School at Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center

This past year I have had the priviledge of teaching at the SAM operated Christian school known as Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center. In the fall semester I taught two First Aid classes and this Spring semester I taught Home Economics. The pictures of the girls below are the girls in my Home EC class. Their names in order are: Gabby, Arianna, Mariela and Ziza. The first three girls are Bolivian and Ziza is a missionary kid. It has been an interesting year teaching these girls about the fine are of home management. Hopefully they have learned things that they can use throughout their lifetime.

Below is the the name of the school, posted on the wall as you enter the gated entrance.

As you can probably guess, the school mascot is the "Eagles." The building below houses the library on the first floor and the chapel and computer lab on the second floor.

And, like most of Bolivia, animals roam free. This cow is a usual appearance right outside of the school entrance. The other day when we arrived there were pigs wallowing in the mud of the drive way.

For the past few years there has been a lot of construction going up around the school and this has affected their drainage system. The school has a lot of problems with standing water on the grounds, so much so that they have not been able to use their soccer field or much of their playground. This has been particularly bad when there was a dengue outbreak and with the standing water the mosquito population soared. Recently we have contracted a local firm to put in a new drainage system which we hope will fix the problem.

Here is a picture inside of the school gym. My home economics class is actually in an alcove of the gym and Dan and I often watch the kids in their gym classes as I wait for the class before Home Ec to finish up. During my Home Ec class Dan helps the special needs teacher with kids that need special attention.

With all the rain, this concrete basketball court has been the only place that many of the kids could go for recess.

This is a few from outside their lunch room, also known as the "Eagles Nest." On the right and also in the rear are class room, mostly used by the high school and junior high. The grade school kids classrooms are actually on the other side of the far class rooms.