning away children as a result. Please pray that the Lord will send us workers. There are many more deaf children in the area in need of an education.

The church services for the deaf in Sabana Perdida have begun, headed up by Yulissa, our deaf TA. There are 8-10 attending weekly right now, which is a good beginning. They are telling me that they are learning a lot, and are enthusiastic about the meetings. A few have made professions of faith. This is the first time they have had the opportunity to attend church services in their lives, apart from the Bible studies which we offer them at school. This is a reason for great thankfulness to the Lord.

The Assembly of God has several small schools for the deaf sprinkled around the country. Many of the teachers are untrained, but have a heart for working with deaf children. As a rule, these schools are the only option available for these children. We are planning to begin bi-monthly workshops with some basic teacher training, to help support these schools. Our teachers will participate in attending and/or giving workshops monthly.

Many of these schools have as their main materials, chalk and chalkboard, and not much more. We hope to actually make some good usable, inexpensive materials in the workshops, so that teachers will take away a knowledge of how to make and use their own materials, without breaking the bank. We want these workshops to be very hands-on and practical, but not devoid of underlying teaching principles.

Our prayer requests:

1. That the children will come to know the Lord, and that those who know him will grow in His grace and knowledge
2. That we will have the teachers and funds needed to maintain and expand the ministry to deaf children
3. Electricity! We have had almost zero electricity in the SP school, and CCES has electricity only 2-3 days per week. As the temperature rises, we need fans, and it is very nice when we can use the computer to teach.
   

All eyes

Today we took the deaf students from both schools over to have their eyes checked, by an work team of American eye doctors who were visiting here. Glasses were provided for those that needed them. Some kids were rather disappointed to find that they didn't need them!

I had the opportunity to talk with one of the doctors about our deaf-blind student, to see if anything could be done to improve her vision. He gave us a new Rx, as her glasses were not strong enough. Her mom told us that she had been told to have a procedure done about four months ago, but because it would cost 4000 pesos, she hadn't done it. (That's $130US.) The procedure will allow more light into her eyes, because they have clouded up. So we are going to see that that gets done soon. When she is full grown, she can have lens implants, and that will also make a world of difference to her. So all in all, it was good news.

Tomorrow, the hearing school that hosts two deaf classes for us, has an all-day-in-the-park activity. The kids are looking forward to this break from their studies.

I like the fact that the hearing children are going to get the opportunity to interact more with the deaf students. They are all very curious about them. They often stand outside the classroom and look in at the students, fascinated by the Sign Language. I shoo them away with a smile and usually try to teach them something on the way, whether it is a new sign, or something about deafness. So far all the relations have been friendly, and that is important.

Things are happening there in the administration of that second school, which could cause some changes for us. We are waiting for the dust to settle on that. I can't go into great detail here, but my one hope is that it won't mean moving soon. We don't have any conflict with the school, but if the administration changes, it is hard to say if they will still want the deaf classes to be part of the hearing school.

We do long for the day when we will have our own building, and all the moving will be over. Meanwhile, I'm taking advantage of learning what works, and what doesn't, in a building. When we are ready to build/get one, we'll know better what we need.

January

January has been a wonderful month for us. We enjoyed the visit of a "two-in-one" team from Baltimore. About half the team were seminary students, and the other half Sign students from a Baltimore college. All could communicate in Sign. Their leaders, Mark (from the college) and Peggy (from the seminary) are experienced Signers of many years.

The children are always excited to meet new people who can speak their language. They crowd around, and ask with interest what each person's name and Sign is, and other pertinent questions.

The visiting team presented crafts, Bible stories, fairy tales, and just fun in general for our students at both schools.

The team brought an extra blessing in bringing a gift from the church of one of the team members. This was a great help. We were able to buy a much-needed cabinet to store our supplies securely. (We were carting them in and out daily with a suitcase!) It also is helping to pay the salary of our new deaf teacher, Yulissa, and for some needed supplies. We received ASL books, which we will use in teaching ASL classes for workers and parents. The deaf students are very interested in the books as well. Thank you!

The team brought in supplies and a special treat of some toys for our deaf blind student Alexa, to better develop her skills. Alexa is having lots of fun with them, as are the other students.

I joined the team on an out of town trip where we visited a children's home, and later a school for the deaf. The team was saddened by some of the conditions they saw at the school. We spent the night in chilly Jarabacoa. I've never been so cold in the Dominican Republic!

One of our greatest needs is for teachers. It isn't just a matter of putting an ad in the paper and hiring some more. It is very difficult to find qualified teachers. As a result, many schools must hire teachers without Signing skills, and hope that they will learn on the job from the children. This is especially difficult when the children themselves are not usually fluent in Sign, and may not know Sign at all.

We may need to consider a solution for the immediate present of temporarily using foreign teachers until adequate teachers can be trained. Please pray about this possibility.

Meanwhile, we are making plans for teacher training and workshops for this summer and January.

I have a couple of college students who are helping in Sabana Perdida classes from time to time. They are both in the process of learning Sign Language.

The church there is planning to begin a deaf ministry on Sundays, beginning in February. Yulissa will be heading this up. There has been no church available for deaf people in the area up till now. They will meet at a separate time from the hearing congregation, so that they may worship in their own language.

Visitors from afar

We are looking forward to a team coming in Wednesday from Baltimore. They will be visiting a local deaf church, a school in Santiago, doing some cultural studies, and best of all, spending three days with us at the schools in Sabana Perdida and Ozama, in Santo Domingo! The children are excited, of course.

School restarts tomorrow, after the long holiday. Dominican children get their gifts on Three Kings Day, January 6th, so they always get those extra few days off. Usually when school restarts after any vacation, especially an extended one such as at Christmas, the children trickle in over a week's time. By the second week, most everyone will have returned. Many of the children go to their parents' home towns, or out in the country for the holidays.

During the break the teachers came to my house for one-on-one computer instruction. We also purchased a much-needed supplies cabinet for the classes in Sabana Perdida with a donation that came in. I was able to get quite a lot of errands done, that are hard to take care of during school days. Our older emac is at the mac store for possible repairs. They said they would look at it, but tentatively pronounced it dead--as in not worth fixing, suspecting the power supply was bad. We are still waiting on confirmation, but very blessed because we were given a new imac the same week the emac broke down.

The weather has been very strange lately. It's been cooler than it has been for years. At night, the lows were actually down to 66, which is quite rare. We still have hot days, but when the temperature here gets down to 70, we all put on jackets!

We've also had an unusual amount of rain in the last few months. Rain always affects school attendance. Even the teachers have a hard time getting to school during torrential rains, because none of us drive to school. Many roads flood. Public cars (shared taxis on a regular route) often have broken or leaky windows and doors, and get off the road when it begins to rain, leaving passengers with insufficient transportation. The plus is that the temperature is much more pleasant during these bouts of rainy and cloudy days.