INTRODUCING

Carmen Rosa Vargas
When  school enrollment for the current year started in January there was no school secretary.  Via the grape vine Carmen heard that we needed someone to fill the position.  She came with experience as secretary in a Christian school in Sucre.  She is a big help in keeping things running smoothly.  Carmen is the friendly face that greets everyone visiting the school.  We praise the Lord for sending her to us.

Carmen and her husband have been married for five years and had no children.  They were in the process of adoption when she started to work.  Just a week ago they welcomed fourteen month old Fernanda into their family.  Fernanda comes to school each day with her mother and is cared for by the caretaker's wife.

Carmen and Fernanda

Bob Mc Elmurry
Bob has been with us for a number of years.  Bob is a retired chemist from Madison, Wisconsin.  He came to help teach English.   His job grew and he now is the one that keeps the computer lab up and running.  Thanks to Bob we have a computer lab that is the envy of many schools.   He is constantly looking for ways to improve the program.  He also writes programs to help the teachers.  We praise the Lord for Bob and his dedication to the school.

Bob is also the resident grandfather at the school.  The younger students seek him out, especially when he has balloons in his pocket.

Bob in the computer lab

Happy Birthday

Many of you will remember Enrique, who visited with us in the States several times.  He is now 18 years old.  He graduates from high school this year and plans to study civil and petroleum engineering.

Marion and Enrique

We went into the city to be with him and his family to celebrate his birthday.  Just like in most other places these celebrations are accompanied by lots of food.

This is cattle country so we eat meat.

and more meat

The young people from their assembly in Santa Cruz were there to help celebrate.  When Christians get together there is singing and food.

There is always a guitar and choruses 

KINDER WORKSHOP

Whew, I am home again.  Merlyn told me I had to write the blog about my trip to Cobija.

Rosa, the other kindergarten teacher and I went to Cobija at the invitation of one of our assemblies.   They have a school and wanted us to do a workshop on our kindergarten material. They invited the teachers from the government schools also.

Marion animating the teachers

I have spent about six years working on, correcting and revising a program for kindergarten.  We have been able to teach the children to read and to do basic addition and subtraction.  Nobody here believed that possible.  There was only one lady in the conference of about fifty that had heard of phonetics. We spent a lot of time teaching them the sounds of the letters.

Rosa receiving her certificate

The last time I presented the material at conference in Santa Cruz, the teachers didn’t believe me until on the second day when I took three of my kindergarteners to show them what they could do.  This time we taught the teachers just as we teach the kids; they could see the possibilities and responded with excitement.  One lady couldn't wait for the cds to be copied and she photocopied over 1000 pages so she could start on it right away.

The group that attended the workshop with their certificates

The authorities for the public schools counted this workshop for credit for the teachers and they issued the certificates.  The teachers from the state schools asked that we come back in December to have a workshop for all the kindergarten and 1st grade teachers.

Waiting in the airport and flying time cost us two and a half hours in the flight to Cobija but took six and a half hours coming home again.  It was so good to get home.