Family Update from Dana

Kellton and Astoria in Miles City, with their friend Perri for the 4^th of July, 2011

While we were in Bolivia, I wanted to try and visualize what it’d be like to really live there for three years.  Traveling without our two mini demolition crew bosses (Kellton 5 and Astoria 3) it was tempting to picture life in Cochabamba as a bit of a cinch.  And then I’d snap out of my “vacation daze” when we’d get into a taxi with the pressure to communicate.  I’d say to myself, “Now picture doing this without Quinn and with the kids.”  Mind you, we won’t even bring down car seats to Bolivia…we’ll have to convert our American ideals about safety in quite a few areas.

So to picture our new lives in Bolivia, my “must see list” included the open air market, grocery store, and school options for the kids.  A little school background is needed before I post a photo of the school our kids will likely attend.  Where I went to school in Central Indiana, there’s seemingly no end to a school’s financial resources.  The schools have beautiful grounds, immaculate classrooms, and Gifted and Talented programs beginning in the elementary schools.  You can take Japanese and Russian in high school, in addition to the other languages you’d expect.  We had a phenomenal planetarium.  Graduation rates top 95% for the high school, even with 4,000 in the student body.  So growing up as a student, it was just what I came to expect school to look like.

Our friends' daughter in front of her classroom.

So touring a potential school, Cristo Nación was not only a cross cultural experience, it was a bit of a shock in terms of the facility.   Most everyone has emotional ties and memories to their elementary school.  So picturing Kellton and Stori going to school at a playground without grass, or any play equipment to speak of was, well, pretty much what I’d expect of a developing world school.

So what impressed me about Cristo Nación?  First of all, the Directors.  They have a big heart for orphans and so a whole orphanage is schooled there.  Impressive when you think of approximately  20% of a fledging private school offering a free education to so many students.  Secondly, the rebar sticking out of the first story of much of the building.  Ok, so this wasn’t the “dream setting” of Orchard Park Elementary School where I attended, with all fresh paint, new books, and cheery wall murals.  But the rebar was there because the school Directors fully plan to grow and expand the school as God supplies, and they’ve completed in two years an impressive amount of remodeling.  They have faith and vision to impact their country by raising up solid students who have a good education and heart for God. 

Quinn looks over the school courtyard.

At some level every parent wonders if a school is “good enough” for their child.  And yet Quinn and I believe that the opportunity to live in Bolivia and see more of the world, much of it poor and non English speaking, will also be a special way to show our children first hand the big world Jesus loves.   Yes, we want our friends and family to pray for safety, and for Kellton and Astoria’s language acquisition to go well (so they can translate for me!) but we also believe that they will be blessed by fellow orphan class mates in a classroom that looks like the year is 1850.  Education will likely be less technological and entertaining…and that’s not all bad.

So yes, I want to the very best education for my kids.  But I also want their hearts full of compassion and wisdom, and tender to the things that really matter most.