Next stop, Mozambique!

 

We are very excited to spend this summer in Africa, learning from and with the beautiful people we can't wait to meet there!   

 Already we have had many people help us to get there. Our brother, Mark, who was a missionary there helped us to narrow down a location, the leaders of the current mission there helped us to make connections to find housing and have already started making plans for good things we can be helpful with, friends at a humanitarian organization we admire (Care for Life) shared with us contacts for a few orphanages and we have already been inspired by the work we have learned they do there. 

And many friends and family have encouraged and cheered us on as we've worked out timing and visas and logistics and details.  Thank you!!

We are so, so grateful and looking forward to all the goodness we will be inspired by and try to contribute to there!

Buena Vida, indeed!

 While COVID continued to make the world and traveling complicated in 2021, we were able to spend the summer living with and loving the children and caregivers of the Buena Vida orphanage in Mexico.  We were profoundly touched by the inspiring goodness of these happy kids, the devoted directors and support team, and the generous volunteers who give so much to making a good life there. 

 

To our delight, one of the first people we saw when we arrived was an old friend, Lupe! He happened to be one of the children we most remembered when we visited once years before. He'd since grown up at the orphanage and stayed on as a worker. 

Mya next to Lupe 8 years earlier!

Mya and Lupe this time, enjoying some painting.

Lupe was a hard worker, he helped to build the new facility and was so good with all the children.

He was always so cheerful, the kids always loved it when he had time to play.

The directors have great vision. They help the kids to learn life skills, so they all participate in the daily work, with laundry and cooking and maintenance, etc. 

Sometimes the dishes took hours!

Even the littlest helped.

When David offered to take care of some repairs, they had him work with some of the boys, which was fun for him and the boys were great learners and workers.

 

The caregivers (the kids called them the "abuelas") live with and watch over the children, they teach them to be orderly and infuse values throughout the day, like when they line up for meals they have them recite scriptures and songs while they wait. They knew all the kids, we loved seeing how much they really cared about and loved them.

They were so kind and incorporated our girls right in line in age order.

Sometimes they joined in and enjoyed activities.

We adored the cook, she was so patient and friendly and lovable, the quintessential cook for an orphanage!

Our girls loved learning cooking with her.

She not only made such tasty food, but talked with the kids as they cooked with her, gave them big hugs and shared her faith and life wisdom.

 

There were so many other good people who help out at the orphanage, blessing the kids and the orphanage family.  

Since the children couldn't go out during COVID, the local pastor came to them each week.
We were really inspired by his messages!

The security man was always quietly going about cleaning things.

Sometimes he also played games with us.

Shortly after we got there, our van died. The directors called thier family who came and worked on it for us, and when we had to go find a new fuel pump, they lent us the orphanage van.

A few volunteer US organizations, like A Child's Hope Foundation and Taylor's Hearts, make regular visits to bring supplies and do work projects and play with the kids. We were impressed by so many good people who give time and means with so much love. It's a tradition to have a soccer match, Buena Vida kids vs volunteers. The kids always dominate the match, they really play well!

 

Because of COVID, the children weren't really allowed to leave the orphanage, the directors were happy to let us do pretty much whatever activities we wanted to with them. We had so much fun, it was like summer camp, and the kids were all such good sports to try whatever we came up with. Here are just a few of the things we enjoyed together.

We made skits

Tried baking

Painted

Wrote stories

Learned sewing

They helped us cut old jeans and to piece together.

They tied and bound a 300 piece quilt!

They were happy to donate it to refugee kids who had even less than they did.

Fun STEM activities like designing a safe container to protect an egg

They created egg containers from recyclables

There were many creative results!

And a convenient balcony to drop them from!

And some of the eggs survived!

More cooking -- trying apple pies!

More STEM-- designing cars!

And, of course, we spent many happy hours just running and playing in the courtyard!

One of our last activities was making "Angel Eyes" to remind them how many people near and far love and look after them. Some of them gave us theirs so we would also always remember they love us.
We were so filled up by their love!

 

We learned so much from these beautiful children and everyone who works hard to love them, teach them, and make such a buena vida for them!  We have a more buena vida because of them!

Going to school is good, too

While we would have liked to be out and about these last few school years, we have been grateful for the many, many good people who have been part of our girls learning in public school--their delightful classmates and their families, creative teachers, helpful staff, dedicated administration, the friendly folks who keep up the facilities, and all those helping behind the scenes. 

 

COVID sure added new complications for teachers, we've been impressed as they've continued even still to pivot to creating online learning options as needed, which we know is not easy!

Our fun librarians brought back "Battle of the Books" which our girls missed during COVID.
(The kids read books and compete in teams to answer challenging questions about them, we are also grateful for those who compile book lists of quality reads!)

The outstanding Portuguese teachers in our elementary school language immersion program not only help our girls keep up their language, but inspire them by their kindness and enthusiasm, help them understand culture, and give them opportunities to share their learning.

Their teachers also plan enriching outings.

And they invite parents to join in the learning, which we love. 

From music to art to technology experiences, our schools give our girls a good variety of learning experiences.

At the high school, the music teacher cultivates a community in the choirs and leads them to excellence in performing. He also teachers a rigorous music theory course that has challenged and grown our girls, and he has coached and cheered them on in their learning. 

We've been amazed at the extra time and energy some of their teachers pour into innovative learning experiences that have made even subjects our girls haven't thought they'd like really engaging, like this AP government teacher here at a pre-test breakfast cheering her team to "5"s (the highest AP score).

 

From writing their own bills, running mock campaigns, baking symbolic supreme court cakes, to weaving through room sized webs or writing haiku for test reviews, this teacher made learning fun and helped them really remember what they learned.

The students were able to capture a whole year of learning on a shower curtain.

The chemistry teacher loves teaching high school so much she keeps teaching one class in her retirement. Our girls first chemistry learning was fantastic with her fascinating labs and her kind encouragement, they even enjoyed the hours of homework.
We are just so inspired by so many teachers who give so much!

We are also amazed and inspired by so many good students our girls share their school days with, like this sweet friend of Kalina's who hand built this magnificent new podium for the school as her parting gift.

 So many good people helping our youth grow, and so many good young people preparing to go out and share their goodness with the world!