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September 1987 Newsletter
COLOMBIAN CHRISTIAN MISSION
Dale and Jeanie Meade
In the jungle and prairie of Southeastern Colombia
Volume 15, Issue 9 September, 1987
BACK TO SCHOOL
After a few weeks back in Colombia, it was time to start school again. Most kids here had started in early February. But our children, since they were going to the little missionary school had finished in June. In fact, we had taken them out early and they finished after we got the States. Since we had been having problems with their schooling, we ordered a correspondence course for each one of them. Fortunately, all of the material arrived while we were still in the States.
As we packed, we stuffed over one hundred and fifty pounds of books into our suitcases and lugged them back to Colombia. That saved us a fortune on airmail. After getting our house back in order, it was back to school. Jeanie had taught all of them at one time or another, so it was not totally new to her. But since all three of them were studying here in the house, I had to help as well. I had taught English in the Christian day school, but I had never taught in English. Nor had I ever taught my own kids. Jeanie does the majority of teaching, but I help out by teaching history and poetry.
We start school at seven in the morning. I teach one of the children in one room while Jeanie teaches another in a different room. We even have a chalkboard to write on. If all goes well we can be done by noon. If the classes are long or if the kids are having trouble with something, it often takes until mid-afternoon to finish. Wendy or I help with lunch if Jeanie is held up teaching Susy or Alex. I have my afternoons and evenings free to work with the churches and Jeanie is usually able to get the housework and washing done then. During that time the children have homework and piano practice to keep them occupied. They have no time for television, but they are probably better off because of that. That makes for an extremely busy schedule for all of us, but it seemed to be the only way to continue with the work here in Villavicencio and still get an education for our children. While we have only been at it for a month now, it seems to be working out well. At least until they get into high school, we should be able to handle things this way.
ME TOO
While the kids are going back to school so am I. I had always said that finishing my master's degree was a major goal. My original plans had been to work on it after our first term of service. But the work was so pressing that we did not feel that we could spend the extra time in the States. I had taken a couple of courses by correspondence through the Cincinnati Bible Seminary, but it had ended there many years ago.
Now the bug had again bitten me. I feel like if I am ever going to go back to school, it had better be soon. I am now pushing forty and so it is beginning to look like now or never. So after a year of vacillating, I made up my mind and enrolled at Wheaton College graduate school. I can do up to 12 hours correspondence. They also offer a Masters in Intercultural Communication/Missions, precisely the degree program I wanted to pursue.
My first course is one on survey research. I am learning how to conduct scientific survey of attitudes in a cross cultural setting. For it I will be doing a survey of the parents of students in our Christian day school. We hope to see if there is a way we can better use the school as an evangelistic tool. Assuming I can carry the grade, the course will earn me four hours of graduate credit. If all goes as planned, I should be able to finish one semester of work here in the next two years. That would reduce the cost and the amount of time that I would have to spend on campus during our next furlough.
After a fifteen year absence from school, the work is really putting me through the paces. But it is mentally stimulating as well as useful to the work here. I am looking forward to working on other courses in the future. The kids of course think that it is funny when I have to do my "homework" too. Somehow it just doesn't make sense to a child's mind that an adult would be studying, much less that anyone would do it voluntarily! So for the whole house it is "back to school" and for the next nine months our lives will probably revolve around that fact.
OOPS, IT'S ALL GONE
Whenever we make a trip, or when ever someone comes down for a visit, we stock up on certain favorite things. After our recent trips to the States, our suitcases had every empty nook and cranny filled with "goodies." Things that we can't get here, like peanut butter, dried beef (for dried beef gravy over bread) chocolate covered peanuts, our favorite toothpaste and even a tiny bottle of real maple syrup.
The only problem with bringing it all back is that it does not last long. At first it was nice to have those special things. But now we have began to hear someone say, "oops, it's gone" with greater frequency. Soon we will have cut the ties and it will be all "native" again. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. Besides, it is nice having things to look forward to!