Adios 2009

Yesterday we finished up the 2009 part of our school year.  You may notice that it is rather early yet. The construction workers that are renovating the site asked us to give them some extra time, extending the break somewhat, so that they can finish by mid-January.  It's been difficult for them having to watch out for kids on their construction site, and difficult for us as well.  The director agreed to an extra week.

School days required by the education department will not be a problem, since we will be returning to all day classes, rather than just the state required morning or afternoon session.

We ended the week with the traditional party. There were crackers, salami, cheese, and candies for all, and the children played party games. Everyone enjoyed the free time together with friends.

Assuming that the construction is finished on time--and we have no guarantees-- the students will be going back mid-January. We would appreciate your prayers that there will be no delays in getting started again.

¡Feliz Navidad!

More construction and reminiscing; thankfulness

Having school in the middle of a construction site isn't easy.  We are so looking forward to January. We've been assured by mid-january we will be in our renovated classrooms. We sure hope so!

School is almost finished for 2009, and we have much to be thankful to God for. We are very thankful for children who have come to know Jesus. We also are thankful that we are able to play a part in the lives of children who come to us with little or no language. It is a blessing to be able to participate in the wonder of their first language.

I'm reminded of Meriluz. A few weeks ago I ran across a video from a couple of years ago, when she was just beginning school. Each child at the table would look at the video and spell their name. When it came to Meriluz, she just "spelled" about ten random letters. She knew it was something to do with letters that everyone was doing, but didnt quite understand just what it was.

I showed her the video.  "I didn't know!" she signed, laughing uproariously. She has come so far in such a short time.

Then there is Bryan. He is not only deaf, he is autistic, and cannot walk unaided. When he first came to us a few years back, his response to just about everything was violence. Whatever you handed him he would throw. He completely avoided looking directly at anyone. He wanted nothing but to roll around on the floor. Now he puts puzzles together, participates in many class activities, and is even using a little sign language. His communication has improved tremendously.  He spends a lot more time upright, walking while hanging on to whatever is at hand. Today he will look you in the eyes, for increasingly longer times, give you a big smile or a hug or stroke your arm affectionately. What a difference!

We are thankful for Vision Trust who has stood with us, contributing to the support base needed to run a school, and standing with us in prayer, and many other ways.

We are thankful for teachers. God has sent us quite an amazing group. Just the fact that they have stuck with us through the tremendous inconveniences of construction--like over 80 people sharing a single bathroom (with no running water), and their classroom space being condensed more and more almost weekly--shows they have a real heart for these students.

And we are thankful for you too, for your prayers, your encouragement, and your participation.

We will be finishing up school one week early for the Christmas break, at the request of the construction crew. Making up the time will not be difficult as post-construction we will return to a full school day, while most schools have only a half a day. From now till then, we will be in increasingly worse conditions due to the construction, so keep us in your prayers.

Not crazy

We remind you all that we very much need your prayers. Satan always attacks when he sees God at work, and the school has definitely been under attack.

One specific that we need prayer for is that we are able to get our permanent code. This code is something that is needed for many things. We have a temporary code, but our permanent one keeps getting held up for no good reason.  Until the permanent code comes through, there are certain things that we cannot do.

We also would like prayer for our neighborhood. One neighbor actually wrote a letter to the Secretary of Education saying that he doesn't want our school in his area, because it is a bunch of crazy people. Not so many years ago deaf people were considered to be crazy here, and there are many of the older generation that still think that way.

We did not have phone service for a few days this month, because someone cut our phone lines.

The renovation is plodding along. Some days it stops completely, because money has not been disbursed as it should be (even though it is fully funded).

We have had various things stolen from the school as well.

Please do keep holding  up the school in prayer, so that Jesus will be glorified and Satan will not get any victories on our turf.

Fun in the park

We took the children to the park on Friday. Several parents came along as well. The kids had lots of fun. They got to see large iguanas, and of course the ducks and geese who came up begging for scraps.

There was swinging, sliding, jump-roping, bike riding, and one of the favorites, an egg race. The competitors had to carry a raw egg on a spoon in their mouth, to the end and back. The little ones played with the parachute and beach balls. Baseball was another activity.

It is seldom that these kids get to have a day like Friday was. Even when their families go to the  beach or the country during the holidays, these children are only on the periphery, because most cannot communicate well with their families.  Sharing activities with friends who understand is golden. We are blessed to be able to participate in one of their pleasant memories of childhood, that we are sure they will be looking back on for many years to come.

Engels' Story

Engels is a child with some real problems. It's very possible that he is somewhere on the autism spectrum. He has both communication and social issues, and is obsessive about certain things.

He loves to draw. He usually draws pictures of things like ghosts, graveyards, bats, and other things from the scary movies he watches. (Those are part of his obsessions.) He likes to explain what he draws. Last week he showed me one picture with a ghost in a graveyard. He pointed out carefully that there was a moon, showing it was night. "That's when the ghosts come out," he said, "at night."

I told him the story of Jesus walking on the water, and how his disciples were frightened, thinking it was a spirit. He was interested in that. I drew him a picture.

Engels was drawing again today. His picture is above. He beckoned me over and said, "This is me." He indicated the person on the right with a big smile, who was literally shining. He showed me the cross above the picture. He told me that he was happy, because he prayed to Jesus the Lord.

Michael's story

 When Michael's mom first brought him to us to see if he could attend the school, I didn't really have a lot of hope for him. He had never been to school. He was already past the age he could become fluent in a first language, at fifteen.

But his family had just lost everything; their house was one of the ones that was completely underwater during the floods of Noel a couple of years back. His mom pleaded for him; they were now in a bad neighborhood, and if he wasn't in school while she was working, he might begin to hang out with guys who would be a bad influence on him.

So we let him come, although we told her we could not guarantee how much he would learn.  He turned out to be a pretty calm young man, easy going, and friendly. But he would do things he shouldn't do, and then when he was caught, would show no remorse at all; in fact he would usually just continue to deny he had done anything wrong. He didn't seem to have a conscience.

Recently I began to notice a difference in him. He still does things he shouldn't do sometimes, as we all do,  but now he admits it when he is wrong. He seems to be truly repentant. His mom told me that he is behaving much better at home, and is much more helpful than before. I knew that this could mean one of two things; he is either a new Christian, or he is about to become one! One of the teachers informed me that yes, he recently became a believer.

Pray for his growth in grace. It is more difficult for Michael in some ways, because his language skills are still way below average, because of his late start. This means a good part of the Bible is not going to be accessible to him. The good news is, that the Spirit of God is 100% accessible to a believer, and he is obviously working in Michael.

Victory

Thanks for your prayers. They made a difference. Today the decision was reversed, and it was reconfirmed that the center will be for the deaf. PTL. We are rejoicing in the Lord for the quick and amiable resolution he gave us.

Please pray

Our school, once it has been renovated, has been promised to someone else.

Please pray that this can be resolved. The funding for the renovation was given on the basis of it being for a deaf school, but now that the funding is in hand, they don't want to use it for the deaf children. We were promised it would be renovated for the deaf school.

Move again!!????

Yes, it's true, we have to move again. In fact, twice more! But this time it is somewhat good news. We are moving out just for a few months, while the school gets renovated. We had hoped to stay in the school during the renovation, but the construction almost took over the site, and it just became too dangerous for our students to be there. We will be relocating to a nearby vocational school temporarily.

Please pray that the construction will be done well and finished in a timely fashion, and not run into problems that cause it to drag on and on. December is traditionally a month where not much gets done here. At the same time, it is one of the coolest months of the year, and really an excellent time for outdoor work like construction.

The school day will be shortened from the normal 9 to 4 to 8 to 1 while we are at the other school, since we are sharing the classrooms with a vocational school that needs them in the afternoon. This is actually good news, in a way, because it allows us to give our new teachers some additional training that they need.

Moving is not much fun, and doing it three times in half a year's time even less, but we are thankful that we have the promise of a much improved facility once this trial passes. We are trying to take just the bare minimum of teaching materials with us, since we don't have secure storage areas at the temporary location.

The new location is just a short walk from the current location, so our students will not have difficulty in getting to school.

The children are progressing in their studies. We are blessed with teachers who truly care about their students. Every Monday, Pastor Eric comes over and gives the kids a Bible class, followed by a basic Sign Language class for interested parents.

Some of our little ones came pretty wild. They have calmed down a lot as they began to adjust to the routine of school. We are concerned about the move undoing some of their progress in good behavior, as their routine is disrupted. Please pray that behavioral difficulties as a result of the move will be minimal, and that the children will quickly adjust to the new hours and location.

Join with us in thanking the Lord for his constant care and provision.

Qualified teachers?

It is really difficult to find qualified teachers of the deaf here. Usually they either meet the Secretary of Education's definition of qualified--being licensed to teach in a specific area of education-- or they meet our criteria: a Christian who knows how to communicate and work specifically with deaf children. Don't get me wrong; we want our teachers to be licensed to teach as well. And each that does not have a teaching license already, is in Saturday college, finishing the courses needed to get one.

We need specific prayer that the Secretary of Education will recognize our teachers as qualified. Otherwise they may insist they be replaced with teachers who are licensed, but have no experience working with deaf children, and are not able to communicate with them. In that case, no education would actually be happening. We currently have three teachers who are being trained; we don't want to lose those who are already trained, and experienced. This would be a step backward. Please pray with us. Deaf education is in its infancy here, and there is a lot that is not understood yet.

Lots more students!

Almost daily we have new students applying. We have added a new teacher to our staff. She doesn't know any Sign Language yet, but we will begin training her. As I mentioned before, there just isn't anyone to hire that does.
As we have grown, we've added students one by one to classes, until the class size became very difficult to manage. We are finally able to take a few students out of each overcrowded class, and put them with the new teacher. I'll be working with the training of three teachers, and possibly four, if we can add another soon.

The children are improving in behavior. It is a long road for some. One of the best things is that we have children that have been with us for years, and are good examples to the new children coming in. They encourage the new children to obey, by word and deed.

Three of the teenage deaf students came to the deaf ministry at the church I attend last Sunday. The school kids have a weekly chapel service as well. Most don't have the opportunity to attend a church.

Please keep personnel on the top of your prayer list for us.

Toes and Chairs

We have a three month volunteer, Karen, a deaf woman from Florida, who is helping us by teaching math in several of the classrooms. On her second day, one of our little wild boys ;) threw a rock the size of a football, and it hit her foot. Ouch. She was limping around for a few days, but nothing was broken, just bruised.

This year we have about five kids that are new to school, and used to being on the street unsupervised most of the day. They fight each other constantly, and they don't fight gently. Fortunately they are still little guys, so they usually don't hurt anyone seriously. We have had kids like this before, just not so many at one time. They gradually calm down and adjust to having to obey a teacher. Pray for these kids. They need most of all to know the Lord. Right now they are learning a language for the first time, and will be able to understand the gospel before long.

One little boy in the first grade class likes to break things. He prefers to break crayons in small pieces then throw them at other students, but he will break pencils to throw if crayons aren't available. He also enjoys tearing things, like flashcards. He draws pictures of monsters and tells me that they like to come out at night. There is always a moon in the picture to indicate that. He is wonderfully creative, and he is intelligent, but probably has ADHD. The other kids lose patience with his throwing things at them, and then there are fights. These kids don't know how to talk anything out. Every little offense calls for revenge, preferably way out of proportion to the original offense.

The children were so happy when they came in and saw new desks and chairs this morning. And the teachers were happy to see new high quality blackboards. All of these were provided by the Secretary of Education (like the Dept. of Education in the States.) We are so happy to see the government taking responsibility for deaf education.

They are also committed to giving the kids bread and milk, for a morning snack each day.

We are up to 65 children right now, and more are still signing up. We know this means having some teachers start without a knowledge of Sign Language. That is upsetting, but the fact is, that there just aren't any teachers to hire that do know Sign. So we take them in and train them on the job. The older kids are good teachers for their teachers. But we would love to have more signing volunteers to come over and help out.

Here are some prayer requests: Pray for personnel, for those we have, and those we need. Pray for the new kids to be able to adjust. Thank God for his provision of much-needed school furniture.

Blessings!

Opening Ceremony

This morning we had the opening ceremony for the "new" deaf school. It is new, in the sense that for the first time, the government is providing classroom space for the deaf students. I suspect it is the first time in Dominican history that that has happened. At least I don't know of any other school that gets that kind of help. And we do want the government to help, because they have a responsibility toward their deaf citizens.

Some Dept. of Education officials were present, and spoke. Afterwards, one mom stood up and explained how she had tried other schools to get help for her multiply handicapped daughter (she's deaf and has CP), and our center was the first that was able to help. Now they have better communication at home, whereas before she and her daughter didn't understand each other.

Several moms who were there for the first day came up to me and told me of how their children always pray at home.

J.P., a deaf student, has started coming to the deaf ministry of the church I attend. He was telling me about all the girls who had asked him to be their boyfriend. He turned them all down. He told me, "I can't just make the commitment that easily. I have to pray about it first."

Someone asked me to post the "after" videos, when the school was ready to open, so I'm going to add those in here for any who would like to see them.

Almost there

Well, Tuesday is the day. Are we ready? Well, I guess we will be ready enough when Tuesday rolls around. We are all looking forward to seeing the kids, new students and old. Jesus died for each one of these kids, and we want to be sure they know that. We want them to grow up knowing they are loved.

So...there is a coating of new paint on most of the classroom walls, courtesy of the older deaf students and one or two adults helping out. There are alphabet posters and calendars on the walls, and brightly colored pocket charts. There is a sense of anticipation among the staff, and the children are very much looking forward to classes starting. Deaf children may look forward to school even more than hearing children, because often they are isolated from other deaf children during the summer, and have no one around who knows how to communicate with them in sign language.

Some of you know one of our older students, Juan Pablo. He was in the hospital briefly this week, when he had a very high fever that caused him to go into convulsions. He is okay now. From what I understand, they don't expect him to have any lasting problems from that episode.

Another student, ML, came in this week to register for classes. She normally is very cheerful,mischievous, and full of energy, but she was obviously very depressed, and lethargic. Please pray for her and also pray that we can figure out what she is so sad about. Sometimes poor language skills make it difficult for the children to explain and for us to understand.

Major prayer requests: We are on the verge of finally getting the official code that says the school is recognized by the Secretary of Education. We've been working on this for years. Pray that it will go through soon. This could mean that the government would give more direct support, like paying for some salaries.

Pray for the Lord's provision for all the needs of the school and the children.
Pray that new children will quickly adjust to school, and will begin to develop their language skills.
Pray for the teachers to be very close to God, so that they may receive grace and wisdom to teach these children, and to present a good example to them of a mature walk with the Lord.

Blessings!

Video of the new CCES

If you wonder what our new digs look like, here is some video. It is shaky, because it was just done on a regular camera, walking through, but should at least give you an idea. It's in three parts, the first longer than the other two.

I was rather shocked to hear my Spanish accent on some of my words! That can happen sometimes, as I pick up accents very easily, but it comes right back off again when I hang out with Americans. :)

We aren't finished moving in, so you are going to see that things aren't yet organized. There is also office space. I didn't include that on the tour, because there were parents there talking with the director, and I didn't want to interrupt.

We are on our way!

Well, this week has seen us really into the new school facility. The teenage boys have been working hard, helping us get everything in shape. They have painted some of the rooms. We are waiting on paint for the others. Yesterday they came over to my house and took a truckload of bookcases, table & chairs, books, and teaching materials. Today they put up two blackboards, and helped to begin unpacking and sorting what they brought yesterday.

The teachers came in the afternoon, and began sorting materials and putting everything in order. For the moment it looks like we are going to have about 60 students. With five teachers, and a maximum class size of 12, every class may be full.

The Lord is providing...Today we got a sink. We basically have no functioning plumbing. The toilets flush with a bucket, and there are no sinks installed yet. We don't have electricity yet, but we are fairly used to living without it if we have to.

We have a promise of at least one door, and a few other things like that from a church that is doing some remodeling. Two of the classrooms don't have doors, real windows (just some criss-cross boards) and have zinc roofs. Because of this, they are too insecure to leave materials in them. They need a cement roof, and bars on the windows and doors. (Since the robbers aren't behind bars, we have to be!) There are lots of robbers in this barrio, but everyone knows who they are.

One of the them was over today, asking to get some water from the school's cistern... and keeping his eyes open while he did it. Please pray for our protection; the teachers and the students will be walking through a few drug-infested blocks to get to school. Pray that the Lord will protect the school from break-ins, as well, and that the "watchyman" as they call him, will be honest. Often the watchmen are in on the burglaries here.

Most schools have a night watchman, who basically lives at the school, in order to keep people from breaking in. We are supposed to have one provided by the school sistem, but we don't know when he will start.

Here's what happens when it rains--and this was just ten minutes of hard rain!


I'll introduce you to some of our new teachers in a later update.

Another good-bye

Last year we lost one of our best teachers, when she moved to the USA. This year we are losing one of the two I spent the year training; she is moving to Spain.

From the middle-class on down, pretty much everyone wants to leave the Dominican Republic. If you ask ten people, probably at least 9 of them will say they want out. And a good proportion of the population is in process of getting a visa. The US consulate is deluged with applicants. As a matter of fact, last I heard, Santo Domingo is the second busiest in the world, behind the leader, Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.

This affects us greatly in terms of teaching staff. We invest a lot in training teachers, only to see them leave.

I asked Maria, the director of the school, what her biggest need was at the moment--what she wanted me to tell you we need. Now, understand, I was sitting in the office at the new location, where the walls need painting, the classrooms don't have any doors or windows, the bathroom has no sink, and the toilets only flush with a bucket. She responded, volunteers to come and teach.

So there you have it. Please pray for workers. Or, pray and come yourself, if the Lord leads you that way.

Public school teacher workshop

We recently had a three afternoon workshop for public school teachers, at the request of the local public school district. It was basically an orientation to deafness. One of the recent issues in deaf education here has been the new buzz word "inclusion." In a developed country, it means that everyone is allowed in the classroom, and you include the necessary aides, interpreters, and specialists. Here, what it means is that you open the door, push the special ed student in, and close the door. He is now officially "included."

The teachers had a lot of complaining to do. "They expect us to work with a full class (30 or more) of the children we already worked with PLUS kids who are blind, deaf, unable to walk, mentally challenged...having any kind of special needs in their education." These teachers not only don't have the training for this, they don't even get so much as a teacher's aide, or a planning hour!

While there are some children previously excluded who will do fine in the regular education classroom, when it comes to deaf children, putting these kids in a class with hearing children simply dooms them to failure. Worse than just academic failure; they probably never even learn a language at all, as they are isolated from Sign Language, and they don't have speech therapy.

So a lot of what our workshop was about was telling them how it was not a good idea to have deaf children in their classroom, and to send them to us! But that if they must have them, here are a few tips. (Don't talk to the class while you are writing on the board, etc.)

A visit to Elias Piña followed on the heels of that workshop. Elias Piña is right on the Haitian-Dominican border. You can throw a rock to Haiti from a few blocks away from the house I stayed in. There are lots of deaf kids. According to the deaf in the capital, the deaf in EP don't know Sign Language.

I visited a family with a five year old son who is deaf. There is no school for deaf children in EP. His parents don't want to send him away to the capital at five years old. They want to learn to communicate with him, but there is no one available to teach them how to Sign.

I worked with them for a few days on Cued Spanish, knowing that they could learn that on their own in much less time, if necessary. But it is a difficult situation any way you look at it.

Teacher workshop

Monday through Wednesday we had a workshop for teachers of the deaf, sponsored by Vision Trust. There were teachers from all over the country. Each of the three days we had about thirty participants.

The team that came did an excellent job. This kind of training is much needed, and much appreciated. The teachers participated with enthusiasm. All went away from the workshop with new teaching materials in hand, many of which they had made themselves at the workshop, and fresh ideas for teaching their deaf students.

There was a lot of interest in having more workshops next year.

Maria and I have been asked to present three days of afternoon workshops for the public school teachers in Northern Santo Domingo, many of whom are Christians, interested in working with the deaf. Those will be next Wednesday through Friday. A few of these teachers actually have deaf students in their classes, with no interpreters or support services at all--not a good idea. There are also a couple who have deaf children themselves.

Now you cannot prepare teachers of the deaf from scratch in three days, but we will give them a basic orientation to deafness, and some survival signs. We hope that we can pique their interest to follow up and get more training.

New Location

It looks like the school will have a new location. It is, in fact, the same place they were talking about before. They keep changing their minds! Last I heard, however, is that there are going to be some offices there for their education dept., and the school will have the needed classrooms, all day long. Keep this in prayer, because the time is getting short; at this point Maria, the director, needs to know for sure that she has classrooms.

Now that place is in very very bad shape. But if they are going to put their offices there, the chances are pretty good that they are going to give it a once over. They even had an engineer over looking at it the other day. This is another one of those times that I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch! Things change too much here to depend on them until someone has signed on the dotted line. :)

The place is on the market however, so if it should be sold sometime during the school year, next year the school will be looking for yet another place. I told Maria that we should call it the Mobile School for the Deaf, since we move so much! :)

Monday-Wednesday Vision Trust is sponsoring a workshop for teachers of the deaf. We've invited teachers from as far away as the Haitian border, and expect to have a good group. Teachers from the US will be sharing some of their teaching techniques, and also helping the participants to make some of their own teaching materials.

Summer camp, upcoming workshops, location search

Thanks for your patience. The blog didn't get much activity because I had no internet at home for a month, due to my move, but I'm finally back on line, PTL>

We ended the school year as planned, with a five day camp for the children. It was great having deaf people and some signers come through Vision Trust; they also helped us out with transportation. And we sure do appreciate the folks from Florida who sponsored the camp.

The kids absolutely loved it. It was wonderful for them to have a whole week where they knew they had enough to eat, were surrounded by friends and adults who could communicate with them, including some deaf adults, and that they were able to have daily exposure to God's word.

Swimming was a big hit. The kids cheered, and the adults cried, when Leslie, who is wheelchair bound, came down the pool slide.

There were the normal VBS activities of learning Bible verses and making crafts. One night there was bobbing for apples and another time a team had to find bubble gum in a pie-plate full of whipped-cream---no hands allowed! Elizabeth was the first to blow a bubble, winning the race.

We thank the Lord that there were no broken bones, and no homesick kids. One of my favorite things was to see how loving the kids are to one another. Oh, they have their little spats, but for the most part, they take care of each other, and accept each other's strengths and weaknesses. The older ones watch out for the younger ones. Our students are mostly obedient to authority as well, which made for a very pleasant time for all of us. We did have a few new students who haven't quite gotten that part down, but are confident that the example of the others will be their best teacher.

If you'd like to see pictures of the camp, drop me a line and I'll send you a guest pass. You can reach me through gmail. My account name is deafschool.

Now we are looking forward to a small group of teachers who are coming here through Vision Trust to do three days of teacher workshops for us in July. We are inviting Christian teachers of the deaf nationwide to this activity.

Maria is actively looking for a place for the school. This is a very big issue. It is hard to find a location, given our special needs and limited funds, and we don't have much time. to do it in. Please pray that something will open up. The government had offered us some classrooms previously, but it seems the person who owns that private school they were to rent for us, has put it up for sale, so we are back to our search.

Please pray for: a good location, workers for this harvest, and our upcoming teacher workshops.
Blessings!

Moving

Friends,

You haven't heard from me in a while because I've been in the process of moving.

I haven't had internet for close to three weeks, and probably won't have it for another couple of weeks at least, despite the fact that I'm told "3-5 working days" each time I go to the phone company. :( Please pray that I'll be able to get that soon. I have a friend who has been waiting two months for hers!

The apt. I moved into had some major problems upon my arrival. During the first week, as the landlord was putting finishing touches on the plumbing, he managed to cause a major water leak which caused water damage to every single room--ruining the recent paint job. So the whole place needs repainting! It took about a week for the walls to be mostly dry. During that time, every door in the house, and the refrigerator grew a fine dust of mold over them. But thankfully, the walls didn't. So a little lysol did the trick, getting them back to normal.

Next there was a power surge that burned up my refrigerator motor. That took three days to repair, because the electricity must be on when the technician comes. The electricity is very unpredictable. Unfortunately, he would come, and it would go off. He would leave, and it would come on again!

Then came dealing with the rats, cockroaches, and the swarms of mosquitoes with bug spray and rat poison. The rats are still there, and they are big ones. I have found that they like spaghetti, crackers, and pretzels, because that is what they opened in my closet.

After that, the pump that pumps the water up to the rooftop tank needed fixing...I was using buckets meanwhile, in place of running water.

All of my plumbing had to be pretty much redone, with external tubes running around the outside of the house, and the plumber is only a part-timer, so he could only work on weekends. So every weekend he comes over and does a little more. Most of it is done, although dripping pipes and faucets remain.

And so it has gone, on and on.

In school news...

School is over at the Ozama campus, and on its last week, doing final exams at the Sabana Perdida school.

The kids are very excited about their week of camp coming up the 15th through 19th.

One of the children came to school with welts across his back from being beaten by his dad. There isn't much you can do about that here, except talk to the parents.

Another child was in an automobile accident in which his eye was injured, but I understand that he will not lose the vision in that eye, thankfully.

Our current biggest prayer request is for a new location (or locations) for the two schools. We definitely will need to leave both places. Sabana Perdida is no longer going to offer afternoon classes, and their mornings are full. The school in Ozama has needed to move for a couple of years. The Secretary of Education insists that we have more space, in order to have an office and a library. That's not possible where we are at.

We've been offered some space at two different small private schools, which the public school would pay for. Maria went and looked them both over, and said they were not adequate to the needs of the school. One was located in a high drug area. The other was simply too small.

Dominican schools generally pack kids in with large numbers in small spaces. You cannot do that with deaf children, because each has to be able to see the other children, as well as the teacher. (Imagine this: the teacher asks a question. A student in the back row answers it, but those in the rows in front of him/her are unaware of the answer.) So classrooms for deaf children must be larger, to allow more of a semicircular seating.

Prices for renting have skyrocketed, but parents have less money than ever, because of the tremendous inflation going on here. Many of our students have a partial scholarship through Vision Trust. This is a tremendous help, but for deaf students this does not pay the entire cost. Deaf students are much more expensive to educate, both because they need smaller class size, and because they need much more visual materials, as opposed to the normal chalk and chalkboard method used here. Specially trained teachers must be paid reasonably or they will move on to the public school. The parents pay an additional supplement to tuition as they are able. Many pay nothing at all. It is hard to raise the payments when most cannot even afford the minimal charges. This very much factors into finding a new location.

Eventually, we will either need to get our own classrooms, or we may end up having to close the schools, as the economy worsens. All these are in our thoughts.

I'll try to get another blog post up in the next month. :)

Thanks for your prayers.

Moving

A personal note...Not only are both schools moving next fall, I'm also moving into a new apt. shortly. This one is larger, which is a good thing. We have very little storage room at the schools, so my house ends up being a repository for our materials. I take them back and forth, swapping them around between the two schools and my house. The school stuff has been slowly but surely taking over my place.

Last week I was given the opportunity to look through bunches of boxes and take what we could use at the school. We got some picture books--okay, they are in English, but mostly pictures--and some math manipulatives, wooden toy trains...lots of cool stuff for the kids. Most of it is sitting in boxes in my living room right now! I don't want to take it to the school just to have to bring it back, as we are nearing the end of the school year.

Moving in the DR is tricky. There are all kinds of pitfalls you have to watch out for, and strange things you have to arrange. For example, I have to buy a pump to pump my water up to a storage tank. This is because we only have water for maybe an hour or so every day or two. Then I have to buy and arrange to have a meter installed for my electricity. Oh, and the hook-up to the house. The electric company doesn't do that last little bit, to hook it up; you have to get an electrician to do that. Then there is the inverter, which is my back-up system, that has to be installed through the breakers, so that when the lights go off, mine stay on--except any kitchen appliances. These days almost everyone has inverters.

I can hope that the phone company will take less than three weeks to actually install my phone this time.

The new apt. is a short walk from the church that I've been attending, where we have a new deaf ministry. The location seems like it will be good, based on the areas I expect to work in next year. A friend from church lives just down the block.

There is a hair salon the next apt. over, and that is about as good as having a security guard. The neighborhood is supposed to be fairly calm. The place is on a dirt road, so it is muddy when it rains, and dusty when it doesn't, but probably doesn't get much traffic coming through.

Some of the boys from the school have promised to come over and do all the carting of boxes for me, and that will be a great help.

Thanks to all who have been praying for an appropriate apt. to turn up. Please pray that the move will go smoothly now.

Good progress

Some of the teachers have begun to use Cued Spanish with their classes during the part of the school day they teach Spanish, reading and writing. Sign Language is here to stay--that goes without saying. The students have a great desire to learn to read, which is the point of their becoming bilingual via Cued Spanish. All the teachers are reporting surprising progress for just a few weeks of work. The kids themselves, are enthusiastic and hungry for more.

Today a mother came in and asked about signing her son up for classes. He is ten years old. He's never been to school. But the unusual thing is that he became deaf just a year ago, due to a high fever.

According to the mom, he is of normal intelligence. She will bring him in on Monday so we can get acquainted, and evaluate what his particular skills and needs are.

The new deaf ministry in Invivienda is doing well. It is totally Deaf-led. I attend the hearing church which meets at the same time, and my role is to be the interpreter as needed for communications between the hearing members/leadership and the deaf members/leadership. The church is also asking me to teach a Sign Language class. I've agreed to do that once I find an apt. and get moved in.

One of our teachers has volunteered to be the Sunday School teacher for the students who attend church in Sabana Perdida.

Most, but not all of the students are back from Easter vacation. It's not at all uncommon for parents to keep them out an extra week at both Christmas and Easter.

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!

Where did the pics go?

Perhaps I should stick to text--my pics in the previous post have disappeared! Oh well, perhaps they will reappear later.

Yesterday I spent three hours standing in a line to get the required new ID card. Someone could've made some money renting out chairs. My reward was to get a piece of paper and to be told..."Maybe" in August, it will be ready, at which time I will have to go wait in another long line to pick it up. Long waits in lines are the norm, and everyone hates it, but no one does anything about it.

There will be something you have to do, and it will involve a long wait, and there is usually no way around it. Unless, of course, you have a friend or relative that works there...in which case they will get right in, and make everyone else wait longer. The only other way to get around it is to pay someone to go do your errands for you. There are even people who work as line place-holders, who will stand in line for you, and then call you when your place is close to the front.

(I just heard the children at a nearby school cheer. That means the electricity just came on!)

As soon as I arrived at Mi Esperanza yesterday, they wanted me to take a profile pic and send it off immediately. That meant a trip back home, and school was over for me for the day. It takes so long to get around that it isn't easy to get to the school twice in one day.

So yesterday I got some important things done, things that were necessary, it's true. But the day felt wasted, because everything took so long. I spent probably almost two hours of my time on public transportation. I was able to get several hours of computer work done, but any day I don't get to spend much time with the deaf students/teachers, feels like a day I didn't get much accomplished.

Ah, but that's American thinking. If I go into Dominican mode, I can be much more relaxed about a day like today. Because here we are not obsessed with time.

A girl's 15th birthday is very important. She has a big party, and she is dressed up like a princess, with crown and all. She has a cake that would rival a wedding cake. Her friends, relatives, and neighbors all come.

These days, one of the biggest features of the party is the picture taking. The birthday girl must pose with almost everyone there!

Usually a meal is provided. In this case a plate of various delights, among them empanada (dough wrapped around a filling and fried), spaghetti, potato salad, chips, and an apple slice.

And then there is next year

There is lots to do for next year. Most critical:

CCES school: Find a new place that will allow space for an office and additional classrooms. This is critical to government demands.

My Hope (Sabana Perdida School): The church is having some conflicts with the school. (Not the deaf classes, but the school as a whole.) They want to shut down the afternoon session next year. Both deaf classes and three hearing classes meet in the afternoon, and the morning session has no open classroom space. The church board is meeting on this issue today. They could decide to rent additional space elsewhere, or just eliminate the afternoon classes.

The director resigned this week. She has been a strong advocate for the deaf classes. We aren't sure how this will impact us.

another little one's story

One of our younger students frequently came in with painfully infected earlobes from cheap earrings that she reacted to. Her aunt says she insists on wearing them. But no one at home teaches her anything about removing and cleaning them, and when she has an infection, they don't do anything for it.

I took her old earrings off, and told her to please not wear them, that I would bring her some that would not infect her ears. I bought the better quality earrings at about four dollars. I gave them to her, knowing that there was a good possibility they would be taken away, but hoping they wouldn't.

Sure enough, she is now without them. When asked where they are, she just tells me she lost them. And that is what she thinks. She doesn't know how it works. Often when we give an item to a child, the parent or other relative will take the item and either keep it for herself, or sell it. I can still remember when I bought a little 3 years old boy, his first underwear. I gave him 5 pairs. By the next week his brothers had stolen and sold all but one, and that was only because he was wearing it.

Then there was the teen who received a new bed after the floods ruined his. His step father, tied him up in a chair and beat him because he wouldn't let him have it.

This just shows how we absolutely must be able to interact with the family as well as the child. The family needs the Lord too.

A home visit

Today the director (principal) of the Sabana Perdida school, and I, went to visit one of our students. This young man is 13 years old, and in his second year of school. He is a hard worker. His mom came to the school one time to complain to his teacher, that he was studying too much math at home. His mom is poor and doesn't really see the value of education.

At any rate, the mom was asleep when we arrived, late afternoon. She doesn't work, because she "cannot find a job."

We found Fredery skinny and depressed. I was surprised to see the boy who was always so excited and happy, now with no enthusiasm for life. His mom said she can hardly feed him. I think he has lost several pounds since I saw him just before the Christmas break.

Why am I telling you this? Well, this is the sort of situation I find myself faced with frequently. This mom is doing nothing to help herself or her son. She hasn't lost any weight, however, so obviously she is getting the food she needs. She isn't out looking for a job. She is at home waiting for one to come knock on her door and fix all her problems. She has the victim mentality. Meanwhile, her son cannot go to school, because she will not or cannot pay his tuition.

The director, however, says that the neighbors told her that the woman is not, in fact, the child's mother, that his mother is in the US working, and that she sends support to this woman to take care of the child; that the woman chooses to spend the support on the medical costs of her own aged mom, instead of providing food for the child who lives in her house. It's obviously a difficult situation. We have no CPS to send to find out what's really going on.

I don't know who is telling the truth. I only know that I cannot fix it.

The director upon seeing how bad the situation is, has invited him back to school. She is even talking about making sure he gets a good meal from the school kitchen before he starts each day. Since lunch is the main meal of the day, that might actually work.

For about three years I've been pondering and praying over one thing. We need the finances for the children to go to school. The teachers must be paid. But I don't like to make the school dependent on others for everything. I have often thought if we could have something the students could make and sell as a fundraiser, it would be perfect.

Everyone here sells things. Even people who have full time jobs, sell things to their neighbors on the side. The tuition costs for a child who is unsponsored right now, are about $35-40 a month. This means that with only $10 a week in profits, a student could basically pay his/her own way. Not only that, he/she would be developing small business skills, that are practically a necessity of life here.

What could we make?

It needs to be something:

• the teens can learn to make
• of good quality
• useful or decorative
  
• not something everyone would be able to make, so it couldn't be easily copied (as in the process/recipe is secret, or requires tools not readily available)
• made in a reasonable amount of time

Inexpensive jewelry is a favorite here, so that would be a possibility, although I rather favor something that would be useful to make the lives of poor people a bit easier. Any ideas?

We also need someone who can teach them how to make their product.

It's the teach a man to fish plan. One of our students cleans house just once a month, to earn her tuition for the month. But I cannot hire all the kids! :)