Full of Fun!

 The last couple of months have been full of fun for me! Our dentist asked me to babysit her nine-month-old for three weeks as her husband was away. So, I was the resident grandma and we went on walks, played in the grass and on the swing. It was fascinating to watch him learn about his world. Some of his favorite activities were to walk pushing his little shopping cart, watch the chickens in the yard or the rain run down the water spout, and to play with Wishka (Which is "cat" in Cabécar.) and her two kittens.

Another thing happened recently – my doctor removed some cysts from my scalp. I am fine. The fun part was Paul gave me a once-in-a-lifetime haircut and now we look like twins.

Our dining room/classroom

There have also been some fun teaching opportunities. Since the floor in the main building was being renovated, Paul made the dining room into a classroom. There are two teenagers in our church who started a home study program for 7^th grade this summer. Judith, my fellow missionary, is their Civics teacher and I am teaching them English. We are both enjoying getting to know them. Saturday afternoons Paul and I are team teaching an English conversation class and three adults attend regularly. As a lighthearted way to begin class we play games like hangman and charades to get students talking.  Judith and I also organized a Kids’ Math Club for Saturdays because parents felt that their children needed more instruction than the school was offering during the COVID restrictions. We started with a “place value train” and “expanded equation worms”. A woman from our church is studying for her education degree so we invited her to be part of our teaching team. She taught the kids about “more than, less than and equal to crocodiles”. And the kids went home with a new card game to play with their families. We also compared bags of marshmallows, made graphs and of course ate them.

Judith and the Math Club kids

We also had some visitors at the mission center. A pastor came for a retreat and ended up playing Moses as my preschool Sunday school class acted out the Passover, crossing the Red Sea and collecting manna (popcorn) for their breakfast in the wilderness. The children were delighted. Then two women from Florida came for a visit. Sharon was our salad maker for the week and Debby helped me teach English and was a small group leader for Math Club. Two teachers, Darcy and Yocelyn, from San Jose came to spend a few days of their vacation with us. They arrived on Saturday just in time to help with Math Club. Darcy is considering volunteering with us and Debby has also applied to join our mission team. Our mission is in the process of starting a private Christian school so please be praying with us for the Lord’s direction and provision.

Grace and peace,

Bridget and Paul