Happy Thanksgiving!

Framy

You may remember a while back, talking about a teenage boy named Framy. He was having problems with his one good eye. Now, he is legally blind. Apparently his retina slowly detached over a period of time, but none of the eye doctors he went to recognized or dealt with it, even though they did give him cataract surgery. [Because I was out of the country for this post, I depended on reports from the DR, rather than giving you first-hand info. As time passed and I was given more accurate info, I updated it here in brackets.]

Going blind is one of the greatest fears of a deaf person. Framy is having a hard time adjusting. He refuses to use a cane, although he really needs to have mobility training. He is way ahead communication-wise,  of the kids in the deaf-blind classes across town, and the teacher there says he is better off in the deaf school because of that. 

Please pray for Framy. He is going through a very difficult adjustment. Pray that he will put all his hope in the Lord, and that he can learn to live as independently as possible, and maintain relationships with the other deaf. Deaf-blindness is very isolating.

The other kids can communicate with him with hand on hand sign language. It will take him a while to become as fluent in that as he has been in regular sign. [This was inaccurately reported. New info on this is that he is able to use the tunnel vision he has still to understand visually.]

The deaf-blind class across town is sending over someone later this week to give his teacher and classmates orientation on how best to work with Framy in class.  The school does not have the advantage of the technology that deaf-blind people use in the US. Most likely, his classmates will be watching their teacher and taking turns interpreting to Framy what they are seeing. [This really depends on how constricted his tunnel vision is, which is unclear at this time. The more limited it is, the more likely that he will not be able to understand the teacher.]

Burglars

The police recently released several local thieves, and now they are trying to get into the school. Although the Secretary of Education should have a night watchman posted at the school, they no longer have one. As a result, there have been several attempts recently to break in.

This brings the director to some difficult decisions. We have recently installed an backup system that allows the school to have lights when the city electricity is off--which is most/all of the school day. This would be one of the prime targets for the burglars. Should she take them all out for safekeeping? Then there would be no electricity once again. Should she leave them in? Then they will most likely get stolen, and once again there will be no electricity. There are no funds to hire a night watchman privately. Then there are the other supplies used in running a school that will also be attractive to burglars.

Please pray that the Lord will provide a resolution to this problem, so that it will not be a constant burden on the school.

Vision Trust medical team

This past week the school welcomed a medical team from Vision Trust. The children received checkups, and were given toothbrushes and toothpaste.

But the team didn't stop there.  They presented Bible stories for the children as well, and spent some time playing with and getting to know them.  The kids were thrilled, of course.

We thank the Lord for this team, and their work with us here in Santo Domingo.

Team members

New toothbrushes for all!