A Crazy Turn of Events: Robbed and Denied at Orphanage

Friday, February 9th was a Crazy Day. I waited a few days before posting this to try to unpack this.

My wife, Kit and I are staying in a small house an hour from Limon where the orphanage is located for safety reasons among other things. At 8:30am we arrive for the Pre-Service Training at the orphanage. The hour long training is recorded by me. Deanne records Joel’s translation. The room is packed with 8 locals and 4 Americans. I had already taken the training so I didn’t need it. I was just recording it so that those coming next week to work down here can take the training remotely so they can work here.

10:30am - We are done and can’t get in on the orphanage WIFI so Kit can do his homework. He has 13 days left and is working LONG hours to try to finish the trimester before the deadline. He didn’t have any time to lose. Because he can’t get in, and the technology staff is trying to get us the password, he and Deanne decide to walk across the street to get a snack. It took us an hour to get to the orphanage from our house, so they hadn’t had time to eat yet. 

~11am Kit limps in on his broken leg. He sits down. He’s being too polite as Joel and I are still working out how we were going to approach the curriculum meeting at 1pm. Finally he mentions that he hates Limon and that he and Deanne had just been robbed right outside the orphanage. Where’s Deanne? She’s chasing the robber. Deanne’s 2 mile record at the biggest high school in Olympia, Washington stood for 19 years. She can run. We call the police. We notify the orphanage leaders. A $200 phone, $30 cash, credit cards, passport, drivers license were all grabbed when a guy walked up behind her and Kit and unsnapped her fanny pack and ran off with it. They were bringing drinks back for me and Joel. Kit threw my drink at the robber but was unable to get a picture in time.

~Joel Sanchez, Deanne Howell and Kit Howell were at the police station for three hours filing a report and miss the meeting. This is odd because Joel and Deanne are huge parts of this outreach.

1:30pm The curriculum meeting starts late with Mark Roth, Linda Roth, Heather Roth, myself and the two top administrators from the orphanage in Limon. It is led by Amanda, the top educational administrator from San Jose. She speaks English and the meeting was conducted in English without translation. Here's the big things that were shared at teh meeting. . 
  1. Digital grandparenting was denied. Even when I leave here after 7 months, I am not allowed to write the kids. If I write any letters, they will need to be filtered by the director of the orphanage. Since she is very busy, these letters may never reach the orphans. These kids have been hurt so many times, they can't gamble that they will be hurt again. So having people that have never been here write letters would just be too problematic. 
  2. The alternative proposal to use anointing oils was denied. The orphans already have doctors, psychologists, and counsellors that monitor these kids. This is not allowed. I asked a ton of questions around this idea. Finally, I  told them that I would ask for prayers specifically for the five kids that need prayers the most. I was told these names couldn’t be given out or even discussed. I told them that the power of prayer is amazing and I wanted to do this anyway. Please spend a month with me praying for the 5 kids at the orphanage that need prayers and healing and God's love the most. We will do this until March 15th and then I will send an email to the administrators to see if they have notices any changes. I'm planting seeds here, trying to change hearts.  
  3. My curriculum to teach 16 sections of English, 8 sections of Technology and 8 sections of How to learn was mostly denied. Instead they want us to run a pilot program in which 2 sections of English are taught. In a sense, this is a grass roots proposal. They want the kids to buy into this and really, really get excited about this. If the kids and the Tias that will take these classes really enjoy it, then in the next 7 weeks, more kids will sign up.  
  4. Bible classes were mostly denied. However, we asked if we could change the name to reading and still use bible stories most of the time. This was approved.  
  5. My study abroad class this summer is greatly limited. If 10 students from Emporia State University come down here on May 14, only two of them could teach in the orphanage. They could only be English tutors.  
  6. If volunteers miss the monthly face to face meeting for training at the orphanage, they can’t take it online. They just have to wait until the next month for training.

They want this to grow slowly and they want it to be an opt-in program where the kids decide if they want to take the classes or not. Basically I’ll be teaching a couple hours a week, once it is approved and they figure out which 5 orphans can take one section of my class and which 5 house mothers can take the other section of my class.

No worries. We are here for the long hall. If they want to grow this slowly, that is fine. Keep praying that we do the right thing for these kids. Thanks for your prayers.

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