Gwen & Mags in Paraguay
Gwen & Mags Update recently received into the SAMS office:
Dear Friends,
It might officially still be Autumn but Winter weather has arrived. It came quite suddenly after months of heat. It meant a quick change of bedding to winter duvets and of clothes as out came the woollies. With it has come the coughs and colds that are affecting many of the kids at school. Some days we have up to 7 off in the infant class.
The beginning of the month was still warm and we enjoyed two days off to celebrate Worker’s day. Two weeks later that was followed by Independence day with 2 more days off. Whilst it’s great to have days off it gets us out of routine and the children take a while to settle back again. Independence Day was celebrated on May 14th and 15th. This meant we were back in school for the Friday which was strange. We used the day to celebrate Mother’s day and the mums were invited to breakfast. The kids had been allowed to put on little shows and the primary all wanted to do something. Sally Bartlett spoke first and then came the singing and dancing. It wasn’t the best due to lack of practice and it went on for too long…we’ve learned from that. Father’s day will be far more structured! That will take place in mid June.
Exams for the 6 to 15 year olds have also taken place and have now finished. The Ministry of Education excelled itself by reversing a previous decision yet again and decided we would go to two terms instead of three. This decision came out just as the kids were finishing their exams for the first term. The new ruling means exams should take place in June now! I think ours will be counted for June…we can’t put them all through it again!
Mags was due to go to the Chaco with some of the older pupils to dig latrines but they also had a lot of rain. They were flooded out in some areas and difficult to reach with flooded roads so that was postponed. They now plan to go at the end of June if the weather helps us.
The 5th form want to show support for Arlan Fick, the 16yr old who was kidnapped by a terrorist group in the North of the country. It is 57 days since he was taken. They are going to bring white ribbons for everyone to wear on their wrists and for the parents and staff to put on their cars to show support. Then next Friday they want everyone to wear white Tshirts and bring a white candle to have a special prayer time for him in our assembly. They hope that it will start other schools also to show support. It is Mags’ assembly on Friday. We are looking at the Names of God and it just happens to be “The Hope of Israel”. The kids are impressed that it has worked out since they wanted verses about hope for their prayers.
We have been taking the services in church once a month. It takes a lot of preparation but I think we gain from it almost as much as others. Our next one will be June 15th so we are already thinking of that. We’ve also both had assemblies to do.
We are both fit and well. Our puppy is growing fast and is very naughty but he’s also very cuddly so he wins everyone over! The lady who brought him put him into a dog show the other week and he won Best Puppy in show from an Argentine judge! …needless to say, it wasn’t for good behaviour!! Our oldest dog, Milly, isn’t very well at the moment and we aren’t really sure what’s wrong with her except she doesn’t want to eat. That in itself is most unusual!
Thankyou for your support. We really appreciate it.
God Bless and lots of love, Gwen and Mags xx
PS : Flooding in the Chacarita
Gwen was at the Annexe school today and Catalino, the head, told her about the flooding in the Chacarita which is affecting school families. 47 children have had to move, some to other family members, most into temporary wooden huts and one family to a food kitchen run by the big Pentecostal church. Catalino sent us some photos. The people put up the wooden huts with materials provided by the government. It is likely that two or three of the families will need help soon.