breakthrough

The kindergartners had a breakthrough this week!  Yesterday after school, Antonia told me that the kids were sitting in class, chanting their Beginning Sounds chart (oso, oso, o o o; avion, avion, a a a... all the way to Washington, Washington, w w w), when suddenly one of them blurted out, "Wendy, Wendy, w w w."  And thus began phonemic awareness!  They have figured out that their names start with sounds - that the chart actually means something in real life!  And they figured it out on their own!  It's now their favorite thing to do during class.  They chant the names and beginning sounds of all their classmates.  They might be the only kids in our whole school who understand that the name Maria's first sound is mmm, not ma.  I am so proud of them!  And so excited for what this will mean later on in the year - phonemic awareness is a critical skill in learning to read!  (Insert one of Lauren's BAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH screams here for added excitement!)  I'll have to take some video of them and post it so y'all can share in my phonics-nerd excitement.  And see/hear how ADORABLE the kids are when they're learning!  Praise God!

school is in session!

We made it through our first month of school!  The teachers are doing a great job, the kids are settling in, and learning is happening!  Praise God!  Because of the public school schedule, we won't be able to take a class of four-year-olds like we were hoping, but we have plenty of work focusing on kindergarten, first grade, and second grade!  Dalexi, Antonia, and Dudu have really stepped up to the task of everything that I have asked them to do - they've been willing to make lots of crazy changes to the way we do class, the way they teach, the way we discipline, everything.

An unexpected change to my job (already, I know...) is that I am once again teaching first grade.  This year I'm co-teaching with Dalexi.  We have 18 little guys; I teach phonics, reading, and handwriting through the Rod and Staff curriculum and workbooks for an hour each day.  Then I get them settled in their centers, supervise center time, and help them clean up.  Dalexi teaches the last 45 minutes of class, teaching math, helping the kids do their public school homework, and reading them a story.

I LOVE teaching.  I love being in the classroom with the kids.  I'll take teaching over office work any day, even on the days when the kids are out of control and I almost lose my voice by the end of class.  They have stolen my heart - all of them.  It's been fun to get to know their little personalities.  And we've managed to learn all 5 vowels so far!  I'm looking forward to starting reading groups during center time soon and being able to work more individually with them.

Please keep praying for us as we continue in the school year.  Pray for continued energy, wisdom, and creativity for us teachers.  Pray that God would open the minds of the kids to learn to read and their hearts to learn about him.  Pray that we will show God's love in every interaction we have with the kids.

Here is a link to the photo album of pictures from our first few days of school.

Here are my first graders.  So cute!  They bring me lots of joy with their precious smiles, hugs, and yelling "prooooofeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" (that's really how they yell it!)  Remember to click on the picture to make it bigger.

Mom and Dad's visit!

For the second time since I moved to the DR, my parents came to visit me!  Unfortunately, their flight was cancelled due to the hurricane, but that wasn't about to stop them!  They rented a car, drove overnight to Pittsburgh, got new tickets, and got on a plane at 6:30 am, arriving in Puerto Plata only an hour after their cancelled flight would have arrived!  Now THAT's dedication.

We had a great visit together!  We stayed in a lovely condo in Cabarete (a treat for me!), went to my favorite beaches and restaurants, and went out to the village to see the school and shop at La Tienda.  We rode public transportation - they were great sports and even rode motorcycle taxis!  Dustin and I played a show the night they got in, and then led worship at church the next morning, so my parents got to hear me make lots of music while they were here!  It was fun to introduce them to my friends, show them the changes at the school, and of course sit on the beach or swim in the ocean and talk.  I am so grateful for my parents and for how they continue to love me, bless me, and guide me.  I'm grateful that they want to visit me here and that they want to understand my world - even trying to speak some Spanish!

Here are some pictures (the only ones, actually, that we took while they were here - oops!) from our snorkeling morning!  We had beautiful weather their entire trip!

extreme classroom makeover

The last two weeks have been prep weeks for the teachers at the Park Care Center.  We spent three days at a wonderful teacher workshop in Jarabacoa, then dove in to prep our rooms for the year.  I'm coordinating early education this year, which means I'm overseeing/responsible for 4 grades in 2 classrooms with 2 teachers and 2 teacher's aides.  We're totally recreating our early education program this year - new curriculum, new classroom setup, and new schedules that include circle time, read-alouds, and learning centers.  So we had a lot of work to do!  When we arrived at school last Thursday, our first day of prep, this is what the classrooms looked like:

The school carpenter was in the process of sawing apart, reinforcing, sanding, and varnishing two walls of bookshelves so that we could use them in the classrooms.  After finishing the bookshelves, he sawed the metal legs off some old desks, somehow got the desktops off, and built new desktops for them.  Those old desks are now tables for two in our preschool/kindergarten classroom!

This Thursday, the furniture was finally done, the whiteboards were hung, and the games and manipulatives were divided between the two classrooms.  We had a LOT of fun moving bookshelves and desks, decorating the rooms, and setting up the learning centers.  Preschool and kindergarten kids have art, books, phonics, construction, and "casita" (imagination/house) centers.  1st and 2nd graders have art, books, phonics/writing, construction, and math.  Now the rooms look like this - quite a difference!

The 1st and 2nd graders start school on Monday.  The classroom is ready, the teacher... will be fine.  He's feeling a little unsure right now, which is fine, so I'll spend lots of time in that classroom the first few days.  But I'm confident that once he gets into the routine of how the schedule works, how the lessons laid out in the curriculum book work, and how to use the discipline system we agreed on, he'll be more than fine!  The younger kids will start later in the week, as we still have lots of work to do to get the teachers familiar with the curriculum.  (For anyone interested, our 1st and 2nd graders are using Rod and Staff, and our little guys are using Estrellitas.)

Please keep praying for us as we start the school year!  I've talked with the teachers a lot about how we're learning how to do this together.  What works, we'll keep, and what doesn't work, we'll get rid of and try something else!  Pray for wisdom for me as I learn how to empower the teachers.  Praise God for the changes we're making, that my boss is on board with everything!  I'm so excited about what this year holds!

immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!

At the end of summer program, we award prizes (packs of cookies!) to the top four or five students from each class.  These are kids who have done the best both behaviorally and academically throughout the summer.  This summer, a miracle happened!  As the 2nd graders were being called, my coworker Ruben read three names, and then paused.  He made sure he had everyone's attention, and then dramatically yelled, "And for the first time ever, making history... JULIO!!!!!!"  Everyone screamed and cheered and clapped!

Julio* has been in 2nd grade for three years now.  He is a fighter.  He has a reputation for always being in trouble, and he probably spends more time in the office than any other kid at the Care Center.  I personally have been physically attacked by him multiple times, including having rocks thrown at me and being scratched with staples!  The staff of the Care Center has been praying for him daily for years.  The director has talked with him, with his siblings, with his mother.  And finally, this summer, God got through to Julio.  He finally made progress in learning to read.  He only got in trouble a few times in the 5 weeks.  He smiled because he was actually happy, not because he had just beaten someone up.  I am SO grateful that his teachers chose to acknowledge his change!  When they called Julio's name, he walked up on the stage and got his award full of pride.  Everyone made a big fuss over him, telling him how proud they were of him and how wonderful it was that he won for behaving well and learning a lot.  When the kids were dismissed, his face was still glowing with pride and happiness in his accomplishments!  I am praying hard that he continues to let God work on him this year and that he is motivated by his success this summer.

That's what my work here is all about.  That's what Kids Alive is all about.  Creating environments where kids meet God.  Teaching them about and demonstrating God's love, grace, and compassion.  And then sitting back and watching transformation take place.  Transformation that can only come from God.  What a testimony to the staff and kids of the Care Center to see that God loves and changes even kids who it's sometimes tempting to give up on.  I am overwhelmed by God's persistent love, that he never gives up on Julio, and that he never gives up on me.  I remember that while it may not be as visibly drastic as the change in Julio's life, my life has been transformed as well.  And I am mystified that an all-powerful God who controls the universe is intimately involved in the lives of each one of us.  Wow.  I pray that Julio will continue to be a reminder of these things on the days when it doesn't seem like transformation is taking place in Caraballo.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!  Amen. (Eph 3:20-21)


*The child's name has been changed.

random thoughts on despedidas

(warning: this blog is a little of a hodgepodge...)

Summer is a high turnover time in the missionary community, and this summer was no exception.  In the last two months I have said goodbye to three summer interns, four missionaries in Montellano, two Kids Alive missionaries, and my dear roommate Lauren.  Wow.  I have also said (more temporary ) goodbyes to my sister Molly, who was here for the summer and to several people who will be back in a few months.  In less than two months I will say goodbye to another two Makarios missionaries.

Goodbyes (despedidas) mean parties.  We threw four goodbye parties for Lauren - with our church, with our ladies' Bible study, with our Dominican friends, and with the Mak staff/Montellano gringos.  Lauren and I also took a goodbye vacation to Santo Domingo for a long weekend and had a final roommate dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.  Amidst all that, however, the strongest feeling we had was of gratefulness and amazement - God has done incredible things for us here in providing community.  Instead of sadness, we were struck by the ways God has blessed us here.  Even as I returned home to an empty apartment after Lauren left, I walked in the door and was overwhelmed by the truth that God is good.  That's one of the foundational spiritual principles we studied at missionary training, and I have clung to it this summer.  And now, a few hours after taking Molly to the airport to return to the US, I am still clinging.  Even if I don't feel it in the moment, I will declare God's goodness to me, and I will praise him for whatever it is that he is doing to my life this summer!

I don't have much insight yet into how God will use all these goodbyes.  Right now they mostly feel hard.  My home, which is more a group of people than an apartment, is now scattered across the US and the DR.  I will have a new roommate soon, but home, my place of stability and security, is changing.  I have to trust that God, as my unchanging Rock, will continue to be where I find my true home.  I also have to trust that my will is often not God's will, and that his will is always better.

A scripture that I have read and reread the last few weeks is Psalm 116:7 - "Be at rest once more, oh my soul, for the Lord has been good to you."  Rest.  Peace.  God's goodness.  Pray with me that I will return to my rest, and that I will find that rest only in the Lord.

A song that I have listened to over and over:  Thy Mercy, My God by Sandra McCracken.  Listen to it and read the lyrics here.

I'll leave you with some pictures from the goodbyes, too, because a lot of fun memories have been made!  (And because blog without pictures is boring, right?)  Clockwise from the top left:  Lauren with the Dominican Makarios staff; our last beach day together; roommate goodbye dinner (which we had despite a national transportation strike!); goodbye party with church friends; Molly and I enjoying our sister goodbye night at a resort; Lauren and I enjoying an audio tour of a colonial fort in Santo Domingo; snorkeling together with the underwater camera!

Uganda!

Finally... I'm blogging about Uganda! My parents, sisters, and I spent three weeks visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins who have lived in Kampala for the last two years. It was wonderful to spend time with my family, having fun adventures together for a few weeks. We went on two safaris to Murchison Falls National Park and Kidepo National Park - INCREDIBLE! I felt like we were in Planet Earth or, as my Dominican coworkers love, Animal Planet. We saw lions, elephants, hippos, rhinos, crocodiles, chimpanzees, giraffes, zebras, buffalo, antelope, antelope, and more antelope! The week we spent on safari was a week of marveling at God's work. His creativity - who would have thought of a warthog, honestly? His beauty as we watched the sun rise over the Nile and set over the savannah. His power in the sheer size and strength of hippos and elephants.

I had a lot of sweet time with the Lord during those three weeks. He was gracious in revealing himself to me in new ways through not only the animals, but also the people and culture of Uganda. We visited churches, shrines to martyrs, a refugee center, a children's rehabilitation center, the US embassy (what trip is complete without that, right?), and went to a cultural night of Ugandan music and dancing. I also spent a lot of time just sitting on a porch at my aunt and uncle's house, reading the Bible and journaling.

I don't have many cohesive thoughts or stories from my time in Uganda yet, because when I got home, summer hit full force in Montellano. So instead of stories, I'm just going to link to my photo albums - they sum up the trip pretty nicely. (Minus the 48 hours of travel each direction... did you know the Amsterdam airport looks like IKEA?)

There are two photo albums, more or less chronological... enjoy!

One: eating grasshoppers, brother lions, sunrise on the Nile...

Two: baby lions!, rhinos, culture.