Preparing for the PSE

I (Adie) was recently able to spend a few days in a classroom of the Armenia Government School. The school system here is a bit different from the US in that the students attend Primary School for eight years and then (if they qualify and if their parents can afford to send them) they go on to four years of high school.


When I heard that the Standard 6 (equivalent to 8th grade in the US) was about to take their Primary School Exam (PSE), I thought that maybe I could help. The students have to pass this exam in order to be eligible for continuing on to high school. Of the 24 students in the Standard 6 class in Armenia, probably only a small handful of them will continue on to high school next year. The reasons are varied: some will not pass the exam, thus not qualify; some are simply not interested in continuing their education; some have parents that can’t afford to send them into Belmopan (the capital) for high school; and others will have to work rather than study in order to help support their families.


So, in an attempt to help, I offered to go into the Standard 6 class one afternoon to teach the students some test-taking strategies. I was welcomed with open arms! Most of the teachers are desperate for any help they can get – especially with writing. I had a blast working with the class on test anxiety, general test-taking strategies and multiple choice strategies. It was so well-received that the teacher (Ms. Rivas) asked me to come back again.
I did, and we worked on some review of math concepts and a short writer’s workshop. Writing (and especially timed writing) is a real challenge for most of the kids. Not only is Spanish, Mayan, or Ketchi their first language, but much of the spoken English is Creole which doesn’t do much to help their grammar and spelling!

This week I checked in with a few of the students. They had taken the first day of their PSE on Monday. The feedback that I got was that the Science was kind of hard (multiple choice) but they felt okay about the writing. Yes!! If I wasn’t able to do much about their skills in that short of a time, I hope I at least improved their confidence so that they could get something written on the paper. Gosh,, could God be using my time working at Sylvan to help serve children here in Belize?!

There is another thing that we are looking at to help more kids from Armenia have the opportunity to go on to high school. We have begun talking with a local Peace Corps Volunteer (living in Armenia) about working with him to establish a scholarship program. We will be meeting with him again next week to continue that discussion.

As another little point of interest, there is currently a big uproar here about teachers being unqualified. Apparently at a recent workshop, the PSE test was given to a group of Belizean teachers, and they performed very poorly on it. It seems that teachers here often have only a HS diploma and absolutely no teacher training. We also hear (and it’s easy to believe) that the better teachers are not coming to the small villages like Armenia.

We would appreciate your prayers:

• that God would show us how Jaguar Creek can help with the education of His children in Belize


• that God would inspire and equip the teachers who are trying to teach in difficult circumstances


• that God would protect and reach out to the children at Armenia Government School
  

Nine Weeks

Nine Weeks at Jaguar Creek
At this point in his life, Calvin, (our grandson) doesn’t like to waste energy with a lot of words in a sentence. Often, when he walks into a room and sees you, he will simply say “doin?”, which means “what are you doing?”. (My guess is that he learned that from his parents who often have to check up on him and see what kind of mischief he might be “doin”). At this point in our life at Jaguar Creek, you too might be wanting to ask what we have been “doin”, so in this blog we will tell you what’s really been going on down here.

Before we got here, we already had an Excel spreadsheet listing the key tasks and priorities. Roy told us that it would probably change as soon as we arrived and he was right.

On our first night here, a tree came down on the solar roof, damaging four tiles. Suddenly our list of tasks had a new high priority. Steve, our technician for solar/electrical/water/gas and almost anything else that breaks, moved some of the panels around to minimize the impact on the power output. Jim Beard visited in February and is working on a design for a complete upgrade of the solar system and water treatment facilities.

In our first day here, we realized that our internet connection (via satellite dish) was not working. We quickly learned about the local "Internet Café" (which didn't even serve coffee) in Belmopan. It took many days, and many hours of work to get the system going again and, in the end, we really don’t know what caused it to stop working in the first place, or what fixed it. Anyway, it’s great to be “connected”, and we even watch Survivor – Fiji on CBS.com when we have the patience to sit through the long periods of video “buffering”.
While “repairing” the satellite dish, Mark discovered that among the 700 acres of rainforest, 8 cabins, 4 staff houses, lodge, office, classroom, workshop and laundry facility there was only one screwdriver. Being sharp as a tack, he concluded that we might need to buy some tools. (Thank God for Kirk Ohlendorf who gave us a Gerber tool – it comes in very handy here).

Thus we launched a new priority, getting tools. It’s sort of like buying tools in the states, except you almost never pay the price marked, and you have to drive to six different places (in different cities) to find what you want. Of course we really didn’t find what we wanted, but we managed to get what we needed.
Matt spent several days organizing the tools and supplies in the workshop.

Repairs and cleaning the boardwalks were a high priority. With our newly purchased pressure washer (that has been back to the shop twice already, and is going again soon) and many days of work, we managed to remove the slippery slime from the boardwalks. And some of the worst sections got repaired.
One section is now named Egusa Gulch in honor of Mike, our pastor. When Mike and Jolie came to visit, there was a section of boardwalk that had been removed but not replaced. Instead there was a little “bridge” made of three 2x6’s . In their first evening here, we were approaching the “bridge” and Mark said to Mike “watch your step”. When Mike responded “step up?” we all knew that he didn’t get it, and it was too late. He missed the bridge entirely, and went down into the dirt. Fortunately he moves like a gazelle, and no damage was done.


Several of the roofs here are made of thatch. They blend with the local vegetation beautifully, but like any roof, need repair from time to time. The Bayleaf Palm tree provides the materials. About 1000 leaves were required to repair the dining lodge, and another 1500 leaves to replace the roof of both the small and large palapas.
Harvesting is a huge chore. It requires hiking through the jungle with a machete, finding suitable palms, cutting the leaves, bundling them (using vines for "rope"!) and hauling them out. We harvested the leaves from our own property. Mark and Matt thought they were in good shape until they tried working alongside a local man named Victor who carried twice as much, and worked twice as fast.
The next major construction project (in progress) is to convert the two staff houses into bunkhouses. Because of the humidity, two things don’t work well here, drywall and ceramic tile floors. Drywall doesn’t hold up very well when it is not dry. And while the tile floors look great, on many days the moisture condenses on them, so you are always walking on a wet floor.
So, in both buildings we are replacing the drywall with wood. In the “Large Bunkhouse” we are removing the floor tiles and also raising the roof that we can accommodate bunk beds, giving it the capacity to sleep 16 people.
Some of our less visible projects have included “re-hiring” the staff here, and establishing routine maintenance and cleaning procedures, a payroll system, employee benefits, lodging pricing and reservation policies. We also purchased T-shirts (that we were not allowed to import), cleaned and organized a ton of files, papers and books in the office and classroom, and sorted through piles of linens and mosquito nets.
Beyond all of the projects and tasks, the most important job in these first nine weeks was to develop our relationship with the staff. That’s going well. In our second week here we started a weekly devotional time with them so we can all pray for each other, pray for the ministry and keep focused on what (Who) is really important. Mark plays basketball with the guys during the lunch break (then complains for days about his aches and pains). We also play lots of “Uno” and “Phase 10” with Mateo and his family (who live here on site). We have a great group of people here, from a variety of backgrounds, and it has been fun getting to know them.

We thank God for our great staff, and also for keeping us healthy and safe here. Sometimes we really wish we were doing more "hands on" ministry (and Adrienne has helped at the Armenia school), but we do realize that this is a necessary time of preparation. Please pray for us, that God would help us to seek him every day and to just trust in his promise that "all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose". If we can do that, everything else will fall into place.
Blessings from Belize!

Wedding Day in Armenia

Last month we had the honor of being the witnesses for the wedding of one of our employees. Mateo Chiquin lives on site here at Jaguar Creek with his wife, Rebecca, and two children, Jessica and Michael. Mateo asked us if we would be the witnesses and if Mark would be the ‘godfather.’ Of course, we said “yes!” even though we weren’t sure (and neither was Mateo) what that would entail.
There was no rehearsal; we simply bought the wedding rings and showed up ready to do what we were told.

Saturday, February 24, started with us driving to Armenia Village (about 4 miles from Jaguar Creek) at 7:45am to pick up the groom. Our car was washed, decorated, and prepared for the festivities of the day.
A little after 8:00am, we drove with Mateo and his mother to another house in Armenia to pick up Rebecca. I (Adie) was able to help a bit with her preparations, and when ready, she got in the car, and we all drove down the road to the church.

Let me back up a bit…. this wedding was a BIG deal in Armenia. Four couples were being married that day. Two Hispanic couples and two Mayan couples. Raul (Mateo’s brother) married Emiteria (Rebecca’s sister). Very cute!

The church was way too small for the occasion, so earlier in the week, they had removed the back wall of the church so that more people could see the ceremony. In addition, at least 4 or 5 people were hanging into each window on the sides.


We were all at the church, and waiting, by about 8:45am. The pastor arrived (for the 9:00am ceremony) around 9:30am and got things underway. The couples were each married one by one. Mateo and Rebecca were the last couple. We weren’t sure when we were supposed to walk in, so after the bride, groom, parents, and ring bearer had all walked forward, we asked a woman standing in the back what we should do. Her response was something like, “What?! You’re the witnesses?! You should be up front with them!” We quickly pushed between the guests and scampered into place beside the bride and groom. (I’m quite sure that no one noticed our late arrival.)
The ceremony was sweet, and we were blessed to be able to participate and pray for this commitment made by Mateo and Rebecca.


After the ceremony, we all made our way to the other end of the village to the Chiquin homes for the reception. There we feasted on the traditional meal of beans & rice, stewed chicken, and coleslaw. I have to say that I have never in my life seen such huge pots of chicken cooked over wood fires. It was impressive – and delicious! The cake (which was phenomenal) had been made by our very own kitchen staff, Julie. The party went on pretty much all day – and it clearly wore a few people out!
We headed home to Jaguar Creek around 5:00pm and heard the stories the next day about the party continuing late into the night. I wonder how our daughter, Lisa’s, wedding in July will compare…..