Introduction

I wanted to introduce everyone to places here - work, home, etc. Clinic related photos are courtesy of our resident volunteer photographer, Jacob.

This is Hillside Clinic! It is outside of Punta Gorda (PG) where I live.

Home sweet home! We are across the street from the sea - sometimes we even get a nice sea breeze! For about the first week we were here, the kids moved from lying like a starfish in front of a fan to swinging in hammocks on the porch. They were just too hot to do anything else. We are adjusting now, though.

 

View from balcony.

All of this is beautiful, but I was stressing out about where the kiddos would be going to school. We went to visit Toledo Community College (the local high school), but they were not willing to take Brennan or even test him to see if he was ready for it. I visited a small private school run by the Mennonites here, but they said that they didn't have any room. The kids ended up at Julian Cho Technical School. They were both so disappointed to be learning things that they had learned about 3 years ago in the states and we knew that something else would have to happen. I called the Mennonite school and used words like "beg", "desperate", and "please help" and they were gracious enough to accommodate the kids. After they knew that Mafredi VoTech (Mennonite school or, as we call it, jungle school - because it is in the jungle!) would take them, they revolted and refused to go back to Julian Cho. They are now happily settled at Mafredi and are taking many courses to challenge their brains and Brennan even gets to take carpentry!