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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!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
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.
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.
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