We have been busy with multiple projects the past couple of weeks, but one of those is the school.
We had been waiting on José and Rosita to come before we could finish out the school order from Huaral. I had already placed the order from the States several weeks back. Caleb, Steph, and I met with them to go over some of the preliminary details for school and to put together the order, which I placed almost two weeks ago. The books arrived in good time.
Rosita wanted to paint the school room, so we had to get some paint and other supplies. She and José put in all the elbow grease to get the room ready. Caleb and I got some more tables for desks, and Caleb cut them down to size.
Last week, Yeni arrived on Thursday. We are glad to have her around though we haven’t really seen much of her. She’s spent all her time up at the other house, so far. Knowing we were headed to Cusco, we decided to make a shopping day of it. The children needed some school supplies, and Rosita wanted to get some things for school, too.
So, we all went! Caleb went along because we wanted to look at some supplies for the store (another project we’ve been busy with). Some had dentist appointments, so we dropped them off. Then the ladies met up at San Pedro to do some shopping there while the men looked at machines and such.
We then had lunch together, which was not finished in time. I took several of the girls to the airport to collect Yeni, then we met the others back at the restaraunt before going school-supplies shopping. José and I needed to do some business in Entel while Caleb looked at some prices in Promart. We all met back at the van around 5:30, I think.
On the way home, Caleb texted me to say he was in the taxi behind us. He had caught a taxi from Promart. We stopped at a corner, and he hopped out of the taxi and in with us. We had fifteen people in our twelve-passenger. Felt like we lived in Peru!
The last several days were spent finishing up the room, going over books, having meetings, going over more books, and moving desks and such into the room. Today was the first day of school!
Rosita will be teaching the Spanish courses. Our English teacher arrives the end of April, Lord willing, so school will be all Spanish until then. We’re thankful to have made it this far.
A number of us met to wish the school a blessed start. We sang together, and I had the opening devotions for the school. Now, the rest of the year simply needs to float on by. Heh heh…
Esmeralda is between a rock and a hard place when it comes to schooling Mariagracia. She wants her to go to school here, but Fernando says no. But the costs of schooling at the Catholic school are very high, astonishingly high, and Fernando refuses to pay anything for that. We have encouraged Esmeralda to talk with Fernando and come to an agreement to where he either helps with the costs or understands that she will choose to send her to our school, which will be much more affordable for her.
We are doing our best to support her financially through all this. The church took up an offering last month, and several of you have helped, too. Thank you! Please pray for Esmeralda that she would have the courage to confront Fernando and for us that we would have the wisdom to know how best to help.
Juan David 