July 5, 2012

July 5, 2012      Goodness how the time has gone by! I'm so sorry, especially to you grandpa, that it's taken so long for me to blog!  I've been so into my routine that I haven't thought of a specific event to share, but then after thinking about it I realized I haven't shared updates from school yet!  Amanda and I have been teaching at the primary school run by the ministry every morning from 9-12.  During this time we pull out small groups of children that are struggling and need extra help.  Unfortunately, it's not in their curriculum to teach phonics, so unless the kids are smart enough to just pick it up along the way, they end up really struggling in class.  They are taught to copy stuff from the. Lard in class but not letter recognition or sounds at all.  Luckily for me, I've been able to get tons of help from mom AND my exposure in preschool and kindergarten classrooms subbing has definitely given me some direction in our teaching.  We've also been fortunate to get supplies from mom through a team that came in June, which has helped develop our teaching methods here as well.  We start each group by going through alphabet flash cards and do letter and sound recognition.  We then break off into smaller groups and I work mainly with phonics through some great iPad apps that I have while Amanda goes over colors, shapes, and counting with them.  Halfway through we switch so every child is exposed to both teachers and both types of curriculum.  The kids have jumped leaps and bounds since we've started working with them, which is really encouraging to me.  They have come to recognize letter and letter combination with sounds and everything!  The most encouraging part for me personally is little Nora.  I talked about Nora in an earlier blog, but just to remind you she is a 13 year old girl who was severely malnourished as a child so her brain didn't develop like other kids and she suffers from mental impairment as a result.  At first I wasn't as optimistic as I should have been with her progress, but the weeks have proven me so wrong!  She can recognize almost half of her alphabet now and can do sounds and everything!  I have an app on my iPad where the children have to spell out words by picking the letter after hearing only it's sound and she does amazing at this game! She is really progressing and not only am I excited but she gets so tickled when she gets it right, which is precious! in a couple weeks another team will be bringing more supplies for the school, which will help build up the school and it's resources that much more because it's still in the very early stages of development.        As for me, unfortunately i haven't been feeling so hot lately.  Sickness is coming and going for me and I'm not exactly sure what it is, which is the most frustrating part.  At first, I went to the clinic and they thought it was worms so I took deworming tablets and they didn't have the effect they should have had if I had a parasite, so that has been ruled out.  After talking it through with one of the new visitors from the states who is a nurse, we have come to the conclusion that it's a protein deficiency paired with a high starch intake.  At home I eat so much protein and not so many starches that now after a month and a half of exposure to very very low protein and very high starch intake (as a result of the availability of foods here) my body is low on nutrients and it's making me sick and somewhat weak.  Luckily, I can start here and try and focus on taking in as much protein as is available and cutting down on carb/starch foods.  Right now it's more of a frustration and annoyance for me than anything else because I don't have tons of energy and have to lay down almost every day after I eat lunch, but other than that things are going well.        Ok so now for prayer requests!  A new mzungu family moved into our compound a couple weeks ago (a couple with 5 children under the age of 9 and their brother in law who is from Uganda) and since they've been here their 2 youngest have developed a staph infection and now the dad is very very sick and they're not sure what it is.  Please pray that they can figure it out so that it can be effectively treated, that the kids stay healthy, and that the mother will stay strong for the family.  Also please keep praying for the development of the school and the children.  Please also keep me and the other mzungus here in your prayers for our health as well because there is always some sort of sickness going around here (lately its been typhoid), and we have been fortunate so far to have steered clear for the most part.  Luckily, we have been immunized against most of the sicknesses that are very prevalent here.  Also please continue to pray for all of our patience in every aspect of our lives here. Again again thank you for your support and encouragement it is doing awesome things here! Love and miss you all thank you for keeping up and being patient with me! :)