Saturday - but written on Sunday

Another busy day! I was up a bit early as I had promised to help Brian (name recently changed from Porfilio - which he found he didn't like), the bright 6th grader son of our cook - with his final Englsih project. I do mean help and not "do his album for him". I am quite vocal about staffing giving too much help in homework - ie doing it vs helping the child so she(he) will advance a bit. I realized right away that it was good he had asked for Tia Sue's assistance - since he didn't have a copy of the book he needed. Many many people here do not have money to buy textbooks and the schools are just beginning to supply some. This year most of the kids in Jr. High have acess and can bring home a Ministry of Edcation provided book in Spanish, Math and some had one in Natural Science. I like the books as well and it is much easier to help with homework when there is a book to look at rathr than the (sometime poorly) copied presentation from the teacher.

Well back to Brian. One of our girls was using the same book he was (they are in different schools) so he proceeded to write the various sentences that the teacher wanted using a key sentance as a guide - and having me to clarify the guide and give him feedback if it was right. He wrote sentences about professions (He is a ________.), using the word LIKE and various food words (I like bananas.) etc. He had to illustrate the sentences but I left him drawing the illustrations.

All this was before breakfast - although I did have coffee. Crystel arrived just before breakfast. She is one of my personal projects - but she is related to the home but doesn't live there. Crystel is the younger sister of one of our girls Johanna. She is 4 and 1/2 and is developmentally delayed - the biggest delay being that she doesn't talk. At least she didn't when I met her almost a year ago - she is beginning to! Saturday she clearly say MA for MAS - which means MORE when we were eating breakfast. Her sister Maria says she is using Mama appropriately and often not just pulling her by the had. I have been working with her and the family (on her problems) over the last year. She has seen a pediatrition who comments spurred me on to see a recommended Ear, nose and through doctor and sfter that we have finally gotten x-rays of her head and a hearing test (she can here - which I knew as she can follow a number of directions). Pray with me that she will be enrolled in a Summer (our Summer - January to April) Program for young children and that all off the obstacles of getting her there twice a week will be over come. The obstacles are various: lack of money for bus (less than $1.00 a day for the adult that goes with her), someone to take her to the bus and to the (free) bus to the program, willingness to get up early (not a problem) and walk with her to the bus stop (at least it won't be raining as it will be the dry season) but the walk is more than a Kilometer, someone to pick her up at the pickup stop -- I could go one. I think we will succeed but that will have to include taking into account that her mother works two days a week as does her half brother (they pick up trash in a social program to help poor people and get some money and sometimes (her mother tells me) a meal. Maria, her 17 year old sister (who brings her to the home every Saturday - more about that later) wants to work during the summer as she did last year, caring for children. But the good news is that the work I have done with her first in her home (where I did the walking to get there - my knees didn't like it) and then at the Home every Saturday has paid off. She is eating better (and also getting some food supplement), drooling a lot less, is beginning to talk a little, can now undress and dress with almost no help, she has learned the routine of breakfast at the home - washing her hands, getting her bowl of food, waiting behind her chair for the prayer - quickly. I think they will be pleased to have her in a program. A lot of relatives live nearby. In addition we have been working on having her do things indpendently - walk, dress, etc. and I have been having a coulple of our girls - Rosa Mari and Enibeth are the most interested in playing school with her - with activities I give them - scribbling, matching pictures, gluing things, string beads, dancing, kicking a ball, playing catch etc. She has improved a lot and I now think that in areas other than speach she is function between 2 and a half and three ( she started out at about 18 months when I started working with her. She has a bag of toys at home and I think that she plays with them every day with another person.

After this I drove them as near to ther house as possible - there is still quite a walk - and went to Arocha Pharmacy (like a big CVS or a bit better) and discovered that Yahaira Mitchell, who grew up in the home and graduated from High School about 5 years ago - and kind of did nothing much and had a kid - HAS A JOB as a cashier. She looks great, interacts well with the customers, and was happy to see me! It was so nice to see her success - even though it was delayed.

Back to the home, typed the minutes for the Vestry meeting, left for Gamboa stopping on the way to make copies of the min utes. I arrived in time to have a hot shower, rest and ten enjoyed a nice evening with friends.

Ciao, Tia Sue