The Fields are White to the Harvest
Yesterday our HRTWAM camp visited the Aldeas home for children, and we had a busy and successful visit. I was so glad Captain Mark and I had been practicing Spanish for 4 months on Duo Lingo. Several times through the visit a group of children would gather around me and ask questions, about where I was from, and was I really the "esposa de Capitan?" (spouse of Captain Mark?) And I could answer some of the questions and converse a bit, in a very basic form of Spanish. There is such an eagerness in the children to connect, communicate and speak English.
There were fun games with balloons, spoons and ping pong balls, jump ropes, beans and of course, the proverbial soccer ball. Our teen band and singers played 5 or so songs, and two girls from Aldeas sang two songs without accompaniment. Then we passed out our traditional cupcakes, ice cream and juice. When each house (casa) group of children received the treats, their "aunt" (tia in charge of the house) took them home to eat it. They all took a turn at the microphone to tell us Gracias (thank you).
Visiting Aldeas is always a physically and emotionally draining experience. There is so much energy there, and we always experience a great desire to help, to adopt, to take them home, to connect, to encourage, to love and to converse. It is such a blessing that the CROWN program is being put together to begin to have native English speakers teach them English.
Our container was delivered to the camp this week, and we had some strong teenage guys to help unload boxes of English books as well as batteries for a solar system, and some chocolate making equipment. One more task taken care of and checked off our list.
In the next two weeks the Costa Rican children, including the Aldeas children will be heading back to start a new year of school. That will keep them busy as the dust settles and the schedule is settled into.
Today the HRTWAM camp drove up to an Indigenous Village, some of them being pulled on a trailer behind a tractor, and after some initial chaos it was figured out that the President in charge of the gathering was absent, and the Vice-President was found and informed that we were visiting with gifts and music and fifty food bags for some people in need. The man turned out to also be the English teacher to the Indigenous children at one of the schools. He had a great time practicing his English with our group. Captain Mark questioned him about what he needed to teach English, and the response was "more teaching materials." If we wanted to go visit the school to assess the English proficiency of the school children we would have to ride a horse an hour in and back.
The need for learning English shows up in many places, and many teachers of English are native Spanish speakers with few materials, and limited English capabilities. One has to admire their effort to improve the lives of their students. We are looking forward to seeing how the Lord will work this out to bless and meet the need here.
Linda Roth
alaskasgirl
There were fun games with balloons, spoons and ping pong balls, jump ropes, beans and of course, the proverbial soccer ball. Our teen band and singers played 5 or so songs, and two girls from Aldeas sang two songs without accompaniment. Then we passed out our traditional cupcakes, ice cream and juice. When each house (casa) group of children received the treats, their "aunt" (tia in charge of the house) took them home to eat it. They all took a turn at the microphone to tell us Gracias (thank you).
Visiting Aldeas is always a physically and emotionally draining experience. There is so much energy there, and we always experience a great desire to help, to adopt, to take them home, to connect, to encourage, to love and to converse. It is such a blessing that the CROWN program is being put together to begin to have native English speakers teach them English.
Our container was delivered to the camp this week, and we had some strong teenage guys to help unload boxes of English books as well as batteries for a solar system, and some chocolate making equipment. One more task taken care of and checked off our list.
In the next two weeks the Costa Rican children, including the Aldeas children will be heading back to start a new year of school. That will keep them busy as the dust settles and the schedule is settled into.
Today the HRTWAM camp drove up to an Indigenous Village, some of them being pulled on a trailer behind a tractor, and after some initial chaos it was figured out that the President in charge of the gathering was absent, and the Vice-President was found and informed that we were visiting with gifts and music and fifty food bags for some people in need. The man turned out to also be the English teacher to the Indigenous children at one of the schools. He had a great time practicing his English with our group. Captain Mark questioned him about what he needed to teach English, and the response was "more teaching materials." If we wanted to go visit the school to assess the English proficiency of the school children we would have to ride a horse an hour in and back.
The need for learning English shows up in many places, and many teachers of English are native Spanish speakers with few materials, and limited English capabilities. One has to admire their effort to improve the lives of their students. We are looking forward to seeing how the Lord will work this out to bless and meet the need here.
Linda Roth
alaskasgirl
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| Cahuita, Costa Rica beach |
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