Tis' the Season for Weeding

I am enjoying this slower pace here at Opal House now that the children are out for their summer vacation. Seems strange thinking of all our friends back in the states struggling with the cold and snow. The difference in seasons here makes it difficult to sense that Christmas is around the corner since we have beautiful blue skies and warm weather during the day. Only one morning have I felt  that autumn scent in the air, then 'poof' it was gone. So during this break I have had the opportunity to don old scrubs and tackle some weeding and pruning (not that I really know much about pruning as you will see)....

This is one of the small gardens around the house, crazy huh? I'm not even sure where to start here. We've got bougainvillea, cactus, hibiscus, some kind of demonic prickly bush that is looking to take over the world.....I'm sure our little furry mice friends enjoy the easy access to the roof, thankfully we have 4 cats to keep them in check.

This used to be what we term "Mercy's Garden". This little garden was planted by Will and a young lady who came to live with us for a while at the beginning. Now, it's basically one very large

Poinsettia bush and mountain growth. The mountain is always trying to recoup it's space. I mean, it was here before we were, it has a right to try and overtake us and believe you me, it does. If we did not have our great hardworking men who, 6 days a week, help us take care of this land we would be inside the house engulfed in wild plants and the grass.  Speaking of grass, I've never seen HARDY grass like we have. Definitely not the stuff we have stateside. Another plant that wants worldwide domination.

 

 

 This plant, I have no idea what it is. I call it the dinosaur plant. It's leaves are huge and it's in most of our gardens. I just spent a morning with pruners cutting back 3 of them that were growing up over a sidewalk and creeping over to the other side. Their roots wrap around posts like they know they are going to be targeted for pruning, kind of a genetic survival technique. I'm sure there is some kind of children's arts and craft project where these may be handy....small boats, wings for a plane etc.,

 

I catch myself praying that God will send us a gardener. Will and Glen have done a good job in planting the new gardens but it's the other ones that have a mind of their own and have been neglected after the previous owner sold it. We've had guests who took a lot of this on when they came and gave of their time and energy. I'm grateful to each and every one. Gardening can be so meditative and at the same time challenging. I laugh to think that we had this small suburban garden in our home in Bothell and now we are stewards to 59 acres. Somewhat daunting.


Okay, so here is one side of the house that had some unruly bushes/trees. I thought I'll trim a little here and I'll trim a little there.....

 

And now....

not pretty huh? Obviously, I need to take some class. Now I'm trying to water and fertilize

so they may have a chance to resurrect. They are in "ICU". So, my point in all this is simply to say
IF there is ANYONE who needs some time away from home in order to tend to someone else's gardens well HERE WE ARE! But the faint-hearted need not apply....

First School Year Ends

Yes, it's hard to believe that our first school

year has ended as of October 11th. Jackelyn and I can finally raise our head above the water! We really felt like this was baptism by fire but we did it. It has been an incredible learning curve for me. Unfamiliar to the Montessori method of teaching, I have had to learn simply to observe the children as they interacted with the materials each day. Even learning how to present the material taught me to slow down......really sloooooooowwwww down. But one of the benefits is that you learn to be present. And isn't that one of the hardest things to learn nowadays? Be present. Be aware of what is in front of you or who is in front of you at this present moment. And learning to observe the children was not easy. In a traditional classroom it's more of who is misbehaving or talking or not doing their work. But we are learning to watch to see how focused the child is on their 'work'. And they do focus. What I found amazing was at the end of the school year, we had the children share what they would miss the most here and instead of  playing, which I thought would be the response, it was 'the work!'.
The children are natural learners and just as we have learned through Maria Montessori's philosophy, the children will advance to the next stage when they are ready. I'm so grateful for the donation of the materials. The children really do learn better with the concrete learning materials rather than standing in front of them with their notebooks out. We've taught them to respect the materials and they know that the school and the materials are theirs. That way they learn stewardship. Their mothers shared with us how much their child has changed and we are encouraged to continue to learn all that we can. Right now, I am taking an on-line class called KHT Montessori and it is wonderful. The manuals they provide will provide so much more learning opportunities for the children as well as help Jackelyn and I feel more confident in the future. The woman who teaches us is so helpful and so knowledgeable. We sent Jackelyn also to Mexico this past year for a 3 week intensive. But as with learning in general, it never ends. This school year really was all absorbing but right now I want to focus on the afternoon children as I feel that my attention was taken away for awhile to focus on the school. Right now I'm trying to slow down, be present, and do some things that have nothing to do with teaching children such as pulling weeds from our overgrown gardens! I've actually found it rather meditative. Gardening can really help to slow my mind down and help me to just enjoy being outdoors. I actually sat in the chapel alone yesterday morning with my cup of coffee praying. It felt like it had been too long since I have taken the time to talk to God. Like people back home you feel like you have more things to do than you have daylight. I need to remind myself that being in the moment is important and to watch for those 'divine interruptions' in  my day, like people showing up unexpectedly, which can be a common occurrence here. God had to remind me awhile back that folding laundry is not more important than sitting down with a couple of children and spending time reading to them or having a conversation. The 'stuff' can wait. I'll be merciful to myself and say that I'm learning this lesson. One day the weather was so beautiful I changed our plans at school and we hiked the property with the children. We had a great time! What was most precious to me was climbing a very steep part of the property, which was rather muddy after the rains, and watching one of my boys helping the little girls by holding their hands and helping them maneuver over around the coffee plants. He has turned into a little gentleman. Afterwards, we roasted marshmallows in our fire pit that Will had built on the back patio....

P.S. no....I was not the only one eating them!

All in all, I am in awe of having a school and I see how important it is to steward it well and how important these children are to the future of Guatemala. I love each and every one of them and am so glad that we started slowly with just 13, I think I may have been overwhelmed otherwise. I came to know them individually, their personalities, strengths and weaknesses. One thing is clear, they all respond to love!

 

Down In Honduras

     I'm visiting NPH, the orphange down in Honduras and enjoying the break from teaching school and afternoon classes. I left on Sunday at 3:30 a.m. and finally made it to the orphanage at 8 p.m. That made for a very long day. I was fortunate to be traveling in one of those tour buses but alas the roads to Honduras were still bumpy and windy. I slept or tried to sleep the whole way down. This place is much more rustic than NPH in Guatemala. They have many, many acres of land. They have about 300 children here from surrounding towns. They also have a home for aged, a home for HIV children,  a home for special needs children, a surgery center, lots of different training buildings where they learn to do carpenter work, a metal shop, sewing (they sew their own uniforms), mechanics shop, shoe making shop etc., I'm excited to visit their Montessosi school tomorrow. I'm actually here being trained in the Montessori method but for religious education called "The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd". And I love it! The materials that are used are made by the teacher's and are beautiful and thought provoking. I have so much work to do. Though I have many of the figures for teaching the parables, I do not have many of the things for the 1st level which makes up children 3-6 years old. But I have a wonderful instructor who is generously donating her time to teach many of us during the next two weeks. I am enjoying drawing and copying the Scripture and making them into simple children's booklets that they can read and then trace and make their own booklets to take home. A visiting Deacon even made me a set of clay figures for the Annunciation and Visitation presentations. People are so generous here. They work together like a HUGE family. It seems that the more I am in Guatemala I am amazed how God weaves His children together, like that beautiful tapestry that is symbolic of our differences and our similiarities. Our world gets bigger for Will and I it seems with each passing year.
     While I am away, Jacklyn and her sister Alice are holding down the fort. I know the children are in good hands. And with the school fresh on my mind

Here I am with some of our children in front of the school...to include JoJo our Bichon and Chispita our German Shepherd puppy who is oh so much trouble!

We had a group of wonderful ladies come and visit us recently. Patti (to the very right) Julie (in the middle of the pic) and her two daughters Annaliese and Sarah and their friend Aya. Here they are visiting a family whose little baby girl had a stricture above her ankle bit with surgery was able to remove it and the little girl is thriving.

These loving ladies were such a help to us at the farm, painting, weeding, spending time with our children at school. They brought educational gifts for our school and as always the children are thrilled to use new material. One of our special treats was the gift of a concert: Annaliese, who plays violin and Aya, who played the piano performed a mini concert for the mothers of our preschool children and classical music no less! It was heaven to listen to the music surrounded by the view that is ours everyday.

Aya is to the left, Annaliese to the right and Sarah in the back with the children.

 

 

I have to admit the children were relatively quiet, I suspect watching and listening to them play was a new experience.

 

I love the dress that little Katy is wearing on the right, her little princess dress solely for special occasions like the concert ;)

 

 

Oh, and by the way...Patti and Julie you will NEVER know exactly how much I appreciated your cooking for us! You are the best! Thank you to all you young ladies for the good conversation around the table, for the encouragement and fellowship we received daily, for your help around the farm and loving on our kids! Remember: Nuestra casa es suya! Hasta pronto ;)

She's Back!

It's been such a long time since I've blogged! We have been busy with the school, training, afternoon classes, first communion classes from the church.....and our welcomed visitors. But I'm back and thought it would be nice to just show the pics of our school. This was our atrium or place where we had hoped to have 'our quiet time', our time of prayer and reflection. But it wa such a small cubby space that we are now using it for our coat and backpack space. We are moving all of our Bible figures and stories to our chapel. We had 4 bookshelves made by our local carpenter to house our materiales in the chapel. We have them on wheels so that we can move them aroud when we have classes for our Montessori children or our afternoon kids.

This is a wide view of our Montessori classroom. It really is a beautiful room and the furniture is made from the trees on the property. I am so grateful for our carpenter. How wonderful to be able to show him a picture of something that I want, we bring him the wood and 'ya esta'!

This is a child size 'pila'. A pila is a 3-part cement container that the locals use for washing clothes, dishes, themselves and dead chickens. This is where our children wash their hands in the a.m., wash their dishes and the towels and rags that we use daily. They LOVE using soap and washing, washing, washing. Something about water and soap. Normally, kids have an aversion to both :)

This is the view from the back patio. The children enjoy 'sneaking' out of class and just hanging out and observing things. We took a morning and used our binoculars to look at the surrounding volcanos, pueblos,birds, trees. These are the things that these children would not have an opportunity to do and it thrills me to watch them learn something new or use a material that they would probably not have access to.

 

These are the stairs leading up to our second floor. Notice our wooden quetzal which is their countrie's bird, not easily found but has beautiful plummage and long, long tail feathers.

Well, I will blog more pics as the 'hamsters' that allow this computer to function have slowed down on the hamster wheel....hasta luego

Here are a few pictures of the children during their normal school day. Jacklyn is the young lady patiently introducing how to fold napkins to the little girl. The picture below is our Practical Life shelf/shelves. This is where the children learn how to do basic skills like pouring, spooning, transfering liquids or solids. It is amazing to me that the children can repeatedly use this material (or as we say in Montessori "work") and not get bored. Infact, just as Maria Montessori has shown the children can become quite focused on fine tuning these skills. They learn how to wash their hands, how to cook, clean, take care of their environment inside and outside their school.

What they probably have not been used to is actually having the freedom to choose what they will do during a normal 'work cycle'. They receive some guidance from Jacklyn and I, especially with learning how to use the new material, and we watch and observe to find out what areas they are growing in and where they might need some encouragement to continue to fine tune those skills. Definitely a different way from conventional schooling. We don't have tons of copied work sheets and notebooks etc., that you would find in typical classroom. Which, of course, is cost effective for us and is wasteful to boot. They learn math for example, with sand-paper shaped numbers and letters that are placed on wooden tablets. Then they have a box of wooden alphabet letters that can be moved around to form their first words. The children love the materials. Boys and girls are learning to hammer and use a screwdriver. They are going to begin gardening soon. I have a huge bag of seeds of flowers, herbs and vegetables. I've been collecting ideas to make the garden a fun place to be. And our animals are right outside for them to observe and visit. We moved the parrots to the aviary that is attached to the side of the school. We can hear them talk, scream etc., when we are outside eating our lunch. Will had the guys construct a child-size door where they can enter. We also have a fire-pit on our patio.

Below is one of our little girls unfolding a 'mantelito', a hand-woven mat that the children use to place their work on. Just the rolling and unrolling of these mats creates a more calm child. And it gives them their own space in which to work. I enjoy this philosophy of teaching. It does provide a more independent child and it is less about keeping them all in their seats and  teaching them the same thing.

I thought this just about sums up some of the challenges we face with children......

 

YA ESTA!

We're open!!! Last Sunday we had our opening of the school and threw a fiesta for what felt like half of our pueblo! We had our construction workers and their families, the new little students and their families, just lots and lots of families. This is a photo of the path that leads from the houses to the school. You can't see the details in the cement but Glen, our dear friend brought cement stamps of vines and flowers, hummingbirds and butterflies. These border the whole sidewalk. Our local painters will be painting them so that it really stands out.

Here are Jack and June Bower from Kansas. June has graciously given of her time and talent to train Jacklyn and I with the Montessori method of teaching. She not only has given time to us but other schools in San Lucas (where Will and I volunteer in the parish hospital), but she also travels to little pueblos in surrounding areas. She has energy! The school is named after Harriet Schrontz, a dear woman who passed away recently. She was a patient of Will's and had a heart for children. This school is dedicated to her and she will leave a legacy to children who otherwise would not have the opportunity to have such a good education.

We had a local marimba band play their wonderful music during the fiesta. This a a family that has a restaurant in Panajachel. This really created a nice atmosphere for the fiesta and the people of our town enjoyed eating outside and enjoying the beautiful view of the lake. And the food....we did not kill the 'fatted calf' but the fatted pig. I don't know all the details and don't even want to think about them, but we hired a local woman to come and do her dastardly deed. She brought a big cauldron and butchered it here on the property. We borrowed a smoker from some local gringos in Panajachel and Glen and our friend Bo spent the night smoking pounds and pounds of pig meat. They still can't get the smoke out of their nostrils, I'm sure of it :) Glen didn't go to bed until 3:00 a.m. on Sunday....We love ya, Glen! Bo too! Added to that was rice, salad, tortillas and plastic tubs of fruit, fruit and more fruit. Felipa and Candaleria (Juan's wife and mother) cooked all of it. We could not have pulled this off without community effort. From the funds we received to all the local men who worked day in and day out, it was a labor of love for the children.

Will and I were able to share our hearts with the community, especially those parents who have allowed us to teach their children during the week in the afternoon. Most of the men are out working during the day and mothers are busy at home, so it was an opportunity to speak to the family as a whole. Our friends, Nate and Mayra Bacon came and blessed the opening of the school. It's a wonderful thing that Nate is fluent in Spanish, he could speak from his heart with no stuttering. Unlike myself.....

 

And ofcourse we have a few pics of two of our students!

 

 

 

This is the actual first level of the school where we will be holding classes. We also have a second level and I will try to remember to blog those pics too. The murals upstairs are beautiful!

 

It was an incredible day for Will and I. To see the children running towards me on the sidewalk with their families, this was a gift that was beyond words. Each child is a stewardship from God and I do take it seriously.  And at the same time, I am not forgetting the children that I and Jacklyn teach in the afternoons. It's been hard trying to maintain our afternoon schedule with the training during the day with June. Anyway, the photos are just a small view of what we experienced that day. If you think of us, please pray that Jacklyn and I will be okay once June leaves. We are both somewhat nervous as this method of teaching is new. I've enjoyed being trained and have such a long way to go to understand it all but I believe we're as ready as we are going to be in such a short period of time!

What is it that calls us forward,

To lift our eyes

And see that everything is possible?

Just for a moment to feel a strength beyond ourselves,

A love beyond ourselves,

And imagine we can step into the river

And change its course?

Perhaps it is remembering

That everything we do

Shapes the future

For the children we will never know.

Everything we create

Fashions a world for the people who will

Some day Call us ancestor.

Netzach teaches

Raise up right action

And aim toward love and generosity.

Eternity exists in each moment

There is no separation between us

And what will be.

Rabbi Yael Levy