So, first up, a photo of the seven students who were the first ever to take the ACT on Cowman's campus. Six of them were Cowman students while the 7th was our friend Haylie, who lives down the road at Emmaus Biblical Seminary. It will be a few weeks still before we hear how they did.
We had a great visit from our friend Kelly who helped a tremendous amount at Cowman during her week AND she spent some time with the orphans at The Potter's House. I have much to tell you about Kelly and her relationship with the orphanage, but that will wait until later in January...
We got our annual Christmas card photo, and even successfully included both dogs (even though Oreo is not at all thrilled to have Ginger in our lives).
The final days of school featured a lot of dressing up and candy canes and class parties ... and another special visitor who has become a real regular (for which we are very thankful!). Pastor Phil lead Cowman in a very raucous final chapel of 2017.
Caleb and Frantz helped with the music.
And the high school science students threw "snow" over the crowd as they left chapel.
During our final full week of classes, I came across an interesting little living object lesson on overcoming fear: One night I found a tarantula on our front porch and managed to catch him and bring him into show my students, especially my 6th grade science class. Of course there was a lot of screaming and a bit of theatrics, but I was impressed with the level of curiosity the students soon demonstrated.
We even had a death match between the spider and a praying mantis. (The spider won.)
One day after school, a few of the students spent about 45 minutes working up their guts to let the spider crawl on their hands ... oh so briefly. About three students successfully touched the tarantula but often the interaction ended with seeing the spider launched unexpectedly through the air.
But THEN a young lady visiting from Ohio visited our class and showed us how easy it was to pick up a tarantula and how little we needed to fear a bite. Before you knew it, kids were lining up to take their turns at letting this little guy crawl up their arms. (I'm not sure I can convey how near miraculous this was, especially among Haitians!)
Even Hannah got into the act:
Even I overcame my deep-seated hesitation...
Turns out, there's nothing at all to fear. (I need to remember this.)
On a less icky note, the teaching staff of Cowman gathered for our annual Christmas party. Look at this incredible staff! Truly a great group of people and a joy to work with. Praise God for each unique individual He has called to this ministry.
But it's all worth it in the end!
The middle school and high school students sang "Mary, Did You Know?" under the direction of our science teacher, Chris Love.
Gotta have the manger scene, of course.
One of the newest members of our OMS Haiti missionary family, Lori took on the "honor" of directing the actors for the production. She did an awesome job.
The evening ended with a sandwich and cookie free-for-all...
And a photo booth. (Hannah is behind the green glasses.)
Sisters.
And we did a whole bunch of shopping, which is exciting for the first few minutes (since there's not a store anything like this in all the north of Haiti) but THEN you realize that Dominicans are almost as crazy with their Christmas shopping as Americans are. And I DO NOT MISS Christmas shopping.
Our second and final night in Santiago, we found a Christmas celebration with lots of trees lit up around a monument in the center of town, where we got a family silhouette.
Another special visitor showed up around that time, Pastor Storly Michel all the way from Columbus, Indiana. His family soon joined him.
We had a wonderful Christmas day with family.
The kids did an especially nice job this year of getting gifts for each other, even with limited budgets and options. I was impressed.
In the afternoon, we observed one of our new family traditions - delivering Christmas cakes to some friends.
We were back home again in time for dinner with Rose and her boys (David was away visiting relatives).
During our attempt to deliver a cake to Brandon and his mother, we found out that he was in the hospital, recovering from typhoid. He was on his 9th day in the hospital when we got there on the 26th. Melissa offered to do some home cooking for him and then she and I stayed at the hospital a few hours while his mom took the opportunity to go home for a bit and shower.
(Glad to report Brandon was able to go home the next day and is planning to be back at Cowman on January 3rd when we get started again.)
The boys have spent a lot of hours on the trampoline, perfecting their forward and backward flips.
Yesterday we had a Christmas party at Emmaus for all of us who didn't get to travel to the States for Christmas. It was a great afternoon.
One last tradition - today, Hannah and Sarah worked on decorating a gingerbread house.
On a final, fitting note regarding the passing of time - the mulberry bushes we planted just over a year ago have grown like crazy and are starting to produce fruit.
It puts me in mind of the last stanza of a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem my high school students will be reading next week:
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
