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!