Update/Prayer requests

I would first like to thank you for taking the time to stop by and read our blog.  Until very recently we have been doing our blog using a dial up connection which takes a lot of time and effort.  Your interest is very much appreciated!  With our new DSL connection we hope it to be less work to maintain our blog.  That's right, after almost a year of waiting we now have a DSL connection at our house! 

As for updates...

HOGAR DE VIDA:

Some months ago we mentioned the possibility of our family becoming house parents at Hogar de Vida, the children's home where I voluteer as a pediatric nurse.  I don't think that I ever updated that information.  Well, Tim and I met with the directors to discuss this and it was decided that it was best for me to focus on working as a nurse.  Though they need more caretakers the concern is that if I take on the role of house parent I would not have any time to help manage the healthcare of the kids as well.  There is also an issue of not enough housing on campus for our family.  So it was decided that I would be given office space on campus to work from, which I now have!  I have all kinds of plans for the space and will take pictures when I'm all settled in (sometime in January).

 

CHIRRIPÓ:

I don't think that I ever posted a blog about my July trip to Chirripó.  If you would like to learn more about this trip and to see pictures (I was too busy to take very many pictures) you can visit: http://www.sinoli.wordpress.com/ 

This coming week, December 2-5, I will be going on my 5th trip to Chirripó!  This will be an exploratory trip as we will be visiting two new villages who have asked for some time that we go there.  There will be 14 of us going on the trip and several of our indigenous friends will join us.  Some of the team will be putting on a church roof in one of the villages, some will be helping me in the clinic, and others will be praying with and for the people in each village.

Prayer requests for this Chirripó trip:

*Safety of our team.  It is supposed to be wet, rainy, and muddy the entire time.  If the river rises too high the trip will have to be canceled.  Please pray that if this happens we will find out before hiking many hours to the river. 

*Protection from illness and injury (including snake bites).
*Strength and endurance.  It will be a lot of hiking, around 20 hours on the trail over the 4 days. 

*We aren't exactly sure what our sleeping arrangements will be like in the new villages.  My guess is that it will be a spot on a dirt floor in an indigenous hut.  Please pray that it is a DRY spot free of any poisonous critters.

*Please pray that we have all that we need on the trip:  enough food, construction supplies, medical supplies.

*Please pray for Tim and the kids while I am away. 

 As always, we thank you for your prayers!  We couldn't serve here without them and that is a fact!

~Cindy

Tanner's school

Tanner goes to "Colina Azul" (Blue Hill), just outside of Atenas. It is a small, private school for preschool through 6th graders. Class size is small and there are several other English speaking students from the U.S. or Canada. Though the school is not bilingual, several teachers are bilingual.

We chose this school for Tanner because of the small class size and better access to English speakers should he need it. Though there are public preschools, the class size is very large with just one teacher and no English. We felt this would be too overwhelming for an introduction to school especially since he was scared to go. The goal for this year has been to get Tanner acclimated to school and help him feel comfortable being away from Mom and home. Next year he'll brave complete Spanish immersion at the public school!










Colina Azul starts it's school year at the beginning of February and ends at the end of November. Tanner's school day is from 8 am - 11:30 am, Monday through Friday. Preschool and Kindergarten share the same large room in a Montessori style setting. They have a classroom apart from the upper grades. Though the preschoolers and kindergartners do many things together, each class or group has their own teacher and there is an aide that helps all three groups. Tanner's group has 7-8 kids. The school is very organized, uses textbooks, and gives good notice of any changes to schedule (basically is run much like a school in the States). The school has a nice, wooden playground so recess is a favorite part of school. Tanner also has swim lessons and P.E. every week.


Tanner takes a bus to school in the mornings and either Tim or I pick him up in the afternoon. We recently started giving his teacher and the pre-3's teacher a ride home which has been so exciting for him. It's fun to learn more about what he's like at school. I have been learning that Tanner is very social at school and quite the talker in both languages. He'll speak English with his American/Canadian friends and then switch to Spanish for his Spanish friends. His teacher says that he makes friends easily and the kids all want his attention.

Tanner's best buddy Jake moved back to the States and he has been sorely missed! Then a new friend moved here from Canada and she even lives at Jake's house.

Tanner has grown up so much since starting school. He has become very confident and independent. It's so nice to see him making friends and being more social, too. He comes home every day and tells me about his friends. He knows everyone's name and says them with a perfect accent. School has been so good for him!

~Cindy

Laura's school

One of the biggest cultural experiences for us has been to have the kids in local Spanish speaking Schools. This year the kids go to separate schools, Tanner to a private preschool/grade school and Laura to a public grade school. Next year they will both transfer to a small public grade school just down the dirt road from the orphanage where I volunteer. This will allow us to spend more time at the orphanage and the kids can become part of the "family" there as well. They are pretty excited!

Laura is currently in first grade at "Escuela Central de Atenas", in the center of Atenas. She is in a class of 25-30 students and there are 3 other first grade classes with the same number of students. It is the biggest and oldest school in Atenas and I believe is for grades k-8.

The school has a very nice theater, library, computer lab, kiosks that sell food and drinks, and a cafeteria that serves free rice and beans with occasional meat or fruit as well. It also has a playground but Laura says that it is always too hot to play on and no wonder since it's all made of metal! Classrooms open to covered outdoor walkways that surround garden areas with trees and flowers.

The school year starts in mid-February and ends in mid-December. Each school day (at least at Escuela Central)starts at 7 am each day. This means an early morning for our family, but we are used to it by now. Tim and I take turns walking Laura to school each day (about a mile one way)and after school either Tim or I pick Laura up from school in the car, usually on the way to get Tanner from his school.

We never know when school will get out until the day before when Laura comes home with that information, but it's usually at 11:30 or 1:30in the afternoon. They don't use substitute teachers here so if the teacher has a doctor appointment or a meeting to go to then classes are cancelled. The kids get two morning recesses and on the longer days they also have a 40 minute lunch break/recess combined. We can even come have a picnic with Laura on her lunch break.

Laura studies many subjects at school: Science, Social Studies, Math, Spanish, English, Music, Religion, Art, and P.E. She has learned to read, write, spell, and dictate in Spanish and she speaks Spanish very clearly and without any accent (or so I'm told, I can't tell). Of course English is her easiest class and at times she gets to help the teacher. She has a different teacher for English, Music, Religion, Art, and P.E. and a homeroom teacher for the other subjects. Laura has been doing great academically, getting straight A's all year. Her teacher says that she is a good student and classmate.
Laura has easy homework on most days that she finishes in a few minutes and more difficult homework called "extra class" work just before exams that can take all evening to do. She has exams about every 2 months in all subjects except Art, Music, and P.E. Catholicism is the national religion of Costa Rica so there is open prayer in school, Biblical teachings, and before assemblies there is prayer and a praise song or hymn is sung.

Laura's only textbooks/workbooks are for her Spanish class, but she has a different colored notebook for each subject. Daily the teacher writes things on the blackboard for the kids to copy into their notebooks or she gives them photocopies to glue into their notebooks. This takes the place of any textbooks.
With all those notebooks, her book bag is heavy! For this reason she only brings home the notebooks she'll need to do her homework on a daily basis and on Fridays she brings home everything for us to review together over the weekend. This is how we also catch any work she didn't finish in class or loose papers that need to be glued into notebooks.

So homeschooling has become more or less supplementing what the kids are learning in school to give more hands on experiences plus we do English studies and some Math. Just for fun and as time allows we also do art, music, science, and history using curriculum I brought with us from the States.











Laura has adjusted very well to Atenas and has seemed quite at home here. She seems to have adopted the food, culture, and language of Costa Rica and has made some great friends here. If you ask Laura on any given day how school was she'll give a thumbs up and reply "Fantastic!" or "The best day ever!"


~Cindy

YWAM Gonaives, Haiti - EMI Project trip #2

Three days ago I returned to Costa Rica from my second project trip with EMI. We served YWAM in Gonaives, Haiti by designing a new base camp for them. We worked with Maula Jean-Marie a native of Gonaive. Maula was born in a Voodoo temple and after living a life overshadowed by the rituals of voodoo recognized its futility and offered his life to Jesus. Once delivered, he soon began to preach about the saving grace of our Lord. Suddenly, he was referred to as Pastor Maula. Recognizing the need to have more training, he attended Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in St. Marc, about 45 minutes from Gonaives. Now he desires to start a YWAM camp in Gonaive to reach and train the people in his home town. Here are some pictures of the trip.

The team's arrival in Port au Prince, Haiti airport:


Travel from Port-au-Prince to Gonaives. 13 guys in the back of a truck, six hours each way:






Gonaives, Haiti:


Starting each day with Worship:


Daily travel to the project site:






People who live around the project site:








Avery surveying the site:


Avery playing with the locals:


The project site:


Working on the project:








The final presentation in-country:


The team:


Thank you so much for praying for me and my family while I was gone. It was a difficult trip, fraught with spiritual oppression. It's because of the prayers of our supporters that we were able to be effective. Thank you.

January-April update

Well, I guess it's about time for an update! If Tim had not posted an entry about his first project trip it may appear that we are still in Oregon!

The last three months have been full of changes for our family and it has been a very busy time getting settled into life here in Atenas.

After enjoying the month of December in Oregon we left winter and snow for summer and sun in Costa Rica.











Our first couple weeks back were spent setting up house in Atenas. Never before and I doubt never again will we have to furnish an entire house at once! With our house feeling more like a home by mid January, Tim started working at the eMi office.

At the end of January I went on my third trip to Chirripó to work with the indigenous. It was a longer trip than usual and we had a large team of 26 people, mostly teens.











In February the kids started their school year and I started volunteering at a local orphanage, all while Tim was away on his first project trip!

The kids are very happy in school. Laura told me that school is "changing her life" because she loves it so much. Tanner had a rough start, crying every day for the first three weeks. Now he proudly tells me each day: "I didn't cry at school, mom!" He even takes a little bus to school in the mornings which is the highlight of his day.











Tuesday-Thursday mornings I volunteer at "Hogar de Vida" while the kids are at school. This orphanage has 30 kids ages infant to 7 years. While there I do everything from updating medical charts and taking kids to doctor appointments to giving medical advice and care when needed. The other day I had the joy of pulling large pieces of cotton out of a toddler's nose. This toddler has a chronic runny nose and I guess she found that this "treatment" worked well for her!











After school the kids play, work on homework including English studies, or we visit the library or orphanage or go to a friends house to visit and play. Then it's dinner, showers all around, pack school bags, put out school clothes, family devotions/prayer, and lights out at 7-7:30 pm (at least for the kids).As for prayer requests, we are still trying to adjust to all the changes and to a very busy schedule. Please pray that soon we will be in a "rhythm" that works well for our family. We've had some minor bouts of illness in the family recently, passing around the same cold that I probably picked up at the orphanage. Also, we are looking into why Laura has not been gaining weight. She'll have some tests (blood, stool, urine) at the end of this month. Please join us as we prayerfully consider becoming house parents at the orphanage. The director asked us to pray about it and get back to him by the fall. We are excited about the possibility, but not sure if it will work for our family.

We have felt the hand of God in our lives and we are so thankful for your prayers! We hope to do a better job of updating our blog now that we have internet at our house!

Cindy