Trying to get caught up!!

Okay guys! I am two days behind on our blogs!! It has been quite busy here the last two days! On Friday, I was just so totally amazed at the things that God did! That morning, we met up with Maria Jose’s mom, Maria. She first took us to this school in Delores, which has a class for challenged students. We were hoping to meet some deaf students! The principal, special education teacher, and one other teacher met with us. Jimmy and Maria both took turns explaining my heart and desire for the deaf children of Petén. The teachers then told us about a little deaf girl in their school, named Yennifer! She is somewhere around 7 or 8 years old, and really has no language except for some few homemade signs. I was able to spend a few minutes with her and she is very smart! She hasn’t had the easiest time though…many times deaf children here are abused by their parents, because the way the parents “teach” their children here is by beating the child, but if you are deaf and can’t understand because there is no language you just get beat more. Not only that, but the other kids make fun of you because of the way you talk or when you get upset cause you can’t understand them, so they throw rocks and sticks at you. Even sadder is when you wonder why you are the only one in your whole family that is different, but no one can explain to you, or even if someone tried you can’t understand them. When the principal was telling us about the many cases of different deaf children that they have had in their schools, I couldn’t help but cry. The teacher even teared up; they really do care for these children but they don’t know how to help them. The special education teacher can only spend 45 minutes with each child, and the rest of the time they are in a regular classroom. So in reality they aren’t learning anything…and in the end if they have no language how are they ever going to understand that there is Someone who loves them so much that He died for them???

The teachers at this school told me about another school in Poptun which was only about 20 minutes away. This school was a center for special education and had one class designated just for deaf children! When we got there all the deaf students had already had left for the day due to the bad rains, but I was able to talk with the teachers. They were so excited that we had come, and asked all sorts of questions about how to teach a deaf child. They have 16 deaf students in their classroom!!! They do know the Guatemalan Sign Language and are teaching their students….but they really would love for someone to come down and teach them how to work with deaf children. They also were telling me about some of the horrible backgrounds that their students come from, and it is very heartbreaking. They invited me to come back sometime this week to work with the kids for a whole day! I am so excited! Oh, and guess what!!! They had a book that teaches you the Guatemalan Sign Language!! I couldn’t believe it!!

After leaving that school, we went to take Maria back to her house. That was where I finally met Maria Jose! She was the sweetest girl and so smart, but again she had only homemade signs. Her story is also a sad one, and her father was killed by a stray bullet 10 years ago, which left her mom and six sisters all alone. We exchanged email addresses, and I am hoping to keep in contact with her. Once I learn the Guatemalan sign language, I would love to teach her and maybe explain to her how to be saved!

The rest of the day I spent trying to process all I had seen and heard that morning…my heart ever yearns to come back here as soon as God allows! I honestly don’t understand how it is all going to come together, but I know we serve a big God who is leading the way for the deaf people of the Petén!
Later on we went back to Jim and Shelley’s and ate grilled ham and cheese sandwiches!! Yum! We hadn’t been able to do any shopping yet so Jim and Shelley decided to take us around to see Flores. It was beautiful!! We were able to go into these little shops and look around. The girls that owned the shops were very good salespeople. We bought earrings and some coffee bag purses that we got for a great deal, even if Quincho doesn’t think so… They are in the middle of tearing up the streets in Flores and we had to be very careful where we stepped so that we would not fall into holes that were sometimes bigger than me!!! And they had no signs or blocks to let you know when there was one either. So after we had been shopping for a while, Jimmy decided that he was going to go sit in the restaurant where we were going to eat, La Luna, and get some coffee. We eventually made it in there and enjoyed a great meal! Jim, Shelley and I ordered this delicious salad with grilled chicken on top, and Brittany ordered pork medallions with pineapple on top! For dessert we enjoyed Ice-Cream with either hot raspberries or plantains with honey. It was a great end to a great day!

Thanks for praying and sorry again that I am so behind!