Training

Yesterday I spent the day in a room at the library, along with thirteen other folks, receiving training, by the Temple Literacy Council, to become a volunteer adult literacy tutor.

The training was for two specific types of tutoring: 1) helping English-speaking adults learn to read and 2) helping non-English speakers learn to read, write and speak in English.

I am excited about volunteering in this program. I am now waiting for a call from the director of the Literacy Council, who will invite me and a student to meet together at the Council office. The student will already have been screened and his/her reading level will have been determined. The student and I will have a chance to talk and get to know each other, and to decide if we feel we are a good match for each other. If so, I will begin tutoring for an hour or two each week. All of the materials are supplied by the Council. We spent a lot of time going through those materials in our training yesterday, and I think they will be very useful and effective in teaching someone to read.

A few facts I learned yesterday:

• 13% of adults in Bell County are illiterate.
• 85% of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate.
• Medication errors - many as the result of misread or misunderstood prescription labels - are the most common medical mistakes, causing up to 7,000 deaths each year (nationally).
• According to our instructor, in Bell County the most common reason given by illiterate adults for wanting to learn to read is to be able to read the Bible.

Fire

While Dan and I were in Port Aransas, we received an email notifying us that a fire had broken out in our church building, in Temple.

It happened on Monday evening. A young teenage girl and her dad were driving near the building. The girl, who was a member of the Junior Fire Cadet Program, told her dad that she smelled fire. The dad tried to convince her that the smoke was coming from a barbecue grill, but the girl insisted that she smelled a wood fire. Her dad finally agreed to call 911 and report that his daughter thought she smelled a fire in the neighborhood.

Once the fire department arrived, they still saw no smoke, but did smell it. They looked around the neighborhood, including a look through the glass doors into the foyer of the older portion of our church building. There they saw a pile of embers on the floor. Knowing they had the right building, they broke through the glass doors and discovered that the ceiling and attic were on fire.

From what I've heard, the fire started in the wiring. The insulation was ruined, mostly smoke damage, and must be removed and replaced with new. Some dry wall was also destroyed. Power to the entire building had to be cut off. I heard today that asbestos was discovered and had to be professionally abated. On Wednesday evening we were still unable to occupy the building, but this morning we were back in the auditorium and classrooms - and very grateful. The fellowship hall, which is located in that older portion of the building, is still off limits.

Thank God that the entire building didn't go up in flames. And many, many thanks to that young girl whose training and persistence were responsible for notifying the fire department.

52 in 2013 - #14 Theme of the Week: Water

On Sunday afternoon, after feasting on Kelsey's wonderful noon-time Easter meal, Dan and I drove south, to visit our friends, Pepper and Cindy, in Port Aransas (near Corpus Christie, TX). They have a condo at the beach, which they enjoy, themselves, for a couple months every spring, and rent out to vacationers the rest of the time.

Monday morning dawned overcast and gray, but the clouds burned off by afternoon.

 I always enjoy watching the pelicans. Although I know that there are pelicans on the Pacific coast, for some reason I don't recall seeing them during our time in, either, Alaska or Oregon. You can't miss them in Port Aransas. They are everywhere.

Easter in Spring

On Friday of last week we drove to Spring to be with Chris, Kelsey and the children for the Easter weekend. On the drive over, we saw so many bluebonnets and other wildflowers alongside the roads and in country meadows. Sorry . . .  no pictures . . . we were on the way to see the grands, so no time to stop for photos.

On Friday evening the kids got to dye their Easter eggs. It was Robert's first time, and he took to it with gusto.

On Saturday morning the kids took part in an Easter egg hunt at their church building. Besides the egg hunt, there were bouncy houses and face-painting. Robert had no interest in the face-painting, but had a lot of fun in the bouncy houses. Clara asked for a bunny face at the face-painting station.

Finally it was time for the egg hunt. They had separate areas for the pre-schoolers and the school-age kids. Both kids filled their baskets. Clara wanted her picture taken with the Easter bunny, but I couldn't convince Robert to get close to him.

 As if all of the Easter activities and candy wasn't enough to hyper-energize these little ones, that evening they went to a birthday party for their little friend, Justin.

While they were partying, Dan and I met up with our friends, Ruby and Dave, for dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant. It had been a long time since we'd seen them, so it was great to get together again. After dinner we went to their home for a while to meet Ruby's mother, who was visiting. Ruby's mom had baked two pies for us - pecan and chocolate cream. I had never met her before, so it was a real treat getting to know her.

Then, after pie and coffee, Dave and Ruby came to Chris and Kelsey's with us, so they could see the children and how much they'd grown since they'd last seen them. Robert took to Ruby immediately, and the feeling seemed to be mutual. They played with cars, together, all evening.

After Dave and Ruby left, it was time for the children to get ready for bed. They were excited, because they knew the Easter Bunny was coming to hide their eggs while they slept. Kelsey put soft curlers in Clara's hair so that she'd have pretty curls to wear with her new dress in the morning. Clara was happy to sit still for this procedure as long as she had a book to read. She is a voracious reader!

Here are the kids, the next morning, all decked out in their Easter clothes. Both were cute as could be, but Clara, in her sweet dress, her Mary Jane shoes, and her curls, was especially lovely. 

Photo by Kelsey

After church we all came back home for a delicious dinner, prepared by Kelsey. Then it was time for us to say our good-byes. Here are a few final pictures of us with the kids. I especially love the last one, of me with both of the children. Robert had just about had his fill of posing for pictures, and this was all we could get out of him. But it turned out to be my favorite picture of the weekend.

Photo by Kelsey