Last Day in San Pedro

I realized as I posted to this site, that St. Luker's my not recognize the names Miriam, Norine and Wendy when you are reading about our team here.  These wonderful ladies have joined us from other congregations.  Miriam is the Vicar at St. Andrew's in Haw River, where Norine is a parishioner.  Wendy is from Trinity Church in Mt. Airy.  How lucky we have been to share this experience with them.

As we reflect upon our time here, we all agree that we are sad to have one less day at the school ( due to cost of flights).  Dr. Jim is staying through tomorrow, but we are certain he will have plenty to catch up on.

The medical "team" ( Martha, Norine and Arianie) saw a lot of children and family members as well as people in the San Mateo community.  He has become well known enough that when he walked down the road, people came out of their homes and called to him to come " look at" some sort of medical issue!  They dealt with everything from runny noses, to dog bites to severely infected cuts. It was amazing to hear the stories of all of the folks they helped during their day. 

Peggy rehearsed the school song with the Standard 6 class ( seen in the photos below) taught and worked on a song that pre-schoolers will sing in a presentation in March and had the chance to work with some talented drummers.

Wendy stayed busy in the library and Jan and Miriam finished up weighing an measuring all the students!

All of the students attended Chapel today which was officiated Miriam and several teachers and music was led by Peggy.

We have had some wonderful meals while here and are going back to Elvie's Kitchen tonight, since our meal earlier this week was enjoyed by all.

Many thanks to all who have helped us be here this week!

 Standard 6 class.  Almost 40 children in here and no teaching assistant!  I am in awe of Mr. Ayoni, the teacher!

 The medical team meets to talk about their day.

 Wendy worked hard organizing books as well as delivering book to teachers who made "requests"

Peggy took some drumsticks down and was going to teach a few things...but these kids already had been practicing with pencils and chopsticks and were quite amazing!  

To see more photos and videos of our trip, ( and other awesome things about St. Luke's)  check out the St. Luke's Facebook page.

Week 2

After spending 2 days wrestling with how to get a post on the blog...Here we are!
Team two has had an exciting week.
We were so excited to bring down 6 donation suitcases from Peggy's school and 1 from Wendy's church.  Jan and Miriam have been kept busy doing height and weight checks on the more than 400 students. Jim, Martha, Norine  and former Holy Cross student, Arianie ( who is now in college) have been doing medical checks on site with students as well as in the homes of San Mateo residents.  Wendy has been busy in the library filling book requests from teachers, and reading to classes as well as individuals.  Peggy has been teaching songs and singing to multiple classes, including working with the oldest students on the school song ( which they sing for graduation).  A drumming group was formed on Tuesday afternoon with Standard 6 boys, and some drumsticks Peggy brought from Raleigh.  A video is posted on the St. Luke's Facebook page.
Pictures will help tell some of our stories!

Reading in the Preschool Classroom

On Thursday, Bob read the book Walking through the Jungle (by Debbie Harter) to the afternoon preschool class. Because it's a different set of students, Dan was able to read the same book on Friday morning. On both occasions the students were very interested in the book (which they had obviously heard many times before) and eager to identify the different animals appearing on the enormous pages.

For Bob, the six afternoon preschoolers stayed in their seats for as long as they could stand it; then they came up and crowded around the book.

Bob with preschoolers in their seats

Bob surrounded by preschoolers

Dan reading in the morning.

Dan had a much larger group in the morning class, so staying in their chairs was the only option.

The spelling bee

In addition to our usual work in Standard 6 math (Bob and Dan), one of the Infant 1 classrooms (Nancy), and the library (Wendy), we did a couple of first-time activities on Thursday and Friday. The first involved Dan and Bob. The three older grades assembled outside in the palapa to determine the Holy Cross representatives to the San Pedro spelling bee. This is the first time we have actually seen the palapa in use.

Students in the palapa

The students carried their desks and chairs outside, lined them up, then settled in for the competition.

Dan served as the timer for the competition, while Bob was the scorekeeper.

Scorekeeper and timer

The three contestants on the stage all performed well, but in the end the girl on the right was the winner.

Spelling bee contestants

The only downside of the spelling bee (from my perspective, at least) is that it preempted our math work in Standard 6.

- Bob

Wendy's donations from Trinity Episcopal Church

Wendy with the donations she brought from Mount Airy

We have some blogging from yesterday to catch up on, but this picture is too good not to share right away. Wendy arrived yesterday - the first of our week 2 wave - and brought with her a suitcase full of donations from the generous people of Trinity Episcopal Church in Mount Airy. We've already delivered and unpacked the suitcase, and items are already finding their way to the library, storage cabinets, and office, and a few other destinations. Thanks to all who contributed to these donations.