While on a weekend trip to the Encuentro Guadalupe 'antiresort' (as they define themselves) I had…read morethe opportunity to visit the adjacent Rancho Sordo Mudo, a ranch dedicated to deaf children from all around Mexico who can get a free education in the sign language and do their school subjects in a Christian environment. In the ranch you will not only find the two school buildings but also a dining and fellowship hall, two dormitories, staff housing, carpentry shop, maintenance garage, gym, basketball court and swimming pool plus an R.V. Park to accommodate groups and visitors. I stayed overnight at one of the teacher's units (as they are on vacation) and it was a very pleasant experience as the landscape of the Guadalupe Valley is gorgeous and this ranch is very well maintain. If you are into helping others, maybe you can volunteer your time while gaining an international experience at Rancho Sordo Mudo.

When we moved to Oaxaca we were looking for a school for our kid which at the time would only be…read moretemporary, my family really recommended ISF, so we decided to sign him up. I wouldn't say it was a mistake but if I had to do it all over again I would choose a different school. The education is very traditional, which I do believe works for a lot of kids, just not for our kid. What I do like is they organize a few festivals in school, like for independence day, dia de muertos, mother's day, etc, I do question why not a festival for fathers' day? they are as important as mothers. On children's day there's another festival, but it's the parents who get to perform to entertain the kids, which I did loved last year! Also every day a different mom/dad gets to prepare the lunch for their kid's classroom, so they get to try different foods and hopefully not be so picky about what they eat, but if you don't want to, you don't have to participate. When our son started school I did send the lunch for the classroom but the other days I send my kid his lunch but eventually kept on with the program. I also like that it's not only the teacher in the classroom, but there's an assistant to help her maintain order and take care of the kids, which is something that wasn't very common when I went to kindergarten.