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.