Meet Sonia...

Though she may not look it, Sonia is 16 going on 17 next month. She is very small for her age, and I think she has an impish looking face. Apart from her hearing loss, Sonia, like Manuela, also has a developmental disability. She has even less communication abilities than Manuela. She doesn't really communicate via proper sign language, but by hand motions she tries to communicate what she wants. She points and flaps her hands around. Extended arms means she wants a hug. She points to her face when she wants a kiss. Sonia has no family and lives here at the centre year round.

During the mornings, when all the other girls are at school and Manuela is helping out in the kitchen, Sonia simply wanders around the property. In the afternoons she often sits by herself in her room puttering around with her collections of "treasures" and making the little humming type sounds peculiar to her.

The girls consider Sonia is not capable of doing much, and one of her few chores is to carry out the garbage to the garbage dump at the end of the property. She often likes to go through the garbage and dig out "treasures," and by now she has quite a collection! When I threw out my old lip gloss and my old pen, the next time I saw Sonia, she was carrying them around as her newly found "treasures."

Sonia sometimes gets into mischief. One day she found and got into an old mascara. We found her sitting in her room with her face smudged black all around her eyes. She seems to have a fascination for painting her face with markers and such, and I have had to help her scrub her face clean more than once.

Sadly, I think a lot of people would look at Sonia as human trash. Sometimes the girls complain she doesn't smell good, are annoyed with her, or simply ignore her presence in the dorm. And yet I have to constantly remind myself that in the eyes of God she is very precious! I often pray that God would help me to see Jesus in her and that He would put His love for her in my heart.

PRAISE (Blessings):
-Sonia's life.
-God's grace towards me.
-On Sunday I had a blessing in the disguise of an upset stomache, which kept me in bed all day. The rest did me so much good!

PRAYER REQUESTS:
-That God would help me see Jesus in Sonia.
-I have been asked to take someone's place and teach the Bible lesson this Thursday. Please pray that God would give me a lesson to share and help me communicate it effectively, and that the hearts of the children would be receptive.
-Please pray for Eleanor (one of the founding missionaries who continues to work at the centre as the accountant). She is having surgery on her hip this Saturday. Pray for a successful surgery and a quick recovery.
-Please continue to pray for the economy of the centre, things are really tight right now.
-I am afraid I have been losing my focus lately and forgetting why I am here. Different situations have been highlighting how self-centred I really am. I have been getting wrapped up in what I want, and as a result I have been struggling with boredom and with depression. Please pray that God would help me to remember why I am here and to find joy in laying down my life and desires and serving the girls.
-Please pray that God would help me love Manuela and Sonia with His love. I stand convicted that my love for them is practically non-existent. Lately, in my selfishness, I am annoyed by them, brush them aside, and even ignore them. I find ways to entertain the other girls, but I often leave Manuela and Sonia to their own resources, and I rarely give them of myself (which is what I think they most want) and just sit with them, "listen" to them, etc. God, forgive me for my selfishness and lack of genuine love!

Meet Anahi...

Anahi is 17 years old. Her favourite colour is yellow. From what I understand, she was abandoned as a baby and is an orphan. Thus she lives here at the centre year-round. She has only been here for about a couple of years and is in second grade.

Because Anahi has no family to pay her tuition and room and board, she has to work. There is a family with four children, ranging from a one-year-old to an eleven-year-old, who live above the girls' dorm. The mother is the secretary here at the centre and also looks after the girls in the dorm whenever I have a weekend off. The father also works in some other capacity here at the centre (I'm not exactly sure what all he does). From Monday to Saturday, Anahi works for this family. As soon as she's done with lunch in the afternoons, she goes and does cleaning for them, washes their clothes, and helps take care of the four children. She often works till late into the evening, which means that any homework has to be done really late at night or very early in the morning.

Because Anahi works, I don't actually get to be around her very much. Her only day off is Sunday, and even then she often is busy washing her own clothes, which she didn't have time to wash during the week. I feel for her not being able to hang out and enjoy time with the rest of the girls. On the positive side, she is quite close to the family she works for, and I understand they sometimes take her with them on vacation during the summer holidays.

Anahi is a very sensitive person. She often seems to get her feelings hurt in the little time she does spend with the rest of us down in the dorm.

Anahi is also a very loving person. She is always coming up behind me and wrapping her arms around me. I can't imagine what it is like for her having her disability and on top of that lacking the love and support of a family. I imagine she is starving for love and physical affection.

RANDOM INFO. (about my life here): The other week I discovered that one of the girls' responsibilities is to keep the grass cut on our side of the property. Now that spring and the rains have arrived, the grass will be growing higher. Apart from aesthetic reasons, the grass needs to be kept short because of the danger of snakes. Apparently someone was once bit by a snake here and had to be taken to the hospital! If cutting grass is considered grueling work, cutting grass here at the centre is more than twice as grueling. There is no lawn mower, and we use hoes and machetes. With the girls we spent a couple of afternoons clearing the grass on one side of the dorm building. I wanted to give the girls an example of working hard with a positive attitude, so I went out there with them. As the girls hacked away at the grass with machetes, the two girls with developmental disabilities and I went around stuffing rice sacks with cut grass along with garbage and dried up dog excrement (I made sure to go and put on some rubber gloves!). Then we would lug the sacks to the end of the property where all the garbage is dumped. As we went back and forth, I would make the best of each trip and would carry the sack in one hand and a brick (there were some old bricks lying around that need to be thrown out) in the other hand. Soon I saw Manuela and Sonia (the two girls with developmental disabilities) coming down the road with a sack in one hand and a brick in the other (the power of example!)

PRAISE (Blessings):

-Anahi's life.

-My mom's visit this past weekend. I have been at the centre for two months now, and she was my first visitor! It was so special to have her here and for her to get to know the girls--they loved her!

-The arrival of the rains! Having grown up with serious water shortages, I know the importance of rain! I also love the sound and smell of it!!!

-Thunderstorms! It maybe sounds strange, but I LOVE thunderstorms!!! They give me a thrill and make me think of the awesomeness of God's power!!!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

-Apparently discipline and grades have gone down the last little while (it would seem since I arrived), so I need to start cracking down on the girls and be a little more strict. Please pray that I would learn how to be strict and firm in a loving way.

-I have been really struggling with my own selfishness. Please pray that I would not be controlled by my selfish feelings but by God's Spirit.

-Please pray that I would do everything out of a genuine love for the girls. I am constantly convicted by 1 Corinthians 13. All my sacrifice and service here is worthless if I don't do it out of a genuine love for God and for the girls.

Meet Marianela...

Let me introduce the third member of the threesome I have mentioned previously. Marianela is 17 years old, is in seventh grade, and attends the nearby public school with Irlanda and Melvi. Her favourite colour is sky blue. She is from the the town of Montenegro, known for its sugar cane, which is located a couple of hours away in the department of Santa Cruz. She usually makes the trip home every weekend. I think she is the only girl here at the centre who comes from a Christian family. She has also been here at the centre longer than most of the girls and knows all the ropes around here.

I will always remember Marianela as the one who helped me out and made me feel at home when I first arrived at the centre. I arrived late in the evening on a Tuesday. The girls were all chopping up vegetables when I first arrived. I thought I should join them and help. Marianela told me not to worry about helping them and to go ahead and get settled in and go to sleep, as I was sure to be tired. The next day she was also extremely helpful in explaining how things were done, as I was completely lost.

Marianela likes to take care of me. She's always telling the other girls to respect and obey me. Whenever she notices I'm really tired, she tells me to go and get some rest. She also has a "take-charge" personality. For dinner we always eat leftovers from lunch (which is the main meal here in Bolivia). Marianela likes to be the one to serve up the food, and she is very good at dividing up the food evenly between the nine girls.

The girls here at the centre are typical girls and love to get dressed up and look pretty. Marianela is the exception. She doesn't seem to care much for skirts or dresses and seems happiest in sweat pants and a soccer shirt. Also, unlike the rest of the girls, she dislikes knitting and crocheting.

Marianela is a gifted communicater and often helps me out when I am having trouble understanding one of the girls. When I encounter a sign I am not familiar with, she is very good at giving me examples to help me understand the meaning of the sign.

RANDOM INFO. (about my life here): As many of you probably know, I tend to be quiet and reserved. One of the things I love about my nine girls is that they bring out my goofy and silly side. One of our private jokes is the "crab" joke. When the girls taught me the sign for "crab," I adapted it and acted it out really silly. I cracked the girls up, and since then they will often ask me to please sign "crab" and give them another good laugh.

PRAISE (Blessings):

-Marianela's life!

-A safe trip to and from Potosi.

-A special weekend spent in my hometown seeing old friends!

-God has provided the money so one of the founding missionaries who continues to work here at the centre can have her hip replaced.

-God speaking truth and comfort to my heart as I went through a very painful experience/situation here at the centre.

-Seeing God use the horrible situation here at the centre for good.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

-Please pray that God would continue to bring healing and restoration after the horrible situation that took place here at the centre.

-I have been struggling with feeling very bored with my life here at the centre. Please pray that God would take away the feelings of boredom and replace them with joy and fulfillment in serving Him here.

Meet Melvi...

Melvi is 18 years old and her favourite colour is pink. She, like Irlanda, forms part of the threesome that is in seventh grade and attends a nearby public school. These three girls (I have yet to introduce the third) are inseparable. In the mornings they are the first to leave for school, as they have the farthest to go. When they return at lunch time, they always sit at their own table in the corner separate from the rest of the girls. After lunch they go to one of the classrooms at the centre along with their interpreter, Cecilia, and they work on their homework for a couple of hours or so. When they return to the dorms, they often still have more homework to do.

Melvi is from a small community/town in the department of Cochabamba about two hours or so from here. She doesn't often get to go and see her family, but she spends a lot of weekends at her aunt and uncle's house, who leave in the nearby town of Quillacollo.

Communication is always a bit of struggle between Melvi and I. Her signing tends to be very fast and abrupt, and I find her very difficult to understand. Often another one of the girls will have to step in and repeat what Melvi has just told me.

I feel like I don't have a lot to say about Melvi. She is probably one of the girls I have gotten to know the least, partly because she isn't around a lot between homework and her going away on weekends. Our struggles communicating and her being a little more standoffish than the rest of the girls doesn't help either, but she is a sweet girl, and the girls' dorm would not be the same with out her!

RANDOM INFO. (about my life here): We have several lemon trees on the property here at the centre. One evening the girls got permission to pick a bunch of lemons and take them to the dorm. These lemons are very interesting, because they look rather like oranges but taste like lemons! Life at the centre can be rather sad and bleak, and at the end of an ordinary drab day, we had a lemon party! It was amazing how something simple like a bunch of freshly picked lemons brightened up our day! We had so much fun eating lemons (with puckered faces) and making lemonade. It brought to mind the old saying: "When life gives you lemons--make lemonade!"

THANKSGIVING (Blessings):
-Melvi's life.
-God's grace and forgiveness in my life.
-Lemons!

PRAYER REQUESTS:
-Melvi's spiritual life (only God knows her heart, and if she has a genuine relationship with Him)
-The spiritual salvation of Melvi's family.
-I will be teaching the Bible lesson for the first time at the Thursday night meeting this week. Please pray that God would help me to communicate effectively, that I would put into practice and be an example of the lesson (I am teaching a lesson on love), and that the Holy Spirit would speak to the children through the lesson.
-Safety as I travel to Potosi (the city where I grew up) and back this next weekend (there have been a lot of bus accidents lately--like the one Irlanda's dad died in). I may also be taking Irlanda with me, so she can see her family.

Meet Irlanda...

I have been trying to introduce the girls going from the oldest to the youngest. Irlanda is not next in line to be introduced, but I have a reason for introducing her this week, and I will explain shortly.

Irlanda is 15 years old. Her favourite colour is purple, and she forms part of the threesome who are in seventh grade and attend a public school with their interpreter Cecilia. Irlanda is very intelligent and hard working. For the 6th of August (Bolivian independence day), she got to march with her class because of her good grades. Her dream is to be a teacher one day. To fulfill such a dream, she faces some practically insurmountable challenges--her deafness and a poor educational system, which at best offers her a poor education through highschool and then no options as far as post-secondary school.

Irlanda is from Potosi, the city where I grew up. She and I actually knew each other years ago when I would volunteer two afternoons a week at a deaf institute. Occasionally I would take my sister Elisa with me to the institute, and I remember Irlanda and Elisa playing together.

Not long before I left Bolivia there was a guy, Pablo, who started up a deaf ministry at his Baptist church. I was so excited, because there had been no deaf ministry in Potosi previous to that. A group of the students I knew from the institute started going to the Baptist church with Pablo, and among those students was Irlanda. I remember visiting the church and seeing how excited she was about church and learning about God, etc. All these years later, I can really see God still working in her life, and I am quite confident that she has been born again.

Let me share a story from the other week. It was a school day, and I was calling the girls to breakfast. I couldn't believe it when I found Irlanda was in the shower--she was supposed to be at the gate meeting her interpreter to go to school in about 15-20 minutes! She ended up not having enough time to sit down and eat breakfast. She gulped down her drink, and came to give me my goodbye hug. I was frustrated with her for not showering earlier, and I am ashamed to say I showed my frustration and hugged her rather coldly. At lunch time, I went to ask her to please forgive me. She would not acknowledge anything had happened that morning, but that day and the next I felt she had distanced herself from me. She would not make eye contact with me and seemed to avoid me. I felt horrible! Usually Irlanda and I are very close, and she is always giving me big bear hugs.

The following evening, I was sitting in the common area watching the news on television. (The girls like me to watch the news and explain to them what is going on in the country. Right now there is a lot of news on who the candidates are going to be in the national elections in December.) Suddenly Irlanda came up to me. She told me she had been angry at me for what had happened the previous morning, and she asked me to forgive her. In turn, I asked her to forgive me, and we gave each other a BIG hug!!! I was SOOO happy and grateful to God for restoring our relationship!!! It also made me happy to see signs of the Holy Spirit working in Irlanda's heart.

Now I come to the reason why I chose to introduce Irlanda this week. Last Thursday night Irlanda's uncle showed up at the centre. He came with the news that her dad had been in a terrible bus accident and could possibly die. He rushed her off with him to Potosi. Later I found out her dad actually died in that accident. Please pray for Irlanda right now!!! Apparently she was very close to her dad. She was the only girl with two brothers, and she was the apple of her dad's eye. Please pray that her faith would not be shaken and that she would find strength and comfort in God. I understand she arrived back from Potosi this morning (I think she was taken straight to school, so I didn't get to see her).

RANDOM INFO. (about my life here): Every Tuesday the secretary of the centre buys the vegetables for the week. The vegetables are then divided up between the boys' dorm and the girls' dorm. We then chop up vegetables till our hands are stained green! One thing I never thought of before, but chopping vegetables is not an activity condusive to conversation when you rely solely on sign language! You are using your hands to chop, and you kind of need to keep your eyes on the knife or you might end up chopping a finger!

PRAISE (Blessings):
-Irlanda's life and God's work in her life.
-A three day weekend spent in La Paz!
-Getting to see Rachael and to talk till past 3 am!

PRAYER REQUESTS:
-Comfort and strength for Irlanda as she grieves the loss of her father.
-For the spiritual salvation of Irlanda's other family members.
-That God would provide for the needs of the centre, which is really struggling financially right now.
-For the health of little Priscilla (the almost one-year-old of a couple who works at the centre. Priscilla was in the clinic for the past few days very sick with vomiting, etc. She is home and doing better, but please pray that she would continue to get her health back.)

Meet Mercedes...

Mercedes is 19 years old. She comes from a large family of seven children who live in a small rural community in the department (instead of provinces or states, Bolivia is made up of 9 "departamentos") of La Paz. Her brother Luis, 15 years old, is also deaf and lives at the centre in the boys' dorm.

The centre offers classes to kindergarten through grade five. Grades four through eight attend nearby regular public schools with interpreters. After grade eight there is nothing for the students here at the centre. Though she is 19, Mercedes is in grade three and attends classes at the centre. Most of the girls, though they are in their teens, are still in elementary school. For some this is due to the fact that they were put in school a lot later in life. You also need to take into account that these girls are studying in a "foreign" language (learning to read and write in Spanish is a challenge, because they have never heard it spoken!) and sometimes it may take them more than a year to get through a grade.

Mercedes does not find learning easy. It takes her a while to process new information. I think God wants to use her to teach me patience. Only yesterday her eyes filled with tears as I impatiently tried to explain a math concept to her for the third or fourth time. Later on I had to go back and ask her to forgive me for my impatience!

Mercedes may find learning hard, but she posseses other talents. Mercedes' favourite colour is white, and she loves to crochet! In the above picture you can see her working on a beautiful off-white "poncho." My aunt sent me some money to spend on the girls, and with it I was able to get them wool, knitting needles, and crochet hooks. The girls were all quite excited, and Mercedes especially has proved to be very good at crocheting! She is also very good with hair and doing braids. The other girls are always getting her to do their hair for them.

With Mercedes I have been reminded how wrong it is to judge people! One day I was playing a game of yengha with Mercedes and Jhesica (one of the other girls), and Jhesica and I determined that the punishment for losing would be to run back and forth through the dorms five times. I was quite disgusted when Mercedes lost a game and refused to run. I thought she was just being overly prim and proper. Then, when she refused to go to her physical education class I thought she was lazy and disliked physical exertion. Well, later on I discovered that a few months ago she had surgery on her leg and isn't allowed to run or take physical education! I felt very bad! I also didn't understand why she would always cling to my arm whenever we would go somewhere at night. Just recently I was told that she has weak eyesight and cannot see very well at night!

RANDOM INFO. (about my life here): The other day I saw a piece of mud on my bathroom floor. I thought it kind of looked like a small frog, and when I stooped to pick it up, it moved and made me jump back! It turned out it was a frog! I trapped it with a clear plastic cup, slid a paper underneath and took it to show the girls before letting it loose outside. The only way I can think it could have gotten into my bathroom is by coming up the drain!

THANKSGIVING (Blessings):
-Mercedes life.
-The beauties of nature that surround me (e.g. the beautiful surrounding mountains, the clear blue skies and sunny days, the moon and stars at night!)
-Breaks from the routine and monotony of my days (e.g. a trip into town to see the psychologist for a psychological assessment yesterday afternoon was a welcome break after working the whole weekend. It ended up being a bit of an adventure, because some of the roads were being blocked by protesters, and we had to go a round about way on this crazy dirt road through countryside that made Patty--a co-worker-- think of the wild west.)
-The lessons God is teaching me through the girls.

PRAYER REQUESTS:
-Spiritual salvation of Mercedes' family who are not believers.
-Mercedes' relationship/walk with God.
-That I would learn how to be a firm yet loving disciplinarian.
-For strength and wisdom in facing a complicated and disagreeable situation at the centre.

Meet Manuela...

I thought you all might enjoy getting to know some of the girls I work with. I want to try and feature one girl each week...we'll see how it goes.

Manuela is 44 years old. Not only is she deaf, but she also has a developmental disability, which gives her the sweetness and innocence of a child. Despite being half toothless, Manuela has the most beautiful smile, which lights up her whole face. She also has a real servant's heart. One day I found her in the kitchen washing the pots, a chore that belonged to one of the other girls.

Every morning, when the other girls head off to school, Manuela heads over to the kitchen where she helps the cook make lunch. In the afternoon, while the other girls are doing homework and such, Manuela often likes to keep herself occupied with her attempts at embroidery and knitting.

Manuela is really quite intelligent, and she understands when she is asked to do something. She is also able to communicate in sign language. I confess, to my shame, that at first I assumed she didn't know how to sign properly and assumed that her signs made no sense. As I have gotten to know her, I've begun to understand some of her signing. One of her favourite subjects is her teeth. She often points to them and asks us to take her to get them pulled, because of the terrible tooth aches she suffers from. The only problem is that if she gets them pulled, she will have no teeth left to eat with. As it is, she finds it hard to eat some food items. At breakfast the other girls are always considerate enough to find the softest bun for Manuela.

Manuela sometimes will talk about her "mom." Sadly Manuela has no family and lives here at the centre year-round.

At Thursday evening meetings and on Sunday mornings, the children usually take turns going up and leading a song. Sometimes Manuela is asked to go up. I love to see the love and joy that shine from her face as she shines: "Thank you Jesus!" I don't know how much she understands about God, but I believe she loves Him.

RANDOM INFO. (about my life here): It's very convenient living with deaf people when you have a sore throat! There's no need to tire my voice by speaking, because it's all signs! In fact, I didn't even realize I had gone hoarse last night until I got a call from my mom and I could barely talk!

THANKSGIVING (Blessings):
-Manuela's life.
-I got to see my dad briefly on Friday morning as he was speaking at a pastor's retreat in Cochabamba.
-This last weekend was my first weekend off, and I had a very special time going into the city and spending time with friends!
-Apart from a sore throat, I have been healthy!
-God is giving me joy and contentment!
-The girls are responding positively to my attempts to read the Bible together in the evenings after dinner.

PRAYER REQUESTS:
-That God's love would be very real in Manuela's life.
-That my life would be an example to the girls in everything I say and do.
-For lots of wisdom and patience in my role as a "mother."
-For continued joy and contentment.