Ay-yi-yi is just what I have to say when I think about all that has happened this week. I cannot believe that my first week of teaching is over, and I’m so glad that I have one week under my belt as I head into the weekend! I apologize for the long, long blog. Feel free to skip some if you want, but there is some good stuff in there...
My Daily School Day:
Every morning we start off with a teacher meeting and prayer. Then all of our kids line up outside as Mr. Peterson (the school’s director) stands up on the walkway overlooking all of the students and we say “Good Morning Mr. Pe-ter-son” … not joking it takes us like 30 seconds just to say that because the kids say it so slow. It’s actually hilarious, and every morning I just laugh because it’s so ridiculous. Then we say the Pledge to the Bible in English (which I’m still learning) and then sing the Dominican Republic’s national anthem (all the teachers except me seems to have a copy of it…hmmmm so learning that is not going so well. I may download it and listen to it Lindsey Burkitt style (on repeat over and over and over and over again) to try and learn it before the end of the year…anyways then we head upstairs and have Brain Board (credit to Laurie Turner) and Bible lesson. At 9am my students have Spanish until 9:45 when they have their break/snack time, then after break they have Sociales (Dominican History) until 10:35. Rough morning, I have an hour and a half prep time. WOO! J Then I come back and teach Spelling and Language Arts (still getting the hang of that!!) then off to Lunch and Recess. Then we come back and have Reading and then the students have either Art or PE (depending on the day…) then I get to do the final push of Math and Social Studies (American history…naturally.) Although it does seem like a lot of breaks for me during the day (it is, I realize), our school day lasts from 8am-3:15pm. So it’s a long day for the students and for their teacher. haha Then I have to stay until 4 (which is an ETERNITY when I’m tired…) Basically I’m at school for 8 and a half long hours every day. No I’m just kidding, it’s not really that bad, but some days (especially Fridays!) all I want to do is leave right after school and do my work at home from the comfort of my couch.
Gustavo:
YES! We got semi-hit by Hurricane Gustavo this week. Praise the Lord that we didn’t get hit and no one that we know of in our area was majorly affected. We live in a valley completely surrounded by mountains, so they tend to less brutally hit our area, I’ve been told. Now after saying that, we did have a solid 24 hours of rain. With that came no power for a significant amount of time. With THAT came a loss of our water pump for almost 3 days. Therefore we had no running water in our house for 3 days. One day Kelsey and I trekked over to another group of teacher’s house to shower…BUT bad news now:
we have no internet, no phone, nothing. Something got zapped. We’re not sure if it happened in a storm yesterday, but our router is fried and our Vonage phone is fried. Therefore, we are going to have to get another one sent to us in 2 weeks. YIKES. It’s going to be okay though because thankfully we have friends who will let us use their internet (like I am now…) plus it’s time out of the house. Win-win-win
Friends:
I’ve been so blessed here thus far as far as being accepted by the other JCS staff. At first, I felt kind of alone because I came later than everyone else (because I got hired later than everyone else) and all I knew was Brooke. I met everyone, couldn’t remember everyone’s name, etc. BUT then Kelsey came and she was the new girl too. haha I think that may be why we immediately stuck together because everyone else had already made new friends, etc. except for us. Now, though, I feel like I’ve been at the school forever because I love everyone who works there, we’re able to joke around with each other, and just enjoy each other’s company. Although I’ve found no one to play basketball with after school (I miss that…) it’s okay. This week we (Kelsey and I) dropped off some stuff at Tim and Laura’s house (another couple that works at JCS) and they invited us in to dinner that some of the Dominican staff had made. It was SO great to fellowship with different people and meet new people from the school that I didn’t know. Last night (Friday) we had some people over to our house to have pizza (AHHH! Glorious!!) and time to hang. I laughed so hard for most of the evening and just love being with these people.
Other News (the funny stuff):
YES. I have an offshore bank account. I am sound cool!!! This week Maribel (our school’s business woman and coincidentally the mother of one of my students) took Kelsey (my roommate) and I and another girl to get our Dominican bank accounts. I got paid yesterday too! WOO! The unfortunate thing is that it was about $120.00 (US dollars) Yep. That’s it. That is why your financial support is so important to me because obviously that is not much to live on when, out of that small paycheck, you have to pay for food, rent, etc. and still want to live and have fun with friends. I appreciate it so much!
YES. We saw a pig on a leash being walked down the street. (no worries. my roommate has a picture)
YES. One of the girls I teach with (who will remain unnamed) accidentally dated an old German man. She liked his brain. (and by accidentally, she thought she was just going out for lunches to talk, but really he considered her his girlfriend…hilarious)
YES. I’m learning Spanish. My roommates (Anna and Kelsey were both Spanish majors/minors in college) probably get annoyed at my constant “Como se dice ________” (How do you say……) but they’re being patient with me and I appreciate it!
YES. I have super human strength. The door to one of our bathrooms accidentally got locked yesterday from the inside, so I busted it down with the half of the cast iron skillet that I already broke in half. What a laugh! Thanks to Christy Elmer* for helping me.
*see Special Shout Out
Special Shout out:
Christy Elmer. Wow. She never ceases to amaze me. hahahahahahaha She is a great encouragement to me as a new person to JCS as I appreciate her experience that she has at JCS (it’s her 3rd year…) because she is one of the teachers who has been there the longest. You all should meet her. Plus her last name is synonymous with the world famous glue company. Man. She’s awesome blossom (extra awesome).
Skype dates may have to be put on hold…I’m sorry, friends. I missss you all and I’m doing well.
loves.
Alright…on to emailing a lot of people back, as I’ve gotten behind since we haven’t had solid internet in a long time…Thank you for your prayers and financial support!!!
Prayer requests:
1. SLEEP. I’m exhausted. I rarely sleep at night, as every minute sound wakes me up and I’m still getting used to the 3am roosters crowing.
2. I know this may be superficial, but my iPod stopped working. I cannot get it to connect to my computer and every time I try to play music on it or anything, it freezes. Maybe you didn’t know, but I LOVE LOVE music and so this is actually such a huge blow to me. It may sound lame, but I love to just pop in my headphones and escape the world…
3. My students. They are so great, and I really like them so much. We’re still learning to transition to each other, and they never ever stop talking. I’m learning and attempting more ‘preventive discipline’ (be proud, Dr. Siler) and it’s really working a lot. The extra time has curbed some of the misbehavior.
4. Our house. We’re all getting along great, and I just pray that continues. I appreciate all of the different personalities in our house, and I think that they are working well together. Pray that we adjust to living with new people and different people from ourselves and that we can have group as well as solid alone time.
5. Our house (again). This time it’s more about our physical house. Oftentimes the power goes out (which is natural here in Jarabacoa) but everytime that it does go out for a significant amount of time, we lose our water pump and then an electrician has to come fix it. It’s been the cause of some major angst this week. Pray that our lack of phone and internet is not something that weighs too heavily on us (or our families…)
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