Getting a check up

It’s time for our kids to get checked out by the doctora. Lauren has been going through all of their charts and updating heights and weights. We are ever so thankful to be able to have someone continually monitoring the health of our students. Here are some photos:

Lauren getting Rachel’s weight

Measuring Eduardo’s height. We’ve had some kids sprout up since they were last checked when the medical team was here. I believe that one grew 11 centimeters in 5 months!

Checking Franchesca’s ears, nose, throat, etc.

And, of course, keeping the information accurately documented!

And, occasionally, she gets to clean out some really dirty ears!

Thanks for all you do, Lauren. Our students appreciate it, as do we!

¡Feliz Día de San Valentín!

Profe Ashely’s class had a fun little Valentine’s Day party on Friday. It’s not as big of a deal here as in the States but everyone knows what it is and you can find pink and red clothes all over the stores. Here are a few pictures:

Ashley made fun little gift bags that included pink Dinos (kind of like Oreo’s)!

The kids worked on a making Valentine’s Day cards.

They all made 2 cards. One for a staff member at the school and one for someone in their family!

And the most fun surprise is that Cara came to school and read them a Dora book! They love seeing Cara!

Happy Valentine’s Day from Colegio Makarios!

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!

Some fun fotos

Elijio singing in the morning

Bernadeta, Memo’s mom, is 8 months pregnant

Ernesto’s hand. I don’t know why but I like this photo

Ambiolix’s nose! He’s so presh.

Kendall with some of our crazy Chichiguan kids.

Ambiolix playing in Chichigua

Franchesca eating a guava

Bernito…looks like he’s thinking but he’s really looking at Kendall and Memo

Kendall tickling Memo.

Emilio’s hand

Wilton

Alturo, he’s so happy!

¡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.

Literacy Camp

Last week was the kick off for our new summer school program.  With groups coming every other week throughout the summer we decided to have groups focus specifically on projects for the new school and bible camps for the local kids.  However, when groups are not here we decided to hold a literacy camp.  Anne and the teaching staff developed the camp program to keep the kids’ minds active and engaged during summer months by providing fun ways to learn.  Our school kids have been broken up into five different teams to participate in the program.  Our teams are the Manos Moradas (purple hands), Monos Mamey (orange monkeys), Ratones Rojos (red rats) Aviones Amarillos (yellow airplanes) and the Vacas Verdes (green cows).  The camp consists of numerous stations that the kids go to to learn letters.  The stations are creatively themed and include such activities as: arts and crafts, music and movement, oral and tactile games and outdoor play.   We have already seen improvements in many of the kids and everyone (including staff) are having a great time.  The best part about the camp is that we have the opportunity to include the Bible into their activities; one station is focused specifically on bible stories.  Each kid is also learning lessons in responsibility and respect.  Each team earns their school uniforms for next year by successful listening, sharing and displaying good effort.  We can’t wait to see the impact this summer has on years to come.

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!

ropa rapido

we’re doing a unit on health and hygiene at the school.  each of the preschool classes have been talking about the necessity to wash their hands, bathe and drink clean water, brush their teeth, and wear clothes.  if you have ever come down to the DR with MAKARiOS in a group then you probably saw a little nudity.  so we’re trying to make sure the kids know why and how to wear clothes 🙂

here’s a few pictures of how the activity went.

jeson and wilcency

bernito and luis fernando

franchesca and marileiny

rebeka and regina (this one is my favorite!)

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!!