English Teachers give us a Christmas Party

The English Tachers of the San Miguelito school area gave us a Christmas Party last Thursday. Several of the teachers had taught some of our girls. Various teachers played games with the group - in English- such as fruit salad, head and shoulders. They had ampel snacks and a cake and soda and each girl received two gifts. There was also distribution of clothing.
Here is the gift table. The girls are in the background choosing clothes.
Here is Maria Isabel with her gifts. She always looks very serious when I take a picture.
This is the entire group. That is Karla posing in the front. Evelia was with her dad - because it was almost mothers day weekend. He came to visit with her because her mother isn-t in the picture.

Our Christmas Tree

Here are Carla and Maria Isabel helping choose the tree - a small tree from Canada - at a local Super Market - El Rey - the KING. We are outside and the young man behind is one of the store helpers. The smell of the needles is wonderful. I have a small branch near my bed.
We arrive at the home with the tree. The dog is Manchita - which means something like spotty. Her English name is Blackears. She is very attached to me and always greets the car when I drive up. While we were getting the tree Evelia and Estefany came home from school early. After setting it up we began to make decorations. The first project was paper chains.
As you can see the paper chains are not in evedence. I heared that they were damaged when the tree was moved. Maybe Evelia and Karla had a tug of war with them. Click on the picture to see the decorations more in detail. Many were made by the girls yesterday. The two young women are Rosalia and Eveliana. They asked me to take two pictures so they could each have one. They don-t know a lot about digital cameras!



Tomorrow we will have our second Christmas Party, given by the staff of Phizer here in Panama. One wonderful thing they do is ask each girl to write a letter naming three gifts they want and also what they would like for lunch from MacDonalds or another place. I will tell you tomorrow.



School is over for the year on Friday. Summer is coming but we still will have a bit more rain before then.



Blessings, Tia Sue

Mothers' Day

Yesterday was mothers'Day in Panama. It coincides with the fast of the immaculate conception and is a big holiday and also an official national holiday. All of our girls went to vist their families or friends of the home. I spent Friday night at the home and it is very quiet and peaceful there. The two dogs are always very happy to see someone. I think that Canella is too old to jump on me but manchita (spotty) just wiggles all over and jumps. We have had our first Christmas party - given by the public school English Teachers of San Migelito (the educational district we are in). Several of the teachers played games (in English). One was familiar Head and shoulders - to a different tune. Another was Fruit Salad with a peppy song about cut cut cut the apples etc. then FRUIT SALAD of 4 (where the players get into groups of the indicated number). The teachers gave out clothes and each girls got a gift. I have some pictures which I will post durig the week.

Childrens´Hospital Visit

Last night I read in the Miami Herold that Childrens´Hospital here is almost completely shut down so since Graciela had her appointment today I called her doc.

This is the 30th day of a medical doctors and dentists strike - the ones who work for the government and the ones we use for the kids. Graciels's doc is on strike but he saw her on the ward because she has to have her blood chemestry checked once a month. She is high in Phosporus which is the hardest to control. To help control it she has to take 3 calcium tablets immediately before she eats. These combine with phoporus (to make calcumphosphate I guess) and thus it doesn't get into her system. These appointments are long because we have to wait for the results of the test and have to be there early (6:30) to draw the blood. I learned a lot more about the treatment of kidney failure today!

Today was the last day of her mother's visit and after the appointment we took her mom to the National Bus Terminal so she could start her long trip back to Bocas del Toro.

Tomorrow all of the girls go home or visit a friend of the home for Mothers' Day which is a BIG holiday here on December 8th. We will then have 3 days off - if everything works as hoped.

I am off to bed.

Tia Sue

Suspension from school

One of our younger girls arrived home yesterday with a note from her teacher saying that she scratched a classmatesfacejust under her eye with a pencil. It caused a scratch and didnotdamage her eye - but it was close. The teacher asked that we take proper measures. After a talk with her and deciding that she was not going to have any pink cake for dessert I though and thought. I knew that if an older girl did this she would get a suspension. So, the girl got ready for school and I told her ¨I don't know if the school will let you stay today". We went in and I requested to talk to the principal. Before the girl came in I told him what happened and I asked for an official suspension of one day. He wrote one out stamped it and told her not to hurt classments. I told her that she couldn't goto school. As we were leaving she asked me " who is going to eat my snack?" I said " I don't know".

Usually at the home someone who is suspended has to work all afternoon. When we got back I announced that she was suspended. Everyone reacted appropriately and we sent her off to work with woman who cleans. Being very concrete and firm has worked well with her before.

I wonder if I am the first missionary to ask for a suspension for of her kids.

Tia Sue

Quinceañeras

Here are Graciela and her mother - whom she hasn't seen since April. She is one of the 5 girls from the home who celebrated their 15th birthday this year. Here in Panama the 15th birthday is the BIG one and we had a fabulous quinceañera party last night. There were a lot of people there and these are just some of the pictures that I will post eventually. All 5 of the girls were dressed alike for the start of the celebration which was a mass.
Here is Daliana and her escort entering the home after they changed into their party dresses. Each choose the color of her dress. They were made for them by a modista (dressmaker).
In this picture are Yanitcia (green), daliana, Graciela and Leonela with their escorts. Two of the escorts are sons of the cook and one of our child care workers, secundina.
Another view of the same five girls. The guys' ties match the dresses. This is a really authentic Panamanian 15th birthday celebration.
Yeribeth is in orange on the far right. She has spent almost all of her life with us (since 18 months) and she does have contact with her brothers and sisters and her mom.

quinceañeras

I have some pictures of the girls getting the home ready for the ig party we had last night! We will see what comes up - but tomorrow or tuesday there will be more picts. In the top pic some of the girls are painting. Below, our two youngest are helping unload the 'legs' of the table. The one in front is Carla.