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.