School begins

The past couple of weeks have brought many changes. One of those changes is that we have moved into our permanent home here on campus. While we are enjoying the additional bathroom and bedrooms, it does come with a cost (literally and figuratively). Our new home does not have reliable wifi. Every once in awhile we can pick up a weak signal from the next building over and try to get online, but after waiting 5 minutes for one webpage to load, it gets a little tedious (hence why I haven't updated my blog with any new posts for the past 2 weeks!) And while our room and board here is more or less free, to keep things legit down here we do have to pay rent starting this next month. The cost of our home? Every adult is charged 150 pesos/month. So for our family, that's 300 pesos, which means we will be paying approximately $15 a month for a 4 bedroom/2 bathroom furnished duplex. I think we can afford that!

School started this past Monday. Kids were all excited to start school, especially Eli since it is his first school experience ever. His schedule is a little bit different than the girls, as he is actually splitting his time between 2 different classrooms. Every morning he starts off fully immersed in the Spanish speaking kindergarten class. Now, the Spanish speaking kindergarteners are only there for half the day, and Eli was ready for more than that. So after lunch he spends the rest of the school day in the English speaking Kindergarten/1st grade combined class. So his education will be a mix of Spanish and English teachings, ranging from kindergarten level to first grade. So far, he is enjoying both of his classrooms. He's definitely been more tired in the afternoons since starting school, but I remain impressed by his attitude towards everything. I look forward to watching him learn in leaps and bounds this school year.

Autumn and Bekah are in the same class together and they only have 2 other classmates. Both of their classmates are bilingual, but the class is learning primarily in English. The girls do spend an hour or so each school day learning Spanish. The school put all of our older girls in the same Spanish class (it's just the 4 of them) and I can't wait to see how much they learn over the coming months! Naomi and Shay are being taught by Gabe. They also have 2 other classmates. One of their classmates is fluent in English and Spanish, while the other is not quite fluent in English yet and prefers to speak in Spanish if given an option. But I am impressed at how focused the school is at teaching the kids in the orphanage English as a second language. Most of the kids here understand a fair amount of English, even if they don't feel comfortable speaking it.

Now that school has started, I have a bit more flexibility in my schedule since I am down to watching only Hannah. I was set up with a weekly schedule that had me assigned to work Monday and Tuesday at the community daycare and Wednesday and Thursday at the Disabled Learning Center. I didn't know what to expect with either one. The first two days were a bit of a letdown for me, if I am honest. I showed up at the daycare center and was put to work cleaning. We're talking like 4 hours a day of cleaning chores. It was humbling work, spending most of my mornings sweeping and mopping, washing windows, doing laundry, and sanitizing surfaces. But I kept telling myself that if that was where I could be of help, then I would do it with a good attitude (and I meant it!) I have a new appreciation for school janitors! Hannah tagged along with me during those days, but was placed with one of the daycare teachers in a classroom so that I could clean while she learned and played. The daycare center really is a top notch facility and I was able to listen to the teachers in their classrooms as they did crafts, sang songs, and taught both Spanish and English to the kids. But still, I was relieved that Wednesday and Thursday I was going to be somewhere else. Not knowing what to expect (but praying it didn't involve any more cleaning), I showed up at the Learning Center on Wednesday. I was placed in a classroom that has 4 kids in it. Three of the kids have Down Syndrome and I am unsure what sort of diagnosis the 4th has, but she struggles with learning and retaining information and also has some minor speech struggles. I was overjoyed to be able to help out in a classroom and actually interact with some kids. They are learning the basics right now, such as the alphabet, their numbers, and colors/shapes. The teacher is also teaching them Mexican sign language, which is fun for me to learn. The alphabet is almost entirely the same as the American sign language alphabet, which I already know, but while there are a few other signs that are the same in both countries, there are also a lot of differences. But I look forward to learning more in the coming weeks. Hannah spent Wednesday at the school where there is a small "daycare" option for staff, but Thursday morning she was crying and didn't want me to leave her there. I ended up taking her with me to the Learning Center classroom and the teacher graciously let her stay with me. She is not used to be separated from me, so this transition could be a bit hard for her. I am thankful that I don't yet have anything planned for Fridays and that Hannah and I can have a more relaxing day together. It sounds like my schedule will be changing a bit next week. After hearing that all I was doing in the daycare was cleaning, the school principal talked to the mission administrator and requested that I be placed at the school on those days. Anyone can clean the daycare, but the principal was wanting an English speaker to help out at the school a few mornings a week. It sounds like some of the younger kids who are in English immersion classrooms could use a little extra one on one time with a teacher/volunteer to help them with their studies. I am not quite sure what that will look like yet, but I think I would enjoy working at the school better than cleaning the daycare. We'll see what next week holds.

It is hard to believe that we have been here 4 weeks already. The time has passed so quickly! Tonight as I was tucking kids into bed, Autumn told me that she was very glad that we came to Mexico. I was really touched by her comment, as in the final weeks before our move, she was the one who was most vocal about not wanting to go to Mexico. I'm so glad that it is turning out to be a positive experience in her life. We remain so very grateful to God for this opportunity for our family to serve down here. I know that God will continue to meet all of our needs and grow us in our faith.