Going to the Philippines!

I'm on my way to the Philippines! This year I will be traveling by myself and will be doing something a little different than I've done in the past.



Normally I travel with a team for 3 weeks going to 5 Deaf elementary schools and 8 barrio (hearing neighborhood) schools telling them about Jesus. We do a VBS type day with them. On the two weekends we have also had about 80 Deaf high schoolers and about 100 barrio high schoolers come up to the house and have a weekend retreat. We stay at the Sunrise House, a very nice American house in the middle of the jungle, which has enough housing for our team and the high schoolers.



This year, I will be with the team on the days they go to the Deaf schools and hold the weekend retreats. On the other days I will be working strictly with the Deaf high school (Bohol Deaf Academy) with a more academic focus. I will only be staying at the Sunrise House when I'm with the team. The rest of the time I will be staying in the city of Tagbilarin at Bohol Deaf Academy (BDA). They have given me a tiny, two bedroom house in the back of BDA. It will be very strategic for me to be on campus, near all the students. I'm excited for that.



What I'll be doing at BDA I'm not quite sure. At this point they say they don't have any specific expectations for me so we'll see what they come up with. They have mentioned mentoring teachers, modeling teaching, and adapting their curriculum to meet the needs of the Deaf. Teachers, in the Philippines, teach using the lecture style. This is not best practice for teachers of hearing students, but for the Deaf, it's the worst way to teach. Often teachers will write their notes on the board and the students will copy them. But when asked to read their notes, they can't. It's sad! It's not the teachers' fault, they haven't learned any other way.



I'll hopefully be updating this frequently with pictures!