Bye September, hello October

Well, September came... September went... and now we're almost half way through October. September was a comparatively quite month... as I write this I'm really stretching to find something to write about. Joy just reminded me that Sara learned to walk. She also has developed quite the appetite for "real" food. Oh yeah, we had to let our gardner go. It was time for a change. We decided to bring Maribel's husband, Edy, on as a replacement. On his first day of work he cleared out twelve (12) bags of "trash". Our old gardner had let the garden grow up so much. It is so much clearer now. We're excited to be able to give Edy this chance. On his second day he was asked by three other families in our Colonia if he could do gardening-like work. When we checked for airfare back in August and September we were discouraged with what we found. But in the first week of October we acted on a tip from friends at CAG and checked again. Prices had dropped by about 25% making tickets possible. After much prayer we finally settled on buying tickets! We will arrive in New Hampshire in the wee hours of Sunday, 18 December. We will return to Guatemala on 8 January. We're all very excited to be back for Christmas! We Canadian Thanksgiving on 8 October! Much turkey was consumed by everyone. We're thankful to be able to share these sorts of holidays with close friends when we're not near our family. Now, in closing I'll write about the current weather situation - we're wet. Very wet. Tropical Depression 12-E has been soaking us for the past three days. The CONRED (Coordinadora Nacional para la Reducción de Desastres) has declared "condition RED" due to current conditions. There have been reports of numerous mudslides and flooding. A new sink-hole opened up in a highway down town - which has caused a lot of extra traffic. The government has closed all public schools for tomorrow (Thursday). But - we're fine. Just a bit wet. -knme

Two weeks in... wowzers...

Ok, so we're two weeks into the new school year and well... wowzers... where has the time gone? The first couple weeks have been pretty nuts but that is normal. Emma has been doing a "non-official" pre-k. This was something that Rick, the new director, has been working on as a way to help the faculty with kids in that age group. There are, I believe, three kids in Emma's "class". She has pretty much mastered her primary and secondary colours. I believe Joy said they were learning to spell their names yesterday/today. This week marked the start of an evaluation of a new thing for Abigail. Before the year started we had Abigail "academically tested" by Kelli (the head of the NILD department). Two weeks ago we sat with Kelli and she explained the results. Abigail is ahead in reading and other parts of language arts. To help her they devised a play where she will do 3rd grade LA and all the other 2nd grade work. She is quite excited about this. She earned a 100% on her first 3rd grade spelling test! Joy and I continue to be busy but much less busy than the first week of school. Joy's 5th grade music class are all excited about having band and the other students are loving learning the recorder. One of her students from last year, who had to return to the States this year, wrote to her and talked about his experiences with the choir in his new school. Tomorrow after church we're going to do some grocery shopping then have a cooking date with the Agrellas family. Should be a good day. Until next time. -knme

Ahhh...it starts again

We've decided, teaching at CAG is sort of like being at youth group on steroids. Our house has been so quiet this summer...remarkable considering our children...without the discipleship girls around. Tonight we had a welcome back party for the 11th grade girls. The moment they arrived the house was loud, and it stayed that way until they left. It was fabulous. Sara, just like the other girls, was able to sleep through a house of giggling (OK screaming) girls. Maybe it wasn't so fabulous for Ken, who hid downstairs with the girls..but Joy LOVED it!

Tomorrow is new student orientation. I hope to meet the rest of the new 11th grade girls then. Then school starts on Wednesday. Yay!

The "final" weekend...

At first thought today's title might seem ominous or depressing... but really that is not how I am intending it.

We're on our final weekend before classes start for the 2011/2012 academic year. I can say that this coming year has more interesting challenges than years past. Joy will be picking up three elementary music classes in addition to her theory class and her choral classes. This is because we lost our elementary music teacher who is returning to the States to raise more support.

Also tied to that is that I (Ken) will be taking on his technical responsibilities in high school chapel, elementary chapel and worship team. Due to the time these events are scheduled I will have to step out of the class advisor job I was doing the last two years.

Today, Sunday, we are not going to church because last night during bath time we ran out of gas and have no more hot water. After spending the day at the school painting (Joy's class room) and playing with friends (recently returned to Guatemala) we're all pretty dirty. Abigail has another loose tooth... at this rate she will not have any left to chew her food.

Emma has spent time with her "teacher" this last week and seems to be enjoying herself. Last week they spent time learning the primary colours.

Updating on Joy: she is feeling better than she has felt since early May. It has been good to see her with energy again.

That is all for now... Please continue to pray for us as the regular school year starts on Wednesday.

-knme

Update - 20110801

Hi there everyone,

Last Tuesday Joy went back in to have her x-ray read -- it was a good result. They told her to return on Monday to have the cathoder removed. Richard took her into the hospital at 5:30 this morning. She called me around 8am to say she was away and was feeling great. As of 1pm she is still awaiting her discharge orders.

The Larimer, Malczewski's, Agrellas', and Brown and Wilson families are back in town which makes the area feel a whole lot less empty.

New teacher workshops start this week and all teachers start next week... so much yet to do.

Oh -- the van is back on the road with many, many thanks to Richard and Jose.

-knme

Prayer Request for our Dear Friends

Sometimes this world makes very little sense, we sort of live that all the time here in this non-sensical country. Praise God that He is in control of everything, even when we don't see the good.

Last night, the 23 year old niece of our dear friends was shot and killed on her way home from the gym. Please hold the Rosales family (Luis, Melonie, Melissa, Christopher, and Ashley) up in your prayers.

Maribel

Maribel announced today that she would be looking for another job which pays more than working for us. We are, of course, sad about this, but we understand. She has the degree to get a higher paying job and needs the money. We pay the correct rate for the work she does, but she just needs a different job.
Thankfully the situation this time is not problems with her husband.

We are not going to be actively looking for someone until we know for sure that she is leaving though, because last time she changed her mind after a little bit. It shouldn't be too difficult for the girls as they will all be at CAG with the new childcare program. The adjustment will be difficult for the adults as our already full work load will increase greatly. One advantage - this should save us a little bit of money. (Silver linings - we have gotten quite good at finding them.)