Miss Jean-Chair

This is what hundreds of little kiddos run around calling Ginger. They think her name is really funny! Every time we are out walking somewhere (even if it is just Tim), we hear “Miss Jean-Chair” coming from the bushes and houses. Nothing more. We think many of them don’t know what more to say to us. You should all come visit and walk around with us—it’s really comical!

Since homesickness, though it comes and goes, is lessening and we are winning the battle against the spiders thanks to Tim’s bug-proofing measures (with the help of friends Josh and Kenny), we’ve been wanting to take a bit more time to write about our work here. We’ll start with Ginger for now.

Many of you know that Ginger has committed to be a volunteer at the two elementary schools in VOP until we leave in December. She spends the morning at one school, eats lunch there, and goes to the other school for the afternoon. The schools have been so hospitable and appreciative of her help. Besides feeding both of us lunch every day, the teachers at the Catholic school also want to give Ginger a small stipend from their own money to be able to take small trips and explore Belize. We are inspired by their kindness, and hope to do as much as we can to improve their working environment.

The needs at both schools are vast and overwhelming, so Ginger has been trying to figure out how best to use her time to help. She started out by visiting all of the classes at both schools, observing and assisting, and trying to determine where the greatest needs exist. While she wants to be able to help in every class (many teachers have classes with as many as 38 students), she realizes that it will probably be most helpful to spend more time in fewer classes. So, she’s decided just to focus on the younger levels (those within the scope of her certification—in the US, that’s Kinder-4th grade) and specifically assist with reading. She will most likely split her time between Infant I and II (pre-K and K), and Standard I and II (1st-3rd grades), working with students in small groups or one-on-one. Also, The Word at Work has donated a shipment of new computers to one of the schools (the other school already has computers), and Ginger will help set those up and show the kids how to use them once they arrive. Ginger has also decided not to work at the schools on Fridays, but to make that time available for special projects that come up, like the children's home trip last week.

One of the main projects Ginger has been working on so far is setting up a Pen Pal partnership between students that she taught last year at St. Mary’s in Amarillo (now in First Grade) and students in Standard I at the Catholic school in VOP. Before Ginger left Amarillo, she visited the First Grade classes at St. Mary’s and helped them write their first letter. Basically, the kids just wrote their name, their age, one of their favorite things to do, and drew a picture of themselves. The VOP kids received their letters last week and were absolutely thrilled! There are some pictures of them below. They responded in the same way, though you can imagine how different some of the letters were (“I like to play my X-Box” vs. “I like to climb the coconut tree”). We are working on getting pictures of all of the kids so that they will all have pictures of their pen pals. The thinking behind the project is to expose kids to the idea that the world is bigger than just what they see around them, to build relationships, and to give them practice writing and reading. Last spring, St. Mary’s students donated and sent (with Ginger at spring break) school supplies to kids in the valley as their Lenten service project. Our hope is that the relationship will continue between these two Catholic schools.




The pen pal project is one that we hope will spill over into other classes and schools, also. If you are a teacher or know one who might be interested in participating, let us know (sorry—this is beginning to sound too much like an advertisement). Standard VI (8th grade) is especially interested in having U.S. pen pals. This is the oldest class in the “elementary” schools here, and it will be the last class for many students who do not go on to high school. The teacher is hoping for pen pals so that students will have the opportunity to practice their English and writing skills and build relationships before they quit school.

In a previous blog, we mentioned the school lunch program that The Word at Work is assisting with by finding sponsors to provide hot lunches for kids who live too far away to walk home, at the cost of $3 US per week. One of our other goals is to find sponsors for several children that cannot afford to go to school at all. There is no public (free) education system here, yet it is still required by law that all children attend school. Many families have 10+ kids and simply can't afford this, yet we all know that education is their hope for a better future. We want to send out pictures and more specific information about some of these kids soon. Any of you interested in helping to meet these needs can do so by contacting The Word at Work (one of our links), but remember that you are already helping by supporting us!

This work is taxing in many ways (did we mention how hot it is here?). Please pray that we’ll continue to stay focused and energized to do what we’re here to do. Thanks for reading and praying.