Teachers...by Lucy

Aaron and Joanna have taken on some teaching duties since we moved here to Refuge Ranch in Mexico. Joanna is teaching Art, and Aaron is teaching Science.

Joanna has always loved art and being creative. She started out her time teaching by doing some origami projects. Paper is always available and fairly inexpensive, so there was not a lot of preparation involved or expense necessary to begin. She started simple with little boxes and finished with frogs. In fact, on the way to the EMMC we helped with in February, she made 100 frogs to hand out to the kids. They were gone after the first stop. They loved them! She also did a cooking art class where they made rainbow cupcakes, using different colors of batter. They were beautiful, and didn't last long!

Martita mixing the cake batter for rainbow cupcakes.

Josiah mixing colors into the cake batter.

Joanna with the rainbow cupcakes.

Now she has moved on to weaving pillows, something her favorite art teacher at Pioneer Elementary, taught her. She had to save cardboard, find plenty of scissors, and locate some yarn. Thanks to some donations made by teachers at Pioneer Elementary, she was able to start this project last week.

The kids are excited about making pillows. This past week, I have seen them carrying their "works-in-progress" around, waiting for a chance to work on them. Some have had to start over after misunderstandings about the process, but have continued on their way with better instructions from Joanna.

Angie beginning her pillow.

Lolis is halfway through!

Aaron has had different challenges teaching Science. Items needed for science projects that we used to find in the stores in the U.S. are sometimes hard (or impossible) to find here in Mexico. He has had to be a little more creative because of that. Each week, he builds a science project around what he has available. He is even gathering supplies to build a trebuchet (like a catapult) with help from Joe Bean, who built one for a science fair project.

A few weeks ago, he had them all take diapers apart to figure out how they work. He also built boxes for them for an "egg drop" experiment (Some of you may remember that from Pioneer too!). The kids named their eggs, packed them in the boxes, with whatever they could find to soften the blow when they were dropped to the ground, and waited to see what would happen. Only one egg ended up breaking during the experiment, and some of them still have their eggs on their school desks.

Aaron dropping someone's egg from our roof.

Erika and Fidel are happy that their eggs survived!

Aaron showing the kids how to make Alka Seltzer Rockets!

This week, Aaron walked down the hill, picked two lemons, and demonstrated that a lemon, with the peel on, will float, but if you remove the peel, it will sink (The peel acts like a life jacket for the lemon because the peel is full of air pockets.). He shared that Jesus is like our life jacket, and without Him, we are sunk! I thought that was pretty cool!

It will be interesting to see what Aaron and Joanna come up with next. They seem to be enjoying these teaching experiences, and I think they are learning a lot themselves. Sometimes they are probably wondering how their teachers were able to get their point across so clearly (especially with the language barrier here!), or were able to make a project appear so simple to do. They are learning the importance of a teacher's role in the lives of others. They are learning patience and flexibility. They are learning creativity. But most of all, they are learning how to use their God-given abilities to honor God, and seeing the difference that can make in someone else's life.

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 4:10-11