Around Ashley’s class

Here are a few pictures of what Ashley’s class has been doing over the last week:

Escarlet counting and sorting

Profe Ashley and Franchesca reviewing the alphabet. Despite the face she’s making, Franchesca knew most of the letters!

Kendall with Miguel Angel practicing the alphabet

Bienvenido sorting and stacking

Profe Ashley’s class is also learning about position (above, below, to the right/left of, inside, outside, in the middle, etc). It’s going quite well considering how abstract the concept can be. I think the hardest part is remembering right from left. But who am I to judge considering that I still look at my hands to see which one forms the letter ‘L’ to distinguish between right and left!

To the PARK!

Last week we piled (seriously!) all the kids into the Mak truck and took them to a park in MonteLlano. Here are a few (or a lot) of photos of the trip:

Piled in with Profe Lorena

In the back of the truck with Johan

Racing up the stairs to the slide!

Bienvenido sliding down

Marileidi, Gustavo and Davidson

Ambiolix

Profe Ashley and Anne spinning the kids around

The kids spinning themselves

Wili and David pushing Nicol Cristal and others

Profe Cristina

Ariela and Wilsenci

Such determination

Yuneci sliding

Again Wilsenci with a look of determination

Gustavo with Escarlet

Leury with the See-Saw

Bianca Nicol

Lisela

Antony

Carlos Alfredo pushing Andy and others

Ariela and Nicol Cristal

Ana Wendy

Yunairi

Ambiolix

They had such a great time that we’re thinking about making it a regular event at Colegio Makarios!

Learning to use our hands nicely

Our students are in need of learning to treat others nicely. It’s hard to break them of what they have learned, though. When grown men here “settle” arguments with violence and when parents or siblings abuse each other, what else should we expect. We do, however, expect them to learn to make good decisions with their hands during their year with us. Our teachers have taken to making books about how to use hand (or feet, or teeth, etc). Today Ashley’s class was talking about hands and what they are for (throwing the ball, eating, painting, hugging, etc). After Ashley read them the book she made, they each traced their own hand to hang up in the classroom to remind them what our hands should be used for. Here are some pictures from the day:

Jeson tracing his hand

Miguel Angel, Yery, and Gustavo trace theirs

Escarlet shows off her work

Miguel Angel got marker on his hand…and then proceeded to cover both hands with blue marker.

In the front of the classroom they now have a visual reminder of how we are supposed to use our hands. “We can use our hands for good thing!”

¡El Primer Día de la Escuela!

Our first day of school was yesterday! It was an exciting day that had a few bumps along the way. Here are the stats:

48 students showed up

15 cried

5 cried all day

2 kids bit

1 kid tried to escape

13 staff members made it to the end of the day

1 million (roughly) mini prayers were said all day

We are so joyful for the kids that the Lord has given us. It’s a huge job and, at times, a scary one. But we know that we have been placed here and that our students have been handpicked to be taught by us. Continue to pray for us as we teach rules, give hugs, discipline in love, and persevere through the beginning of this new school year.

Just before the madness began

This is how super excited the teachers are!! Hooray!

Our wonderfully amazing new cook: Odilsia!!  She is an amazing person!

“Ok, everyone get in line. We’re going to start singing. Now, you go over there. Wait, you’re line is that way. Oh, don’t cry…” etc.

First time to get in their classrooms! Look at that lovely line!

A lot of parents wanted to stay and watch the beginning of the day

Franchesca, Jeson, and Bernito praying before entering Profe Ashley’s room

Profe Lorena’s (Lauren) and Profe Ashley’s classes

Walking into their new classroom!

Ambiolix and the rest of Profe Kim’s class singing

Yunairi and Bianca Nicol

Wili and Raidi are new friends

The End! Por fin. It was a great/crazy/hard/full/fun day.

Looking forward to day 2 after 10 hours of sleep tonight!

Literacy Camp Video!

Click on the link below to watch the video!!!

Finding myself with so much adorable & inspiring videos of our students during the 1st week of our Spanish Literacy Camp, I decided to make a little montage for all to enjoy.  Tomorrow we will begin our 3rd week of camp, learning the next group of letters in the alphabet.  Our kids are still doing great and are really enjoying the creative activities that our teachers created for them.  For example…for the letter K during week #2, Cristina’s activity was Karaoke!!!  They loved it and we even had Robin’s group come to watch them and learn to listen & applaud.  Good times.  So please keep the last 2 weeks of camp in your prayers as we continue to build these kids up to soon be able to read about Christ’s love for them.

Also, since this is my very first Makarios blog, I should probably introduce myself.  I began my full-time work here with Makarios on June 1st and I will be here serving for atleast 1 year, or as long as God wills.  He has provided me with such an amazing task & opportunity to pour into the lives of our students, as I will be creating and coordinating a new Bible Curriculum for the school.  I’ve been working through that this summer and Jesus has opened up my eyes to so many new things; especially rediscovering the basics of the Gospel through the eyes & faith of a child.  It is such a blessing just to be a part of this amazing work being done here!  In addition, I will also be the Short-Term Missions Liaison as soon as the school year begins.  I will be helping to set up and guide the ministry projects that each of our groups from the states will be doing during their week here with us in the DR.  So if you’re coming down anytime soon…get excited!  🙂  So, it’s nice to meet you!

Hope you enjoy the video.  Thank you for all your support and prayers.

Semana Santa hair styles

It’s Dominican tradition on the north shore to get your hair braided during Semana Santa (Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. It’s their Spring Break). Our kids are no exception. Here are some of them:

Escarlet came back with normal hair. Isn’t she cute?

Franchesca also has normal hair

Marta’s hair is still growing out and so, though this is a wee bit strange, it’s better than when her head was shaved. She’s so cute, that Saco de Papas!

Marleini had almost normal hair, except the braids on just one side of her head. You’ll see all the beads…typical Semana Santa

Wildania got some fake hair put in. She generally has this, though, so it’s nothing shocking. Though the beads are a new addition.

And here’s Rebecca. She has kind of a mullet-braid thing going on. They only added hair to the bottom part of her head.

And then you get the really crazy (I call nasty) braids. This is Marileidi. They put red and yellow hair into her normaly dark brown hair. Ewww! But she was loving it and gave a few sassy posses to us.

I mean, come on, that’s not cute!

A December trip to the beach

It’s been awhile since I last did a blog. I took a break over Christmas, but now I’m back and have some updating to do.

On December 11th, the last day of class, we took our preschoolers to the beach. It was a Christmas present from Anne’s mom and the kids LOVED it! Here are some pictures from our trip:

It was a perfectly sunny day

and we piled the kids into a guagua (15 passenger van), headed for Long Beach in Puerto Plata.

Once we got there we sat all the kids down to explain the rules and do one last head count.

Then the clothes came off (except the underwear, of course!) and we headed for the beach!

There was much rolling in the sand…

and playing in the water!

After about an hour and a half we washed the kids off as best we could and brought them away from the shore for lunch. Thanks to the Westlake Bible Church’s men’s group, we had plenty of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They got an apple (a real treat here), a juice box, a sandwich, grapes (another treat) and some cookies.

The kids loved our trip to the beach and have been asking daily when we are going back! Thanks, Sherry!!

hearty party

1)  Say, “Feliz Navidad”  on a card.

2)  Make a Christmas cookie.

3)  Have some rice and beans… duh.

I give it two thumbs up.

But don’t forget the “Santi” hats.

Hope you had a merry Dominican Christmas!

merry christmas!

here’s our christmas card photo – SO cute.  thanks to ashley for taking the pictures and shallan for making the letters!  (and I’m sure everyone else for getting the kids to cooperate!)