Hello all!
After a year of staying at home, minimal interaction with people, and many lulls in motivation, this school year is ending in a flurry of activity. May is always chaotic, with tests, graduation, celebrations, goodbyes.
My students have big tests coming up. The AP kiddos are testing in order to get college credit for their work this year. We’ve been prepping and studying (I even got to see my AP Psychology students in person a couple of times to study!), but after more than a year of doing school online- hearing all lesson plans come from a computer and doing almost all of the practice online- paper tests AT school are daunting. Each student has been so amazing, keeping up great attitudes and smiling and thanking me at the end of each class. They’ve genuinely been a bunch of little encouragement sunbeams, and I’m so grateful. My fifth grade teacher has been teaching at OCS for 18 years and will be retiring this year. I was able to gather some funds and sweet notes from his former students, and we had an awesome little send-off for him. We’re really going to miss them.
The Juniors and Seniors at our school have also been going through our Re-Entry program. This program helps prepare them for living in their passport countries (or college-choice countries). We’ve discussed job interviews, taxes, finances, etc. But we’ve also discussed culture shock, transitions, and the missionary kid experience. The kiddos got to meet in person for this, and they soaked up the face-to-face time.
The Youth Group is meeting online still, and each kiddo got the opportunity to share a Bible study of their own. They’ve taken the responsibility very seriously, and they’ve been building each other up and growing as leaders over the past couple of months. It’s been really awesome to see.
In even stranger than usual news, our school had a small fire. More specifically, a small fire broke out in my classroom. I’m an English teacher, and my classroom is full of books and bookshelves, wall to wall. Since we’ve been teaching online, my classroom has sat empty, collecting dust. No one was at school when there was an electrical short. We have no clue when it started, actually. Miraculously, and I mean truly miraculously, the fire started up the wall, lit the pages of two books, then spontaneously went out. No more books were harmed. There is a medium black spot on my wall. If that fire had spread, we would have lost all of our books and about 1/3 of our classrooms. We are in awe and so grateful that our classrooms are standing. I am so grateful our books are in good shape- minus some dust.
Less strange, more happy: Girasol has been dreaming and growing a lot in the past few months. Our setbacks of in-person activities this year have given us the opportunity to really think about the future of Girasol. Previously, things have happened at breakneck speed, and we’ve just been holding on for the ride. Now, we’ve had the chance to chat more, train more, and lay out plans. That doesn’t mean we’ve stopped doing what we’ve been doing, though. Saturdays are still a day for eating yummy food with the girls downtown. We have lively conversations and laugh and laugh. We paint nails, celebrate birthdays with cake, and build relationships with them. Twice a week we meet with a few of the girls who have asked us to help them find alternate sources of income. We see such potential in these girls! They have initiative and we see the hope that they may one day leave the work they currently do. It’s a tough prospect, knowing so many of them are trafficked and controlled, but we see the hope. The girls that meet twice a week have started making beaded jewelry. It’s been such a fun opportunity to sit for hours with them, chatting, working together, and providing vocational (as well as financial) training. Once we’ve made more jewelry, we will be selling it online- I will keep you updated on that!
More happy news: my roommate, Katherine, and I were asked to be “madrinas” for a wedding. Here in Mexico, friends and family members of the bride and groom are asked to be “madrinas” or “padrinos” of different tasks. They will buy the wedding rings or buy the cakes or make the food or provide the wedding favors. It is in lieu of getting a gift. It’s an honor, it lessens the financial burden of the wedding, and it allows for participation of friends and family in the wedding. In our case, we were asked to make the table centerpieces. Katherine and I have enjoyed painting and making the decorations; it’s been a really fun way to bless our friends who are having a much smaller wedding than a true Oaxacan would ever have dreamed of having normally.
As the end of the school year wraps up, please keep us in your prayers. Oaxaca’s COVID numbers are high, so end-of-year activities will not be as full of friends and families as everyone would like. Pray for the kiddos to be safe, for them to enjoy these different yet exciting times, and for the last tests, projects, packing, and goodbyes that they are facing. Pray for our admin team to make wise choices as we start to prep for next year. We’d love to start back in person, but we are waiting on Oaxacan schools to make decisions, and there is a lot of doubt that they will be opening in the fall. Pray for Girasol as our team makes big plans, as the girls start to build friendships and trust with us, and as we grow and grow. Pray for our Missionary Kid Camp that is coming up. We postponed it in March and are having a very small and limited version of camp in June. We’re doing everything we can to protect the kiddos who are coming, so please pray for wisdom and safety as we go in.
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. It’s been a tough year, but we are full of praise and gratitude.
Gracias,
-Ruth