Karen & Prayin'

Also, while traveling in Ireland this month we met a lovely American woman who has been back home for a couple of weeeks now but is leaving tomorrow for ten day trip from Omaha, NE to Leon, Nicaragua to work with deaf children. I said we would pray (and I got the information if you want to send a few dollars to help with the work, so email me and I'll forward the info. along) The official name of the group that supports the school for deaf children is an acronym AMYPANS. In Spanish it means Association of Teachers and Parents of Deaf Children.
Here is her great email:

"The school currently has 18 children ages 4-8 learning how to sign in
Nicaraguan Sign Language and how to read and write in Spanish and do simple math. Without this school they would not have the opportunity to go to school or to learn how to communicate. One of the 4 year old kids was a big biter when she arrived at the school last year (when it started). As soon as she learned to sign she stopped all the
biting and uses her words (signs) when she wants something.
Additionally she has gotten the idea of words being made up of
letters. One day in May when I was there, instead of running
around during playtime/recess, she was sitting in front of the poster
with the signs for each letter practicing the signs for a-b-c--- She is
very smart and the school has unlocked her potential. She is also
very cute.All of the children are poor, some very poor without enough
food even. One of the children is HIV (his mother died of it last
year and he caught it prenatally). So he has some medical needs we are
trying to help with too. A church here in Omaha has been providing
some scholarships (it costs $480 a year in teacher salaries to educate
one child). We provide information about the child they are
sponsoring and have the child draw some pictures for their sponsor
and maybe write a few words (they are not very literate
yet). If you know of anyone or any group that would like to sponsor one of these kids, I could get you pictures and information and make the connection.We are working on a web site to sell pottery and other arts and crafts from Nicaragua in order to make money for the school. As soon as it is up and running I will let you know.We have several potters who sell to us at a low price, because they know it is for the school. When we go down tomorrow we will be taking extra suitcases filled with foam (to wrap the pottery in during the return trip). I am sure when the screeners pick up these monster big suitcases filled full (which weigh next to nothing because of the foam), they are going to wonder.We are also taking a deaf educator with us from the
university. She is doing a research project comparing American Sign
Language with Nicaraguan Sign Language. But she also is going to show teachers how to teach deaf children. Some of the teachers know how to sign, but they have had no training in the special
techniques that work well with deaf children. Thanks for the well
wishes. Continue to enjoy your Irish trip and think of us sweating our
brains out in the tropics after tomorrow. -A.C."

God Bless you, Karen