Happy Fall!

Royale

Dear NQACC Parents,

I am so excited for this amazing opportunity of stepping into the role of Co-Director. I feel honored to work side by side with Royale and want to explain a little more in detail for you about my background and what this new role will mean for me and for you. While working on my Elementary Teaching degree at SPU, I had several Early Childhood Education classes that ignited a passion in me to work with toddlers and preschool age children. Since graduation I have continued my Early Childhood Courses both through North Seattle and Highline Community College with the goal in mind of eventually becoming a Director. I also have past experience as a Director working with the African Children's Choir, where the job description I had at the time well prepared me for the role I have now at NQACC. After returning from a world -wide tour with the African Children's Choir, I worked here at NQACC as a lead toddler and 3's teacher. I left work to care for my own three children and then came back as the Yellow Duck Teacher in 2005. When I stepped into my role of Assistant Director in 2008, I expressed to Royale that I hoped to be a Director at some point. She graciously has been training, mentoring, and supporting me in this dream ever since.

Now in my new role, I will continue to do many of the same things I did as Assistant Director, but will also take on more of the programming and teacher support. I look forward to working with each teaching team to develop their lesson plans and give them resources and advice along the way as they design their class specific curriculum. Did you know that our teachers work hard to tailor their curriculum according to the specific interests of the children in their room, all the while incorporating letter, number, and shape recognition as well as working on the needed social skills for kindergarten? Wow! All that to say, I am extremely grateful to each and every one of you for your support and encouragement and want you to feel welcome to come talk to me or Royale if you have any questions about this transition.

Sincerely,

Shari Watson 

Kid Push-Back?

An Ordinary Happening! 

Greetings from Costa Rica

(This is a copy of an e-mail sent out by Paul and Jessica Tibbils-Riley)

Paul and I want to say hello and tell you how things are going here in Mastatal, La Iguana chocolate farm. It was an adventure getting here from San Jose. We left at 11am and arrived at 8pm after taking a taxi, a bus to puriscal, a bus to mastatal (which could not reach mastatal because of the rain and poor road condition) and a undesignated taxi. More about this taxi: we trusted the Lord with friendy strangers in a jeep who met us at the bus to take us and another couple down the road to the farm. Thank the Lord we were not stranded with our luggage in the dark and pouring rain.

For the first couple days we were blessed with new friends from Israel. Getting to know them and learn about their culture and how they view American culture was interesting to us. It also helped that they could speak English and enjoyed playing cards.

I got to know the family better when Paul had to take an unexpected visit to town. Going to Puriscal is no small endevor. You must be up early to leave the farm at 5am sharp, ride a motor bike to the bus and arrive back to the farm around 4:15pm. Yes, a long day for Paul to go into town just for the bank. At the farm I learned much Spanish because I could not longer rely on Paul to translate everything for me. I learned to talk with my hands - a little tool I learned from Ronald (brother of Juan Luis (Juan owns the farm)

At the farm, we have been able to help keep up the grounds. One morning we made trips up and down the hill to the river to bring up rocks to make the pathways more walkable because of all the mud. We will show pictures of this later I am sure. We helped make compost. We sat the cacao out on the only sunny day we had and put it all away quickly when we saw the rain coming.  We worked on grinding the cacao and making the finished products. We helped keep things clean, mopping, sweeping, dishes, etc. We learned interesting plants we could gather salad from. I like the red leaves that taste fruity and the green one that looks like weed, just because that is funny. They produce about half their food and half they get from town. They keep chickens which lay eggs freely all over the farm - talk about easter egg hunt, and at night around 4 or 5 they each start walking or jumping with wings flapping to get up into the top of a 20 foot tree for the night.

We also get to stay in a tree house that was built by one of the brothers. It comes with a bed, a book case, and a net to keep the mosquitos away - however I am not sure how much of a difference it makes because both of us have maybe 60 bites combined at least. We have been given band aids to keep from scratching and rubbing up against the boots we need to wear for daily use.

Jorge, the son we come into most contact with because he speaks the best English is getting his degree in tourism. He has been helpful in giving us tasks, translating for us, sharing with us info about the farm, and laughing with us. Jorge also took Paul into town on the motor bike the day he needed to take his tourism test.

At the farm we get to eat as much chocolate as we want and declicious food as well. The chocolate is made from purely cacao, cocoa butter, sugar, and whatever inclusions they want such as dried pineapple, mint, coffee, fresh ginger, etc. Every meal includes rice, beans, vegetables. Sometimes we have eggs and fruit. Most has been vegan - great for Paul!

The history of the farm: Salazar family has owned and operated the farm for 26 years. They used to have 30 hecters of cacao until a fungus came and eliminated 2/3rds of the crop. They used to sell to a factory in  San Jose who gave them very little money for the cacao at $3 a kilo. A kilo can produce 300-400 chocolates. They started selling to local farmers instead and they make most of their money by having volunteers come to stay, pay for their room & board and help make the products. They also have a giant list of to-dos that might be done by more skilled artisan/crafstmen folk.

The natural beauty here surpasses any human ability to landscape. There are incredible rolling hills with pinks and red flowers, colorful butterfies, various insects, fungus that glows in the dark, lighting bugs that sparkle at night, humming birds, the refreshing smells of clean air and flowers, and we could go on, but we will bring pictures, so do not worry.

It is wonderful to see the chocolate process first hand, to talk to the farmers about the challenges and successes. The family is gracious for volunteers to come and help. We feel like we were able to acomplish everything we wanted to at the farm.  Thank you for your prayers, please continue thinking of us as we get ready to pack and leave for San Jose on Thursday morning. We are hoping to take time to relax, possibly visit a coffee farm or rain forest before going to Roblealto, whatever we do - Praise God we are here!

 Paul and Jessica

PS, we were able to stop by Roblealto last week to drop off donations. The staff were very friendly, excited to meet us and very grateful for the donations from the children & parents at NQACC.