The walk to our job site just got shorter. Our original project was to paint the church inside and out. Since we finished that on Friday, we were given an additional task: painting our own house! Originally a home for children, it is now used for volunteer group lodging and the exterior was faded and peeling. We spent all of Monday scraping and scrubbing the walls and porch/patio ceilings. We worked hard to get all the prep work done in one day. The plan for Tuesday was to get the first coat on, but we ended up getting quite a bit of it second coated and used up all the paint. It looks so lovely. We just have the trim work to do on Wednesday, so we hope to have a short work day.
We gave the books my Spanish 2/3 students wrote to the children at the VBS last week, but we had 20 left. Today I visited the elementary school and gave books to the children in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades who had not attended the VBS. The second grade teacher was so enthusiastic about the books that she asked for one for herself. The principal again told me what a wonderful help the books would be for developing reading skills, as she knew the books would be passed from child to child. I can hardly wait to go back to class next week and show my students the pictures of the Dominican children with their books. Chelsea said today that seeing how much the kids liked the books made her want to make an even better book next year. (Hey, Chelsea, does that mean you are taking Spanish 3?)
My buddy Andy played my sidekick again tonight in my clown show. Last year he did a sketch with me that brought the house down, but I think tonight was even better, as we did a levitation trick. Once it was obvious how we had cheated, the place roared with laughter. Abby told me she recorded the whole show. I guess I am going to have to confiscate her camera before the video hits Youtube. I had arrived in the Dominican Republic without much in the way of clown props, so I am so happy I was able to put on a crowd-pleasing show. I told Andy next year I will have to bring him his own clown nose.
As we left the school, where we had the show, my students were amazed by the brightness of the stars. A Dominican child, hearing all the oohs and ahs, asked the student missionary, “Don´t they have stars in their country?” When we got to our house, most of the students, Andy and I climbed up on the rooftop to enjoy the stars from a little closer, with background music provided by the crickets and frogs. When we climbed down, we were greeted by three frogs (or possibly toads)—one of which was almost the size of my fist. Alieha was hesitant to come down, but the toad finally hopped away from the ladder.
We had to skip our storytime tonight, as it was so late when we got home, but we hope to play catch up tomorrow night. We skipped about 12 chapters in the book, so that we could get to the part about Las Palmas in this history of International Children´s Care. The kids were surprised when Samilin, the director here, was mentioned. We had also met Gladys Lora, the original director of Las Palmas, at church on Sabbath, so finding out how she got involved in ICC was meaningful to the kids.
I always post a day late, as I write at night after kids are in bed (Paul commented that I don´t seem to sleep much—I just love that quiet time), but I don´t want to walk to the director´s house to get onto the internet late at night. So goodnight, or good morning, as the case may be.
We gave the books my Spanish 2/3 students wrote to the children at the VBS last week, but we had 20 left. Today I visited the elementary school and gave books to the children in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades who had not attended the VBS. The second grade teacher was so enthusiastic about the books that she asked for one for herself. The principal again told me what a wonderful help the books would be for developing reading skills, as she knew the books would be passed from child to child. I can hardly wait to go back to class next week and show my students the pictures of the Dominican children with their books. Chelsea said today that seeing how much the kids liked the books made her want to make an even better book next year. (Hey, Chelsea, does that mean you are taking Spanish 3?)
My buddy Andy played my sidekick again tonight in my clown show. Last year he did a sketch with me that brought the house down, but I think tonight was even better, as we did a levitation trick. Once it was obvious how we had cheated, the place roared with laughter. Abby told me she recorded the whole show. I guess I am going to have to confiscate her camera before the video hits Youtube. I had arrived in the Dominican Republic without much in the way of clown props, so I am so happy I was able to put on a crowd-pleasing show. I told Andy next year I will have to bring him his own clown nose.
As we left the school, where we had the show, my students were amazed by the brightness of the stars. A Dominican child, hearing all the oohs and ahs, asked the student missionary, “Don´t they have stars in their country?” When we got to our house, most of the students, Andy and I climbed up on the rooftop to enjoy the stars from a little closer, with background music provided by the crickets and frogs. When we climbed down, we were greeted by three frogs (or possibly toads)—one of which was almost the size of my fist. Alieha was hesitant to come down, but the toad finally hopped away from the ladder.
We had to skip our storytime tonight, as it was so late when we got home, but we hope to play catch up tomorrow night. We skipped about 12 chapters in the book, so that we could get to the part about Las Palmas in this history of International Children´s Care. The kids were surprised when Samilin, the director here, was mentioned. We had also met Gladys Lora, the original director of Las Palmas, at church on Sabbath, so finding out how she got involved in ICC was meaningful to the kids.
I always post a day late, as I write at night after kids are in bed (Paul commented that I don´t seem to sleep much—I just love that quiet time), but I don´t want to walk to the director´s house to get onto the internet late at night. So goodnight, or good morning, as the case may be.