More Dentist…

I brought Jan, Jude, and another boy Rene back to the dentist last week and more little kids this week.  Dr. Diane does such a great job and she is so patient with the kids.

Jan did much better this time.  Chris came with and talked to Jan about keeping his mouth open and the the wider his mouth was the quicker Dr. Diane would be done.  Jan was like a completely different child .

Below is Jaypee.  He had a cavity in almost every tooth and a couple of molars that were so bad they caused an infection on his right side.  Dr. Diane said it was bad enough that if we would have waited much longer, the infection would have started coming out of the outside of his cheek.  And this is after about 5 days of being on an antibiotic.  The pic below is right after Dr. Diane finished working on him.  He was sedated for the appointment and was still a little out of it, but such a trooper!

Alvin is in the chair and the girls, Jessica and Pauleen, already had their teeth cleaned.  They were scared so all Dr. Diane did was brush their teeth, but then she had the girls watch while she was working on Alvin so they would be more comfortable for next time.  Both girls have a lot of cavities and need extractions. 

Jaypee was feeling much better on the ride home.  I even got a smile out of him

Asleep…

Manny came to summer school one day last week.  I brushed his teeth and washed his hands and then he followed me around carrying my purse for me and assisting me as my helper.  As the first graders were working, Manny crawled up on the table and next thing I knew, he was asleep!

Trip to the Dentist

Last week I took Jan Andrei and Jude to the dentist.  Dentist Diane is a Christian and most of the missionaries here go to her.  She told me at my last visit that she would clean teeth, pull teeth, and fill cavities for free for the childrens home kids.  Since I have been brushing the kids teeth at school, I new how bad they are so I jumped on this opportunity!  So Jan and Jude were the first to go!  They needed so much work though, we couldn’t finish in one appointment, so I will be taking them again this week.

Jan did so good through the cleaning and having 3 cavities drilled.  Dr. Diane gave him a mirror to watch.  As she first started filling the cavity, he was fine, but then his patience ran out.  He got scared and closed his mouth and wouldn’t open it for her to finish.  I was trying to hold his arms and the assistant was trying to hold his head and Dr. Diane was trying to open his mouth.  It was pretty funny.  We finally got him to open for her to finish, but decided he was done being worked on.  He will have to get 2 or 3 cavities filled this week when we go and one tooth extracted.  Poor guy!

I think Dr. Diane spent about an hour taking plaque, tarter build up and calcium build up off of Jude’s teeth.  In some places, the tarter was a 1/16 of an inch thick and in some places, it was coming off black.  It was crazy.  I don’t think he has ever had a good teeth cleaning.  He needs to go back again this week for her to clean his teeth again.  She said his gums were very swollen with gingivitis and he has tarter build up under his gums.  So we are waiting for his gums to go down so she can clean them some more and fill some cavities.  Jude told me the next day at school that his gums and teeth felt so much better.  He had been complaining about his gums hurting since we started brushing teeth at school.

Manny at Graduation

Of course Lily found us at the graduation and after trying many times to keep her away, her persistence paid off.  She finally got to stay.  So after graduation, Manny came over to say hi…to Lily.

Lily is so patient and good with the kids.  She is a great dog!!

March Break

We don’t call it spring break here, but that’s what it’s like.  Faith kids had a week off from school.  It’s actually summer right now and very hot!  During break, we managed to make it out to the pool to swim many times.  We were dog sitting Lily over break too and I think she enjoyed the pool and cooling off as much as us.  She enjoyed sitting with Amy in the inner tube.

Learning the Calendar

I have just learned how to upload my own videos to youtube and post them on my blog!

So below is a video in my 1st grade class.  When I first began teaching and questions about the calendar would come up, I would get some pretty funny answers.  For example, “How many days in a week?”  They would usually answer something like, “Wednesday.”  Or “What is today?” and they would answer something like, “7.”  It was pretty funny!  So at that point I realized we had some work to do.  In September, I started asking questions at the beginning of class about the calendar.  We would spend about 20 minutes doing this everyday.  We worked on how many months in a year, name the months in order, how many days in a week, name the days in order, how many hours in a day, how many days in the month of October, November,…, February, what if it’s leap year and so on.  Now, the kids have gotten so good at the calendar, that while they are waiting to brush their teeth or after they finish, I have them go up to the board to ask another classmate a question.

Both Manny and Lily (a dog I dog sit sometimes.  She usually is at the YMC and follows me to school) make an appearance in this video.

CCS Graduation

The school year is officially over!  We had a graduation Friday, but only a few kids are going to change grades.  Since the kids works at their own pace, many did not complete their grade.  So, we recognized that they completed the school year, but most of the kids will come back for summer school in April and May.   Some who did pass the grade they entered at the beginning of the school year will also come to summer school.  There are a few reasons for this.  Many of the kids are 12-15 years old and still in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade.  Many of these children never went to school.  Either their families couldn’t afford the price of food and transportation to get to school or some of these kids were street children before.  Another reason they will come to summer school is that there isn’t much for the kids to do outside of school and they will get at least one good meal for the day.

Below are some pictures from the graduation.

Below is a video of me calling my students to get their awards.  Rylee was my photographer

Introducing Heartlyn

Heartlyn came to the home in early October of last year, at only 2 months old. Like many of the children who come to our home, the beginning of her life faced many physical challenges and many nights in the hospital. In her first month of stay at KIM, she was in the hospital for a long list of illnesses, including double pneumonia. Now, Heartlyn has grown so much and is almost 2 years old!  She is known for her full head of hair and strange growling noises that she often makes.

Heartlyn has been in the process of being adopted by a wonderful family from Chicago.  We are thankful for her opportunity to have a family with a Mommy and Daddy.  This family sent pictures months ago of themselves and their home with Heartlyn’s room decorated and ready for her to move in.  This way Heartlyn could see the pictures and become familiar with her family while the adoption process was finalized.  It was very cool to be on this end and get to see how excited this family was to adopt their little girl.  It makes it easier to say good bye. Two weeks ago, they came to get her and she is now home with her family. It has been a blessing to meet Heartlyn.  Please pray for her as she adjusts to her new home and family.

I hope you enjoy Christie’s video.

Meet Imon

We have a new addition to our school.  Meet Manny’s little brother Imon!  He is 3 years old and also plays out in the street in front of our school.  He has become my new shadow.  I love it!  He follows me to all of my classes.  The kids help take care of him.  Around 10 am though, he gets a little winy.  It’s definitely time for a nap.  Yesterday, he fell asleep in my helpers arms, but unfortunately we don’t have a place for him to sleep, so we all just took turns holding him.  He starts out in my first class and I brush his teeth.  Then he follows me to the rest of my classes until lunch time.

He decided to play under Given’s desk.  The kids said he was pretending that was his home and his little bear that Joanna gave him was his baby!  He has the cutest little voice!

He woke up in my last class and was pretty relaxed!  I left the class to get pencils for the kids and when I came back, he was sitting at the table with his feet up.  The other boy at the table, Kim, has a heart for Manny and Imon.  Yesterday, I heard him talking to Imon in a sweet voice and rubbing Imon’s head and he gave him a kiss on the head.  It was pretty neat!  Kim is only like 6 himself.  These kids are pretty special!

God’s Love Program

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we had a God’s Love program.  It was a lot of fun and I love how everyone chips in to take care of Manny.  Even the kids!