Let the Games Begin - Assessing English Levels and Developing the Curriculum

Linda and Captain Mark in Costa Rica

This just an quick update to get current.
January 2: I arrived in Costa Rica from Kansas. Captain Mark and his wife Linda Roth picked me up at the airport and we drove 5 hours through some rain to get to their place.
January 3: Today we prepared for our meeting at the orphanage to kick things off tomorrow.
January 4: Mark and  I made the one hour journey to the SOS orphanage in Limon. On the way, we picked up our translator, Marcia, from the bus station. Marcia, had been a teen at the HRTWAM camp and is in her 2nd year in college. At the orphanage, we were met by two administrators. Melissa, the new director of the orphanage and Diana, the head of education. An interesting thing we learned in the meeting is that we were asked not to call the kids orphans. It's not an endearing term for the kids. So we've been asked to use the term 'village' instead of orphanage. At the gated 'village', the kids live in houses. So this certainly has the feel of a village. When my college students come here for CROWN Adventures next summer, we'll refer to our program as "Costa Rican Optimists Win Now" but when we write on the blog or talk about it in America, we'll use the term orphans.
January 5: Captain Mark, Marcia and I leave early today. We picked up Diana at 8:30am and head up to Siquirres, another hour away. In this town Marcia and I begin assessing English levels of each of the 6 girls at this group home. Mark was overjoyed to find one of his favorite kids living here, a former child from the 'village' in Limon. He'd know her since she was 9 years old because she always came up to him and said she want to learn English. Marcia and I got a routine going in logging the assessment scores in Excel. Over two hours after we begin, we assess the Tia. She is the head of the household and was overjoyed to join in the assessment. We are finding that the Tias (house parents) want to learn English also. At the end of our final assessment, we asked the girls to tell us their greatest fears in life and in school. Then Captain Mark gave a bible study on the destructiveness of fear, which is also a key idea taught at HRTWAM's camp. Interestingly, most of the girls were really afraid of failing school. They've all been given scholarships to attend this special school. However, what if they fail? As an orphan they will be sent back to Limon and the regular school. They realize this private school is a great opportunity for them but if they fail, they will lose everything. The Captain's bible study helped put this back in perspective... at least a little bit.
January 6: For Sabbath we drove 5 hours to see Marcia's Messianic congregation in Turrúcares. Her father, affectionately known as 'Tito' is the leader of this group. After a lively discussion on the Torah readings for today, there was a good potluck. During the potluck, one of the members, a young mother, broke down in tears and shared that she had been harrassed by a demon all week. She'd gotten little sleep. We prayer for her and most of the congregation went to her house and continued to be prayer warriors on her behalf. That evening we were invited to state at Tito's house.
January 7: Breakfast at Titos was excellent. It was also nice to get my first hot shower in Costa Rica. Yeah... The reason we drove up for church near San Jose yesterday was in order to see the festivities today. Today's a big day. Tito's is being ordained a Messianic Rabbi. There was a beautiful service in Cartago, at the home of his first church. Rabbi Conrado led this service.
January 8: Today Linda, Mark, Marcia and I all were given the SOS Pre-Service Training at the orphange. Marcia translated for us. Mark and Linda have been working with SOS for years, and new much of this information. After the training, Marcia and I gave English assessments to three of the village homes. It was agreed that Dusti would go by the title of Dr. Dusti. It was great that Marcia was here to help us assess a bunch of 4 year olds from two of the houses. Although the assessments for the youngest children went fast, these kids still had lots of questions. Marcia was able to handle these well. For fun, we 'sang' the alphabet song to many of them. Afterwards, Marcia took the bus back to Cartago after that. Mark and Linda were had driven to Costa Rica to get a truck so Dusti would have wheels here in Costa Rica. He's been a great chauffer so far.  

Sunset going into Sabbath from the Roth's front deck

January 9: Linda Roth and Dusti gave English assessments to four more houses. During a short break in testing, Dusti went over to the basketball court and played ball with a few of the kids. It was fun, but it is a bit hot here.
January 10: Linda, Mark and I meet at the orphanage with the top brass from San Jose. The head of all the SOS orphanages and the top director of education met with us for a couple hours. These were very effective meetings as Mark and Linda asked many detailed questions including those related on how to sponsor kids from SOS village to go to private schools. For lunch we ate at TCBY with a good friend of HRTWAM. Then Linda and I went back and assessed the final three houses.
January 11: Dusti is crunching results of the tests and working on Curriculum.
January 12: Dusti spent all day with the curriculum. We had salmon for Sabbath dinner. That evening it starts raining.
January 13: We had a relaxing Sabbath at Mark and Linda home. It rained too much to get up the mountain to have Sabbath with the Airaudi's. That evening we were invited to have dinner with

Cool Flowers from Costa Rica

Marlin and Rupert. The turkey soup was fantastic. I got to meet two of his beautiful parade horses. It has been raining hard much of the day and through the evening.
January 14: Raining all day. The road is closed for us to get out. I worked on Curriculum all day. That evening we went back to Rupert and Marlin's place for a fish dinner, cooked by Rupert. He's great in the kitchen. We had some interesting conversations regarding learning English and Spanish.
January 15: It is still raining but not as bad. The road might have been passable today. We are not sure. I worked on Curriculum all day today. Also, I helped Mark a little bit with HRTWAM stuff.