Illuminated School and Alley in Stelpe

Tonight it happened - the elevation of the school got its illumination, and the newly installed lanterns in the alley leading to the school were lit too. It didn't look too bad. I would rather say it looked good.
The news is good by all means. But not quite as good as it may sound from the first glance. The lights on the school walls are equipped with the movement sensor. It means that the school house won't by far reach the status of the tiny spark that lights the path of the traveler. It will rather be like a kind of an electric eel who would light up its beautiful sides only when you happen to run into it.
But the alley lanterns will be lit only on special events, celebrations and parties.
Nevertheless, everything looked really unusual and beautiful tonight. Even a few cars turned into the alley and made it around the school so to have a closer look.

English Club Party at Roger and Valerie's house

We were 37 altogether in the Club practicing English twice a week. Some have found a job abroad and traveled away. Some others need to dig their garden so they can get a harvest of vegetables for the next winter.

When we came together for the year finishing party at Roger and Valerie Hazeldens' house, there were only the toughest seven of us, not counting myself.

The girls had prepared the things for a barbecue. The hosts in their turn had made four different traditional English dishes including the apple-pie with custard, which was especially warmly received.

To the great satisfaction of mine, I watched all the girls talk to Valerie and Roger, which would not have been even possible when they first came to the club. And that - only after some three months of studies!

The learning in the Club was based on the following principles:

1 No language can be learned. It needs to be "let in" through the "seven gates" - eyes, ears, nose and mouth - and skin.

2 Coffee or tea helps both to relax and stay focused.

3 No need to worry if you remember next to nothing after the first classes. We have to come across things at least 15 times to be able to call them our own.

4 Teacher is for serving coffee, tea and candies while the class is practicing.

5 Everything needs to be on the blackboard.

Be ready - we will be back in the fall, said the girls when we were saying good-bye to each other after the party.

Last IT Lesson ... Yippee

Did you know I was teaching IT beginnings three hours a week here in Stelpe School? It is not because I wanted to do that especially much. In fact, I have more than enough to do with my present partners Software Innovation in Norway. Yet this time Yes was the only possible answer I could give the head teacher Dagmara Venclova when she asked me to to be the IT teacher. Having one was crucial for the very existence of the school, and it was important for all of us - stelpians - to keep the small country school of ours going even through the time of recession and short-sighted decisions.

We learned together, all of us, and discovered quite exciting things about the office programs, felt a little what drawing in Paint means, built our first websites, registered our first mailboxes, learned how make the first steps into the Internet by publishing a blog.

Now the year is over. I would wish the school to find a good, talented, enthusiastic IT teacher for the next year. But since it seems on the brink of the impossible to find one for only 3 - 4 hrs a week, I am afraid I will have to continue this beaten track.

Lighthouse Party with Friends from England

Every year around the Easter time all of us in Stelpe School are waiting for our friends from South Yorkshire Jean and Ian Sykes, Joyce and Mick Mumford to come and be with us at least one joyful afternoon.

This year they came a little later because the Volcano had canceled the flights. But they came nevertheless when the ash cloud had cleared up a little, and they did their activity for the children who enjoyed it very much.

The guests had carefully prepared for every child a set of assembling parts for a cardboard lighthouse with an inscription in Latvian "Jesus is the Light of the World".

Pastor Mick told us a story about an English girl Grace whose memory is honored for more than two centuries because she risked her life and went in a small boat to save some sailors when there was storm in the sea.

Grace was a daughter of a lighthouse keeper. On a morning after a stormy night when the storm was still strong, she saw a few sailors standing on a rock far in the sea. They had survived a crash of their ship. Grace ran to her father and convinced him to take a boat and go to rescue those men, and she went together with him. It was really dangerous, all the more because there were a lot of underwater rocks in that place. Yet they managed to reach the sailors and save them.

The pastor reminded us also that there is another story from more than two thousand years ago when Jesus came not to risk His life but to give it to save the people.

The English friends joined the children as they were building the lighthouses, and helped the smaller ones where there a high precision was needed.

It is a settled custom to give Jean her happy birthday greetings since her birthday often coincides with the visit. Not this year, though. But we still took the opportunity while she was here.


In order to make the "party" even more enjoyable for the children, our friends had provided some dainty snacks - fruit, nuts, juices.

Some children were surprised that they were allowed to take the lighthouses home.

Everyone thanked the guests really warmly and asked them to come again next year.

Norwegians Visit Families in Stelpe, Invite Children to Visit Norway

From year to year have Hanne and Kåre Ruud from Norway been coming to visit Stelpe. Their vision is to support the families with children, who struggle hard to send the children to school, provide them food and clothing. Together with their generous friends in Norway, Hanne and Kåre have been supporting about 10 families for several years. Seven Stelpe children have had the possibility to visit their beautiful country.

This time they turned in to see us just for three days on their way back from Tilzha Boarding School in the east of Latvia. Though the time was short, they managed to see quite many friends here, and paid a visit to the school.

Two schoolgirls got an invitation to visit Norway for two weeks this summer.

We took farewell from Hanne and Kåre this morning, and by now we have received a message that they are safe home in Norway. We had a nice time together, and we hope they will come again soon.

The Families' Fire

We would hardly have come to this enjoyable event in Vecumnieki if some Stelpe people had not written a letter and registered us for the nomination contest of the families of the District of Vecumnieki.

This was the 4th annual Families' Fire where the people who consider the Family as a value come together. They have a little barbecue party with games for children and parents, and the winners of the nominations get awards. There are such nominations as The Largest Family, The Best Father, The Best Mother, The Courageous Family, The Helpful Family and a few more.

Behind this celebration, there stands a charity named Saulgriezes (The Sunflower). They work to help families to solve their problems, provide premises for coming together, organize family holidays, etc.

The chair of the organization is Olga Cernisova-Sturiska (holds the microphone). While on the party, we heard a lot of praise towards her determination and her tremendous involvement.

There were games for the children.
Our children won this cuddly owl. (From left: Dag, Tereze, Karlis Elmer)


After the party, there was a wonderful concert of the Erins family who had recently won the third place in a state-wide family song competition. Their program was lively, joyful and the same time, I think, really deep because it was professing love to our homeland and a strong family as one of the most important values that any nation needs.