Teacher Training Workshops

Margaret, Sue, and Hilda arrived from Ontario, Canada to the Dominican Republic to continue a three year teacher training workshop for all of our KAI teachers. I had the privilege of hosting these ladies, being their translator, and their chofer. When Vic asked if I would be willing to translate for these women I was a little hesitant. My Spanish is not Dominican Spanish so some of the terminology is different and I have never had to really use teaching vocabulary in Spanish. Top it off, I have not really been conversing for long periods of time in Spanish for quite a while since I have been in the states more recently than here in the DR. But I said I would do my best.

The first place where we did the two day workshop was held at our Palo Blanco school with the teacher from both Palo Blanco and Constanza. There were around 30 people who came for the training. It was such a help for me to have Margaret and Sue's notes to study and look up words prior to our first workshop plus I had a couple of teachers who helped me along the way when I didn't use the correct word or had a confused look on my face of how to translate what was just said into Spanish. I very was grateful for their help.

The second place was at our ANIJA school in Jarabacoa. We had around 40 people for the training. Again I had teachers who helped me with some of the words and again when I got stumped of how to translate something. All the new vocabulary I was learning I kept adding to my list of words or would cross-out what I had written and wrote what they use here in the DR.

This past Sunday, we drove up to Sosua for a day at the beach. The whole province of Puerta Plata is under a state of emergency due to lots of rain causing major flooding and landslides. We drove through some flooded roadways and saw some of the devastation along our journey. Our "beach day" was rainy so we stayed inside and read and relaxed. Monday and Tuesday we did our workshops at our team house in Monte Llano right outside of Caraballo because the river was as high as the bridge and the bridge was unsafe to go across to even try and get to our care center in Caraballo. We were really surprised at how many of our teachers were able to come. Some of them who came had walked a long ways to get to transportation which has been limited and others have major flooding in their homes which they have had to evacuate. But it was amazing to see them all in such high spirits. Emily, our one missionary who lives here shared with me that our staff are like family and since they have not seen one another for at least a week because of all the rain this is sort of a reunion. With all the rain even our team house was starting to leak and so we had to be careful of puddles of water on the tile as well as not getting dripped on or our posters wet since we had one more place to use them. We finished early on Tuesday because Alberto our director wanted to make sure that we would not have any problems getting out of the province of Puerta Plata as well as the safety of his staff getting back to their homes. Alberto told us that because of the ground being so saturated with water that even a small amount of rain can cause the roads to be flooded or a mud slide to happen. We left right after lunch and praised the Lord because we had blue skies the whole way back to Jarabacoa. On the last part of our trek back to Jarabacoa our vehicle did overheat and God provided a mechanic that was just driving past us as it overheated to stop when I flashed my lights at him. We were able to get back to the house after about 2 hours of waiting. I was thankful that it happened close to home and for God providing the mechanic to pass us just when we needed him.

Our last place for our teacher training was in Monte Plata. We had about 35 people who attended from the Eva Russell School in Monte Plata, the Miacerg School in Santo Domingo and our Care Center in Santo Domingo. Again I had teachers who helped me with my words and when I stumbled. It was also great because we got to stay in the team rooms with the two schools from Santo Domingo. I had the opportunity to talk with our missionary, Kami who lives in Santo Domingo.

I am so very grateful to have been a part of these two weeks. Grateful for the Lord to stretch me out of my comfort zone in my translating. Thinking back over the years my one dream or goal was to be able to translate. It was great to meet so many of our teachers and to spend some time with our directors and missionaries who serve in our schools. It was great to see how everyone worked together, encouraged one another, and praising our Lord in song.