Doulos Discovery School

The First Day of School, August 21

Don´t they look smashing! We were excited and nervous to send Ben and Elena off to school. Ben is in second grade and Elena in kindergarten. For Elena this is a big step, her first school experience and kindergarten is a full day. We loaded up in the truck and as you can see, there is a school assembly, and lots of excitement. Ben already had many friends because he had gone to three weeks of soccer camp at school. Elena was nervous, but brave. They took traditional American lunches with them. Although the school has a cafeteria, we thought eating PB&J, an apple, and oreos for lunch might smooth some of the adjustments.

Ironically, the kids soon began to beg us to come and have lunch with them ¨like all the other parents.¨ It seems that a lot of childen get a good hot, dominican meal brought to them and fed to them by their mom or househelp. Lunch is the main meal in this country and a full day of school is not the norm, so it makes sense to use that a big meal is brought to the kids at school. But I guess we are just lazy and will continue to send a cold lunch with Ben and Elena. They will have to be happy with their ¨wierd¨American lunch.

Elena´s school day is mostly in English as kindergarten is designed to be English immersion. Of course, this is very easy for Elena, but challenging to her classmates. Recess is totally in Spanish! Her teacher, Miss Melanie, resorts to Spanish as needed, but the kids seem to absorb the English like sponges. Elena has made friends and now sometimes finds herself getting her card turned for talking with a friend instead of listening to the teacher (Like mother, like daughter!) We pray for Miss Melanie everyday as she teaches 18 wiggle bottoms how to listen, learn and obey.

Ben seems to be sailing through second grade with characteristic energy. His worst week was the second week of school when his teacher, Tara, was sick with Typhoid. He missed her terribly and prayed for her constantly. He earned "Doulos of the Week" that week for helping her substitute, Mark, through the week by translating for him as needed. Mark is his English tutor as Ben does language arts in English while his Dominican classmates study Spanish language arts. Ben is so ¨energetic¨, that he gets in a few scrapes with the other kids, mostly at recess and in soccer. We have been counseling him on ¨when to walk away¨ instead of trying to win every argument!

Having the kids in a safe, quality learning environment is such a blessing to us as we are free to get our work done during the day and have quality time with them after school. We hear all about their day, have a snack, and do any homework they may have. If it is not raining the neighbor kids sometimes come over to play. The neighbor kids have the traditional half day of school, so they are sometimes watching for Ben and Elena to get home at 3:00.