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.

The kids in Sabana Perdida are enjoying their rehearsals for the Christmas event on Friday. Each class does a song or something, so we put together a brief Christmas play.

At the bottom of the picture you see three teachers: Mela, who teaches the older kids, Yulissa (deaf) who teaches Bible and acts as a TA at both schools, and Yoselin, who teaches the younger kids in Sabana Perdida.

Most of the students are in this photo, although there are a few absent.

There is a new missionary family working with the Deaf in Santo Domingo. This is great news! Santo Domingo is a city of 3 million people and counting. The deaf population is double what you would have in a more developed country, so you can imagine that we are continually short of workers.

We have invited them to do a weekly mini-church service with our students, since most of the students aren't able to get to church on Sundays. We do have Bible studies a couple of days a week too, but this will be more like a church service. Several of the students have come to know the Lord at this point, so the timing is good.

The deaf pastor from another church sat me down on Sunday, and said "We need more missionary workers." Enough said. Please pray for God to send these workers. Life is difficult here, and it isn't easy to find people who are willing and/or able to come, and even harder to find people who will stay long term. But we put that in the Lord's hands where it belongs; he is the one who calls.

There is a new Christian school for the deaf in Hato Mayor, established by a short term (one year) missionary . Every city does not yet have a school for the deaf, Christian or otherwise, and we are all concerned that each city have at least one; we are rejoicing over the new one. We look forward to the day when every deaf child will be able to attend school, and learn a language through which they can understand the good news.

Our new teachers are working hard at improving their Sign Language. Many of the newer students came in without Sign, and are already communicating in formal SL at a basic level.

The hearing school where we have two self-contained deaf classrooms has been having some serious problems. They have lost two teachers as a result. The director and admin. have taken over teaching those two classes till January at least, as it is too close to vacation to hire a teacher immediately. They've brought the classes downstairs as a result.

This is causing some problems with the deaf classes, as there is so much noise and confusion going on, it makes it difficult to teach. Our facilities are very basic. Most of the classrooms consist of a large room that has been subdivided with thin plywood. It doesn't reach to the top, and noise travels. You might think it wouldn't bother the deaf children, but it really does. It distracts them greatly.

The children are practicing a Christmas song at one school, and a drama at the other, to present to friends and families.

Please pray with us that God will continue to supply all our needs, and that is so much more than just finances; needs for dedicated workers, qualified teachers, classroom space, and all the other things that belong in a Christian school are on our prayer list. We want to see these kids come to know the Lord. That is our heart.

Sign language classes are just around the corner in January!

Back at last!

It is so good to be back at school on a daily basis! My arm is officially healed, although it is going to take some work to get back my full range of motion. The important thing is that I can now sign two-handed again, pretty well, as long as the sign doesn't involve lifting my left hand very high.

The new teachers are still working on their Sign Language. If you can imagine, it is like it was in the USA 20 years ago, where basically there were no Sign classes, and no hearing people except those with deaf parents knew Sign. (Here even a lot of CODAS (Children of Deaf Adults) in their 20's don't know formal sign.) So we have to hire people with no Sign skills and get them signing as well/fast as possible. If there were deaf college (or even high school) graduates available to hire as teachers, we would gladly hire them. So please pray for our teachers: to learn well and quickly, to be teachable, and to have a real heart for their deaf students. Also pray for the Lord to send more workers into the Harvest.

In January we'll be having a Sign class co-taught by Yulissa (deaf) and myself. This will be for parents, and other interested parties.

This Friday is our monthly teacher workshop, where we invite teachers of the deaf from the various little Christian schools around the country to come and learn how to do their job more effectively.

One of the deaf students had a problem recently. Her cat had disappeared. She searched and searched for it with no result. When she asked her mom if she had seen the cat, her mom told her that her grandma had eaten it! Not too many people eat cats here these days, but 20 years ago it wasn't uncommon at all. Grandma was from that era. I hear they taste like chicken.

Although the economic crisis has presented many difficulties, it has helped us in one way: gas has gone down, and thus bus fares, have gone down. Since many of our students take public transportation to school, low fares are essential to their coming. Right now it is 45¢ to take most buses, and 39¢ to take a public car (just like a bus but smaller--goes on a regular route.) Some students take more than one vehicle to get to school.

We are getting close to the Christmas break. There is so much to teach, and so little time! Thank you for your prayers for us.

Popping in and out

Here's an update on my broken arm: At today's Dr. appointment, although I had hoped to be able to begin therapy, I was told that it would be at least another two weeks.

Popping in and out is about all I can do right now at the schools, and of course we can communicate by phone. I try to get into the schools at least once a week. Yesterday we accepted a new 7 year old (girl) student in Sabana Perdida. This is her first time at school, and she will be learning Sign Language with us this year.

We are working on plans for a week of camp at the end of the school year.

broken

Well, if you are wondering why you haven't had an update in a bit, I'll tell you why: I broke my arm! That was about a week and a half ago. I was just leaving with the deaf pastor and his wife, to go pick up some boxes of school materials I had sent from the US from my recent visit. I tripped and fell, cutting my head badly (9 stitches) and breaking my left arm high up on the humerus. The doctor said it would be 6 weeks before I could use it and it had to be immobilized during that time. Because of the location of the break, I have a sling rather than a cast, and a strap that goes around my arm & body to keep my arm from moving much.

You can imagine that I haven't been able to work much lately. The Lord has a plan in everything, and I can only think that he is taking our new teachers through something they need to learn, and the same for me.

The doctor says I must sleep sitting up. :( Very uncomfortable. But my friends have a recliner, and so that has become my bed for the time being. I think his point is that I will not be able to turn over and hurt my arm while I'm asleep.

For a few weeks, I'm back in the same house where I was previously housesitting. My missionary friends are helping me out, as I'm pretty limited in what I can do for myself.

At last I've gotten to the point that I can type with more than one finger, using a laptop.

The Wycliffe missionaries are in the country doing their survey of the Sign Language here. I was able to meet with them on Friday at our monthly teacher's workshop, and they got to interview some of the teachers as well. We desperately want a Sign translation of the Bible, and have been waiting already for three years for the process of translation to begin. Please pray for a translator for us.

I cannot yet go out on public transportation, because there is too much jostling around, and the old sardine can approach to filling the cars and buses would be painful and not good for my arm. Taxis are okay for an occasional trip, but too expensive to use daily, so getting to the school is practically off limits for the time being. I'm staying in touch by phone. It's just as well, because my signing abilities are severely impeded by this sling.

The country is having an epidemic of conjuncivitus. Last week in Sabana Perdida, both teachers of the deaf had it, along with four of the teachers of the hearing kids, plus innumerable kids. Classes were cancelled for two days. It is everywhere, and a particularly bad strain.

The school in Ozama is doing well, and has about 38 students now.

Our storm season continues with tropical waves, storms, and disturbances, passing through on a regular basis, leaving behind lots of rain and flooding. This happens yearly at the beginning of school. I think maybe they should just make August and September our school holiday months, so that so much school will not be missed due to hurricane season!

Please pray for a good recovery for me. In a few weeks I will begin therapy. I don't know what that entails, whether weeks or months, but hope that I'll be able to be back at work at the school while that is going on. Now that I have the go-ahead from the doctor, and my arm is less painful than at first, I'm starting to work on the curriculum on my little laptop. Almost two weeks of forced sitting around has been very annoying!

Blessings!

Hurricanes and Tropical Storms

School started on Monday for the Sabana Perdida group. Returning students were very glad to get started at last, as happens with children all over the world.

We have several new students, and went to work right away teaching them Sign Language. They seemed to enjoy this very much.

We have two new teachers, both with minimal Sign Language skills. One worked with us last year, so she has been signing for a year, but is still limited in her skills, especially of understanding the children. The second teacher is just a beginner, and is paired in the classroom with our deaf TA while she is learning. Both will be heavily supervised, to enable them to improve their teaching skills, and avoid lack of progress in their students.

This is not a matter of not hiring qualified people by choice; there simply are no qualified people available. Our choices are either that the children have no school at all, or that they have school with less than adequate teachers. It's the old sad song of "better than nothing." However, the second verse is, that we are committed to constant improvement.

My job this year is largely centered on teacher training and curriculum development. We are already receiving requests for Sign classes for parents, so that also is in the works.

Tuesday and Wednesday, the storms moved in. The weather was very severe, with wind gusts up to 45 mph reported at our airport. The rain came down in buckets. Tuesday only a handful showed up, and Wednesday school was actually cancelled.

We are in the height of hurricane season, the time when we usually get our most dangerous storms. There is a category 4 (that's very strong) storm heading our way, but it is too soon to know if it will hit land or not. Right now we are in the best guess trajectory, but that may well change. Unfortunately even if it misses us, it is big enough to cause us torrential downpours, and--you guessed it---absences and/or cancellations.

I'm beginning to think that they should change their summer vacation months to Aug. and Sept., as this pretty much happens every year.