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! :)

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!