Richard and Paula Dobson:

We are both committed Christians, believing in the one God who wants to be our friend, and that the only way we can be his friend is by receiving the forgiveness we need through Jesus’s death on the cross.

We have two children - Catherine born on 19th April 2000 and Christopher born on 22nd March 2002.  We are very happy parents and very grateful to God for these beautiful treasures he has given us.

How did we come to Moyobamba?
Paula came here in 1995 to do her 6 months’ teaching practice in the Annie Soper Christian School kindergarten as part of her course in the Diego Thomson Institute. With a bit of encouragement from God (she didn’t want to come back to Moyobamba), she returned as teacher and coordinator in the kindergarten in April 1996.

Richard spent a year in Lima, Peru in 1993/4 doing computing work for Ediciones Puma, a small Christian publishing company.  After another year in England he returned to Peru, but this time to Moyobamba and to teach English with the encouragement of Dr Apolos Landa and his wife Pilar.

How did we meet?
One of the first classes Richard started up was aimed at the Annie Soper teachers and Paula was one of the students.  After a while we started playing table tennis together at the school, putting together five or six desks to make the table tennis table.  With a few trips with friends, it wasn’t long before our friendship began to flourish...

What do we do here in Moyobamba?
Paula used to teach in the Annie Soper kindergarten, but took a year off in 2001 to spend more time looking after Catherine. 

In 2002 she started up her own kindergarten, a dream she has had dating back to when she started to teach in 1995. It is called "Mis Primeras Huellitas" - which can be translated as "My First Prints". You can see lots of photos taken there and some information in Spanish at www.huellitas.com.

Richard started off teaching English, mainly to adults, but also to children at the Annie Soper school.  His work has changed a bit and is now more varied.  He is getting more involved in computing work – especially web page production and he supervised the Annie Soper school internet service in 2000. He has links with the Luke Society clinic and development work and the school for children with special needs here in Moyobamba.

Our interests, hobbies and pastimes

Paula:
Providing entertainment for children’s parties. 
Sports, especially footballm karate (and table tennis of course).
Travelling
Day trips
Studying new things. She has recently completed a one year distance course to upgrade her teaching qualification to a degree, and has now started a second distance learning degree course for teaching foreign languages (English and French). This will help her in her visits to England, but is also an area she wants to give emphasis on at the Huellitas school.
Craftwork, including "stamping"
Computing

Richard:
Languages and travel
I’ve always had a love for languages and travelling (that’s partly how I arrived here). I studied French, German and a bit of Latin at school, a bit of Dutch, Hungarian and Russian later on and then Mandarin Chinese at York University, along with general linguistics.  I’ve visited (or travelled through) most countries in Western Europe, Russia, Tunisia, China and Peru.

Photography
I became interested in photography when I was 20, starting off with a second hand Zenith E.  My topics for photos vary over time, having included pictures of wildlife, people, holidays, graduation photos and construction of our house!  I sometimes make cards with the photos, and at the moment I scan quite a few photos to e-mail to friends.  (If you want to be on my mailing list for photos and aren’t already, send me an e-mail message to let me know.) Post script - I have just acquired a second hand digital camera - Casio QV-3000EX, so watch out for more photos!

In the last few years my photographic energies have been directed principally to web page design, firstly for small clients (mainly in Peru) but now mainly for web sites about cities in Peru

Sports
Especially volleyball and table tennis, and more recently karate, mainly to keep fit and active.

Human rights, development issues and ecology.
I was a member of the university recycling club, staffed the York Peace Centre from time to time, was an active member of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers while at university.  I visited the prison here in Moyobamba to teach English to some of the prisoners from 1996 to 1998.  There is a Christian human rights organisation here called  “Paz y Esperanza” who I will possibly be getting involved with in some way in the near future. I am also currently working on updating the web site for the British Association for Fair Trade Shops (BAFTS).

Computing
E-mailing, making web pages, working with photos and graphics.

Photos of the family

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