Bluefields

[Judy A. Kegl]

I am sitting here watching Barney (age 16) writing a letter to his aunt -- 3
pages of SignWriting, mostly describing a dream he had last month  (running
frustratingly slowly while being pursued by a crocodile, as others cheer on
the croc....)  The point is that Barney has achieved literacy in his native
language; so hats off to you, Valerie.  (His aunt can read it well.)

Random House has sent us the authorization for including the Headless
Horseman in our next collection of reading lessons, so I don't think they
would mind your including a demo page on your website (but not the whole
thing; I think that would require specific permission.)  (If you do this,
please note that NSLP's adaption uses illustrations by Donald Cook with
permission from Random House.)

We are about to reach 2,000 entries in the glossary; our goal is 3,000.  Our
basic level grammar book (comparing and contrasting Nicaraguan Sign Language
with Spanish grammar and syntax) will be ready (somehow) for use in the
school in August.  This will be our first real experiment with teaching
Spanish using SignWriting as a bridge.  An intriguing experiment....

Some rough news to share with you all -- just as we are about to embark on
this "grand experiment", we just received notification that the foundation
that funds us is not making disbursements this year, afterall  -- a
consequence of low bank interest yields (related, in part I suspect, to the
economic consequences of Sept. 11.)  Since we operate a year round foster
care program for abandoned Deaf children, I have to reserve all our
remaining funds for that, plus the salary of one teacher.  What a mess!

-- James