Blog 5 Feb 10th

February 10^th 2011

Happy Birthday G!

Week 3 of classes.

Things have become normal life here....we work hard all week and look forward to weekends but the lessons we were hoping to learn were to take joy in every moment of everyday. We are learning.

We thank God daily for His overwhelming provision. Take a moment to look around you – do you have running water? Do you have electricity? Do you have both at once? Those are provisions that we are happy to have one at a time and ecstatic if we have both at once! The school is not yet hooked up to electricity so the school is using a generator to run the pump from the well for water and provide electricity. Obviously, there are some technical difficulties that occur with a new and HUGE building!

Thankfulness – Seth has been learning to have fun with kids by using the universal hugs, smiles and giggles....and the occasional Spanish word. What a joy it is to see him come out of his shell and have fun! He also has very few toys here and has become so creative and fun despite all of his 'stuff' that we thought he couldn't live without. Oh and Seth's new buddy at school (first friend that is not a girl) is named Esmeli...which is pronounced as “smelly”... funny joke for the English speakers! Very cute kid too...he has been taking care of Seth (helping him open his snacks, etc.).

Thankfulness – Recently we've been able to give a single sticker as a reward for reading several books or for other school work. A sticker is such a great reward, and I think of how many times Seth (or my therapy clients) ask for bigger rewards or just laugh at a reward being a single sticker. We don't have many stickers, so they aren't used as a reward much and really none of the kids notice. Their reward is being able to get an education or being able to hold and read a book....and they are very thankful for these things.

I'm trying not to get overwhelmed with trying to implement a lot of reading ideas into ALL the classes in the school. I can't wait to post before and after pictures, as we've already seen so many changes! Last week an SK child was playing with magnet letters and wrote the word 'veo' (I see)....he came to the teacher and showed her his work with pride, saying look I wrote 'mira' (look)....the teacher hugged him and congratulated him for writing 'veo' (I see). They had read a book called “I see ___” all week and the boy had been able to spell the repetative word 'see'....although he thought it was 'look'. This was a great success, as play-time, magnetic letters, and repetitive books are all things that were not present in the Kindergarten classrooms before!

I guess this blog is just to remind us to thank God for ALL we have and to remind us that maybe we have WAY too much. I hope that we can come home and really remember the difference between needs and wants....because that difference is very clear here.

Eden in her home uniform

Antigua Parque Central

Volcan Agua

Church by Parque Central

More buildings at the parque

Volcan Agua again

By the lactating fountain...take a closer look at the fountain.

Eden being cute

Sether's uniform and custom made pants