dsc_0057-1.JPGWe are slowly establishing our school routines.  Sammy has been in school for 2 1/2 weeks and Nathan started last week.  Samuel goes to Nate Saint Memorial School.  This school was started over 40 years ago so that parents serving as missionaries in Shell wouldn’t have to send their children to school in Quito.  It was a dream of Nate Saint, missionary pilot and one of the five men killed by the Huaorani in this area in 1956., to have a school here to avoid this separation of families.  The school is K-8, although this year the oldest student is in 5th grade.  Typically there are 30-40 students, although this year there are around 15 since the older grades are absent.  Many families have children similar to our in age, so in the upcoming years, the enrollment will increase as Nathan, Josiah and Isaac and their friends start school.

dsc_0052.JPGSammy’s class is a combined first and second grade class with 4 boys and 3 girls.  He comes home for lunch every day except Fridays and it’s fun to see him in the middle of the day.  The school is a 10 minute walk or 5 minute drive from our house.  The curriculum is American and everything is in English except Spanish class.  Sammy loves everything about school and in spite of being a bookworm, will tell you that his favorite thing is P.E. which all the students at the school do together.

dsc_0068.JPGNathan is going to a preschool that was started last year by one of the missionaries.  There are twelve 4-5 year-olds, several from the orphanage that is located in Shell.  This school is also in English with a part of each day set aside for learning some Spanish words.  He has enjoyed the first week and the only drawback we can see is that Josiah misses his older brothers and wants to go to school as well.  Although Nathan likes doing crafts and activities, his favorite part of the day is recess time!

4 Responses to “School Daze”

  1. katie brunone says:

    yeah for school! we’re so glad the big boys are loving school so much. what a blessing! hopefully josiah won’t suffer too much while they are away – eventually isaac will be old enough to enjoy playtime with him.

    i tried several times to figure out which of your boys was which, and i gave up. i didn’t realize how similar they all looked! :) i did well with sammy and josiah but nathan and isaac especially look alike. so sweet!

    we love you guys and miss you lots! keep the updates coming – we love them!

    ~katie (for the rest of the brunones)

  2. Yeah!!! My persistant cyber stalking found you!! A little scary, huh? My memory couldn’t provide me with your blog name…..I will send you guys a link to all our pics soon!! We miss you all and think of you and pray for you often…I’ll throw alll the pics on Picassa and then you can download what you want.. Some of the surgery ones are not appropriate for a public forum, so I won’t post them as “open to the public”. Dr Paul, I want to send you some replacement Zofran for your stock….We thank you so much for that…Zofran IM…who knew??? (you noticed when I needed an anti-emetic, who did I go to????? ANESTHESIA!!!!!!!! Yeah!!! Please say Hi to Dr Suarez for me, I can’t get the email I wrote down for him to work. Maybe you can show him the pics I promised him when you download…Can’t wait to hear about what is going on with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!what is your personal family email address? You guys need any care packages???????? Love from Paul & Cheryl Dreyer

  3. also, please put us on your email updates…

  4. ok, so you guys need to check your blog more often….what else in the world could you possibly be doing? :)

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