good morning :)
yes. i know that it is 6:30am, and I am blogging, but I was up really early this morning due to my inability to breathe at this moment and the constant coughing that rattles my entire body every time I start...
this week has been good. i've been really frustrated recently because i feel like i'm not being developed as a teacher like i had wished/hoped, but then I just had to come to the realization that if I'm not going to reach out for help, then it's not going to come find me...
if you would have told me 5 years ago that I would be going to the DR to a Christian school to teach, I would have laughed at you. but now I'm here. and wholly inadequate as a teacher, Christian, and person. I have so much growing up to do before I honestly feel like I would be effective in all the aforementioned stations in life. We have to teach Bible class. Holy cow. intimidation. I had been avoiding it (yes. i had not been teaching Bible. shameful.) because I didn't know how. Yikes. It took me two weeks to summon the courage to admit that, yes I suck, and I don't know how to even approach teaching Bible...I feel like the most horrible person ever for not being able to teach my kids about the Bible. We do prayer every morning and our weekly memory verse, but that's about it. Yikes. yes. this is substandard. This past weekend I had a nice long chat with myself...yes...about how I cannot be lazy here. I want my students to get the best possible education. As low as they value education, I value it, and want to instill that value to them. Therefore, I need to start giving MY best in hopes that they will begin giving me their best.
Anyways, so Bible...my supervising teacher has been super sick basically since I got here so I feel super bad asking her for help...and I just don't want to be a burden to anyone else because they're having to pick up my "slack." Guess that's a pride issue. Shocking. Anyways, I finally just asked. One of the other teachers who has been at JCS for 2 years already agreed to sit and help me plan out my Bible lesson. As I just sat there and listened to ideas on how to teach Bible, I realized that this is what it's about...asking for help. Giving help. Being a servant but also being able to accept grace from others. Not saying that I'll be going to Christy for every little problem or expect her to continually plan my lessons for me, but it's a good jump-start. It's so humbling to know someone cares enough to take time out of THEIR already filled and stressful day to help me become a better teacher...
I'm thankful. and I'm learning.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
skype is my bff.
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031162&l=47ee9&id=179200097
hi.
i just thought you may want to see how amazing my life is down here in the DR. these are my wonderful, wonderful friends who have all gotten SKYPE and who I've talked to.
check it out.
hi.
i just thought you may want to see how amazing my life is down here in the DR. these are my wonderful, wonderful friends who have all gotten SKYPE and who I've talked to.
check it out.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
dear tony dungy, i need your help.
To all the fans of my blog,you must all know that I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE Colts fan. and by HUGE, I do indeed mean I love the Colts.
I'm desperate. I cannot go an entire season without watching my favorite man, Peyton Manning, lead my Colts to countless victories.
I even wrote into Bill Polian's Saturday night show. Asking him to help me out.
(here's a picture of what I wrote...)
so. if you happen to know Tony Dungy, Bill Polian, Peyton Manning, Jeff Saturday, Hunter the Punter, anyone...help me. Ask them if they can tell me how to stream the games without paying hundreds of dollars.
thanks. :)
Saturday, September 6, 2008
technological frustrations!
welllll...here's the deal. my ipod is biting the dust. it's like a painful death that keeps stringing me along...maybe it will be fixed. but no. it's not.
the bad news: a new ipod...the one that I really want, would cost me MORE THAN an ENTIRE month's salary. and I'm not exaggerating. We, as professional teachers, with a 4 year college degree, are making $15 US a day.
more bad news: i'm losing 2,774 songs. yes. i love music. i have so much music. and it's all adios. since my computer crashed again at the beginning of the summer, i didn't put any music back on it. BIG mistake. BIG BIG mistake. I'm losing 8 movies. I'm losing seasons 3 and 4 of the Office.
everytime I plug in my ipod to my computer it says, Firewire connections are not supported. To transfer songs, connect the USB cable provided. what does that even mean!? I don't have a Firewire cord. weird ipod things going on...and i'm not doing anything differently...
moral of the story tonight: i'm frustrated. and really, honestly sad to lose it all.
one of my new DR friends said, "maybe you're just leaning too heavily on technology." maybe she's right...but seriously. I love music. I can worship the Lord, have a dance party, laugh while watching the Office, all of it.
pray that I not be so frustrated...i'm really sad tonight.
the bad news: a new ipod...the one that I really want, would cost me MORE THAN an ENTIRE month's salary. and I'm not exaggerating. We, as professional teachers, with a 4 year college degree, are making $15 US a day.
more bad news: i'm losing 2,774 songs. yes. i love music. i have so much music. and it's all adios. since my computer crashed again at the beginning of the summer, i didn't put any music back on it. BIG mistake. BIG BIG mistake. I'm losing 8 movies. I'm losing seasons 3 and 4 of the Office.
everytime I plug in my ipod to my computer it says, Firewire connections are not supported. To transfer songs, connect the USB cable provided. what does that even mean!? I don't have a Firewire cord. weird ipod things going on...and i'm not doing anything differently...
moral of the story tonight: i'm frustrated. and really, honestly sad to lose it all.
one of my new DR friends said, "maybe you're just leaning too heavily on technology." maybe she's right...but seriously. I love music. I can worship the Lord, have a dance party, laugh while watching the Office, all of it.
pray that I not be so frustrated...i'm really sad tonight.
...bear with me...
Hello All!
***NOTE: this blog is being written at 5:30am on Saturday September 6. We have no power, therefore I cannot post it until we do…***
This week has been craaaaazy, and I apologize for not updating sooner!!
Let’s fast forward until Wednesday. We get to school, and some parents are saying, “We have no school today. We saw it on the news and in La Vega (next town over) there is a huge storm that is producing tornadoes.” Holy snap. So Mr. Peterson jumps on the horn to see what is going on. Thankfully only a mere 15 min. later he discovers that we are indeed not supposed to have school. Therefore we have to call all the parents, and have them come get their children. I only had maybe 6 students. (3 of them being triplets…)
We went outside with Miss Karyn Staats (MS/HS English teacher) and Miss Christie Collver (MS/HS Science teacher) to play this AWESOME Viking game that Miss Staats taught us. ((side note: now every time my students see Miss Staats, they always ask her if she is busy teaching because they want her to take them outside to play the Viking game…hahahahaha)) We were playing with the 7th and 8th graders that were left, and then Miss Collver taught us how to play a game called Swat. Basically you run around and beat each other with a towel or a sweater in our case. Yeah, that definitely wouldn’t fly in the States. Then I taught them Elbow Tag. Productivity at its finest.
In the DR, there is one man The Director of Education (sounds kind of like Harry Potter to me…) makes the decision for the whole country as to whether or not we will have school (aka if it is raining in Evansville, people in Ft. Wayne won’t have school)………… or at least that was the case until Thursday night when the Director gave each school (or the board of the school…) the authority to close school. Gracias a Dios.
Well this supposed storm never hit us. So we got a day off school (kinda…we had to stay until noon…which was good since ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) was coming on Thursday to inspect our school to see if we could begin the accreditation process so that our Seniors could graduate and get diplomas and take the National Exams.
Thursday: we get to school. I’m missing 4 students. Excellent. Brings the grand total down to 8. ACSI is here. Splendid. We’re not supposed to be having school, again, for reasons unbeknownst to us, but hey, ACSI is here, so we gotta look like we have a running school. Therefore we dismiss at noon. Sweet. Let me paint you a picture of what my Thursday looked like. 8-9 Chapel. A pastor told all my kids they were going to Hell unless they accepted Christ. Sweet. Scare them into salvation. Works every time. 9-9:45 Spanish. (not taught by me…obviously.) 9:45-10 Break. 10-10:35 Sociales (not taught by me.)
Fantastic. I have less than an hour and a half. I can proudly say that we played Sparkle with our spelling words for probably 30 minutes. (I let the a student be the teacher and I played with them. I pwned them every time! YES.) Then we played Sparkle with our memory verse (Psalm 100:3 Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Beautiful verse, eh?) for probably 15 minutes. YES. 45 minutes left. “Okay, this week we have been talking about compassion. You need to either illustrate what compassion is or illustrate your memory verse” … aka coloring time. Sweet. I’m an awesome teacher. So productive. I busted out my phone (which can play music) and we listened to some High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, and Hannah Montana while we colored about Jesus. Could life get any better? I submit that it cannot! Sweet. Around 11:45 we packed up and went outside to play another rousing game of Elbow Tag. I was SUPER sweaty after that. hahaha
Friday: soooooo…good news? We may be moving houses next week. Our landlady is not super helpful when we have problems (like our septic system is messed up and so is our water pump…and hasn’t been fixed for a week…) so Maribel (our financial administrator) said we’re not in contract with her, so we can look for new houses. We have found a new house that is UBER close to the school and although it is smaller and costs 500 more pesos a month, I think we’re gonna do it. It’s a lot safer, our landlord lives on the property (rumor has it, he even has a gun…) and the proximity to the other teachers is great too…we have to accept/deny by noon today. I am fairly certain we are going to accept. PRAY for us, please, as we are transitioning to a new, smaller house and we are deciding what things to keep and what things to get rid of. There may be some tense moments, I’m not gonna lie.
.:nighttime:.
In rolls the clouds. What beauty. I’m not even gonna lie, I got some sweet pics. I’ll post them on my picture site. Get excited. It starts thundering and the wind starts blowing. You know what that means…yes. No power. Greaaaaaat. It was kinda good, gave us an opportunity to talk about money and financial stuff and all that good stuff as a house. We made dinner by kerosene lamp (after I effectively broke a second chimney to another kerosene lamp…awesome. now we’re down to one.)
DOUBLE awesome…….Brooke and my door slammed shut. And it’s locked. because there is (well...was...) no way to unlock it. because there was no door handle on the inside to UNlock it... oly schamolly. I try busting down the door. What a laugh! It’s solid wood. All that ended up happening was me getting a HUGE, HUGE swollen bruise on my hip. ((but worth it. What a great story.)) There’s also a video of me running down the hallway of our house and slamming into the door. and collapsing with laughter. OH MY GOSH. It was seriously one of the funniest things that has happened since I’ve been down here. I was crying so hard because I was laughing so hard. Then we attempted to watch The Notebook on my whacked-out DVD player on my computer…then it messed up and we got frustrated. End result? Bedtime at 9:15. COUNT IT. (Jessie Buske response, please, “counting it.”)
Funny story of the week:
In the DR, it is perfectly acceptable…nay…encouraged to love on your students. Totally different from the States where if you touch them you will get sued. haha Well, one of my boys kept saying, “Girls are stupid. Girls are boring. Girls are dumb.” I plucked that little sucker out of his seat and carried him outside my classroom (all the while he and the rest of the class was hysterically laughing) and made him say, “Girls are so awesome.” before he was allowed to come back in the classroom. What a hoot. Good thing this was during math time and we were having some subtraction review fun, not during a serious time. No worries, I pick my timing well.
Dr. Quinn, you would be so proud. I have been reading the Pigeon books to my students. They think that they are SO hilarious. They seriously run around now at recess or at break time imitating my pigeon voice and saying, “your mom would let me…LET ME DRIVE THE BUS…etc. etc.” SO funny. And they all want to read them as read alouds to the class, so if we ever have any extra time at the end of the day, I let them read out loud. I have short video clips of them reading that I’ll try and post on here too.
Funny story from last Sunday:
We’re sitting in church. For the second time that day. I’m awesomely wedged in between Tim and Karyn. I’m sitting there…oblivious to what is going on because the pastor is speaking so quickly and people are raising their hands. Sweet. No idea why. Karyn turns to me and says, “The pastor just asked who has ever killed anyone before.” My response, coughing to try and cover my laughter. Yes, folks, I had tears streaming down my face because it was sooooo funny. It’s good for me to be with people who make me laugh. I love it.
PRAISES of the week:
1. One of the other teachers let us borrow his Wireless router. So until we get ours (in 2 weeks when we get mail again) we will have internet. (if we have power…)
2. I’m getting to know the other teachers, and they are graciously accepting us into their houses and loving us and helping us get through some tough stuff going on.
3. Internet. I’m not even going to lie. I love that we’ve been able to have internet all week. It has been such a blessing because I have been kinda homesick…well, friendsick too…and being able to talk to my friends from home has been so fantastic. Encouraging emails are huge blessings to me.
4. Dr. Tyner… ((one of my fave professors who has really helped nurture me as a pre-service teacher and who never gave up on me even when things appeared that they were hopeless…)) Happy Birthday!!!! :)
PRAYER REQUESTS of the week:
1. my roommate Kelsey has a really bad form of Pink Eye. It’s highly contagious, and since I’m always with her, it kind of makes me nervous to get it. She went down to Santiago yesterday to go to the eye doctor and he confirmed that it was highly contagious. Sweet.
2. our moving transition because it is hard to move to a new place and get readjusted.
3. PATIENCE. As always.
4. For my teaching…I feel like I’m not being challenged or nurtured in my teaching, which is the whole reason I came…I don’t know how to be better than I am because of the little resources available. Pray that I will be able to challenge myself in my teaching…
***NOTE: this blog is being written at 5:30am on Saturday September 6. We have no power, therefore I cannot post it until we do…***
This week has been craaaaazy, and I apologize for not updating sooner!!
Let’s fast forward until Wednesday. We get to school, and some parents are saying, “We have no school today. We saw it on the news and in La Vega (next town over) there is a huge storm that is producing tornadoes.” Holy snap. So Mr. Peterson jumps on the horn to see what is going on. Thankfully only a mere 15 min. later he discovers that we are indeed not supposed to have school. Therefore we have to call all the parents, and have them come get their children. I only had maybe 6 students. (3 of them being triplets…)
We went outside with Miss Karyn Staats (MS/HS English teacher) and Miss Christie Collver (MS/HS Science teacher) to play this AWESOME Viking game that Miss Staats taught us. ((side note: now every time my students see Miss Staats, they always ask her if she is busy teaching because they want her to take them outside to play the Viking game…hahahahaha)) We were playing with the 7th and 8th graders that were left, and then Miss Collver taught us how to play a game called Swat. Basically you run around and beat each other with a towel or a sweater in our case. Yeah, that definitely wouldn’t fly in the States. Then I taught them Elbow Tag. Productivity at its finest.
In the DR, there is one man The Director of Education (sounds kind of like Harry Potter to me…) makes the decision for the whole country as to whether or not we will have school (aka if it is raining in Evansville, people in Ft. Wayne won’t have school)………… or at least that was the case until Thursday night when the Director gave each school (or the board of the school…) the authority to close school. Gracias a Dios.
Well this supposed storm never hit us. So we got a day off school (kinda…we had to stay until noon…which was good since ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) was coming on Thursday to inspect our school to see if we could begin the accreditation process so that our Seniors could graduate and get diplomas and take the National Exams.
Thursday: we get to school. I’m missing 4 students. Excellent. Brings the grand total down to 8. ACSI is here. Splendid. We’re not supposed to be having school, again, for reasons unbeknownst to us, but hey, ACSI is here, so we gotta look like we have a running school. Therefore we dismiss at noon. Sweet. Let me paint you a picture of what my Thursday looked like. 8-9 Chapel. A pastor told all my kids they were going to Hell unless they accepted Christ. Sweet. Scare them into salvation. Works every time. 9-9:45 Spanish. (not taught by me…obviously.) 9:45-10 Break. 10-10:35 Sociales (not taught by me.)
Fantastic. I have less than an hour and a half. I can proudly say that we played Sparkle with our spelling words for probably 30 minutes. (I let the a student be the teacher and I played with them. I pwned them every time! YES.) Then we played Sparkle with our memory verse (Psalm 100:3 Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Beautiful verse, eh?) for probably 15 minutes. YES. 45 minutes left. “Okay, this week we have been talking about compassion. You need to either illustrate what compassion is or illustrate your memory verse” … aka coloring time. Sweet. I’m an awesome teacher. So productive. I busted out my phone (which can play music) and we listened to some High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, and Hannah Montana while we colored about Jesus. Could life get any better? I submit that it cannot! Sweet. Around 11:45 we packed up and went outside to play another rousing game of Elbow Tag. I was SUPER sweaty after that. hahaha
Friday: soooooo…good news? We may be moving houses next week. Our landlady is not super helpful when we have problems (like our septic system is messed up and so is our water pump…and hasn’t been fixed for a week…) so Maribel (our financial administrator) said we’re not in contract with her, so we can look for new houses. We have found a new house that is UBER close to the school and although it is smaller and costs 500 more pesos a month, I think we’re gonna do it. It’s a lot safer, our landlord lives on the property (rumor has it, he even has a gun…) and the proximity to the other teachers is great too…we have to accept/deny by noon today. I am fairly certain we are going to accept. PRAY for us, please, as we are transitioning to a new, smaller house and we are deciding what things to keep and what things to get rid of. There may be some tense moments, I’m not gonna lie.
.:nighttime:.
In rolls the clouds. What beauty. I’m not even gonna lie, I got some sweet pics. I’ll post them on my picture site. Get excited. It starts thundering and the wind starts blowing. You know what that means…yes. No power. Greaaaaaat. It was kinda good, gave us an opportunity to talk about money and financial stuff and all that good stuff as a house. We made dinner by kerosene lamp (after I effectively broke a second chimney to another kerosene lamp…awesome. now we’re down to one.)
DOUBLE awesome…….Brooke and my door slammed shut. And it’s locked. because there is (well...was...) no way to unlock it. because there was no door handle on the inside to UNlock it... oly schamolly. I try busting down the door. What a laugh! It’s solid wood. All that ended up happening was me getting a HUGE, HUGE swollen bruise on my hip. ((but worth it. What a great story.)) There’s also a video of me running down the hallway of our house and slamming into the door. and collapsing with laughter. OH MY GOSH. It was seriously one of the funniest things that has happened since I’ve been down here. I was crying so hard because I was laughing so hard. Then we attempted to watch The Notebook on my whacked-out DVD player on my computer…then it messed up and we got frustrated. End result? Bedtime at 9:15. COUNT IT. (Jessie Buske response, please, “counting it.”)
Funny story of the week:
In the DR, it is perfectly acceptable…nay…encouraged to love on your students. Totally different from the States where if you touch them you will get sued. haha Well, one of my boys kept saying, “Girls are stupid. Girls are boring. Girls are dumb.” I plucked that little sucker out of his seat and carried him outside my classroom (all the while he and the rest of the class was hysterically laughing) and made him say, “Girls are so awesome.” before he was allowed to come back in the classroom. What a hoot. Good thing this was during math time and we were having some subtraction review fun, not during a serious time. No worries, I pick my timing well.
Dr. Quinn, you would be so proud. I have been reading the Pigeon books to my students. They think that they are SO hilarious. They seriously run around now at recess or at break time imitating my pigeon voice and saying, “your mom would let me…LET ME DRIVE THE BUS…etc. etc.” SO funny. And they all want to read them as read alouds to the class, so if we ever have any extra time at the end of the day, I let them read out loud. I have short video clips of them reading that I’ll try and post on here too.
Funny story from last Sunday:
We’re sitting in church. For the second time that day. I’m awesomely wedged in between Tim and Karyn. I’m sitting there…oblivious to what is going on because the pastor is speaking so quickly and people are raising their hands. Sweet. No idea why. Karyn turns to me and says, “The pastor just asked who has ever killed anyone before.” My response, coughing to try and cover my laughter. Yes, folks, I had tears streaming down my face because it was sooooo funny. It’s good for me to be with people who make me laugh. I love it.
PRAISES of the week:
1. One of the other teachers let us borrow his Wireless router. So until we get ours (in 2 weeks when we get mail again) we will have internet. (if we have power…)
2. I’m getting to know the other teachers, and they are graciously accepting us into their houses and loving us and helping us get through some tough stuff going on.
3. Internet. I’m not even going to lie. I love that we’ve been able to have internet all week. It has been such a blessing because I have been kinda homesick…well, friendsick too…and being able to talk to my friends from home has been so fantastic. Encouraging emails are huge blessings to me.
4. Dr. Tyner… ((one of my fave professors who has really helped nurture me as a pre-service teacher and who never gave up on me even when things appeared that they were hopeless…)) Happy Birthday!!!! :)
PRAYER REQUESTS of the week:
1. my roommate Kelsey has a really bad form of Pink Eye. It’s highly contagious, and since I’m always with her, it kind of makes me nervous to get it. She went down to Santiago yesterday to go to the eye doctor and he confirmed that it was highly contagious. Sweet.
2. our moving transition because it is hard to move to a new place and get readjusted.
3. PATIENCE. As always.
4. For my teaching…I feel like I’m not being challenged or nurtured in my teaching, which is the whole reason I came…I don’t know how to be better than I am because of the little resources available. Pray that I will be able to challenge myself in my teaching…
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Surge Protector Jesus & Barney's Commandments
Hi. As most of you know, this past week we got hit by Hurricane Gustav. In the process (as I've written about...) we had a huge power surge. Now, thankfully our house was not super affected, although we lost our phone and internet, so I guess we kind of were, but nothing was smoking or starting on fire like at school or at other people's houses.
The one anecdote that did come out of the experience:
Surge protectors are like Jesus. Yes. Let me explain. Karen, Christy, and Rachel's house had a surge protector that burned up. It died. BUT it protected the fan and their things that were plugged in. It gave its life so that others may live. It's true.
ALSO.
one day in the teacher's lounge we got in a discussion about how I'm weird. or moreso that I was a closet Barney watcher until I was in probably third grade (and by "closet" I mean that I didn't want ANYONE to know that I secretly loved that show...) Anyways, we decided that Barney's "I Love You" song is a parable for God's unconditional love towards us and of Jesus' Greatest Commandments. Jesus' 2 greatest commandments can be found in Matthew chapter 28:37-39. Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.
And if I need to refresh your memory of the Barney song, "I love you, You love me. We're a happy family..." God loves us unconditionally if we allow Him. We love God with a human love to show Him our appreciation for what He has done in our lives...with all our heart, soul, and mind. We are loving our neighbors as ourselves (i love you. you love me.) double meaning.
This stuff is deep.
Love teacher's lounge stuff. :)
getting late...need to go to bed!
lades!!
The one anecdote that did come out of the experience:
Surge protectors are like Jesus. Yes. Let me explain. Karen, Christy, and Rachel's house had a surge protector that burned up. It died. BUT it protected the fan and their things that were plugged in. It gave its life so that others may live. It's true.
ALSO.
one day in the teacher's lounge we got in a discussion about how I'm weird. or moreso that I was a closet Barney watcher until I was in probably third grade (and by "closet" I mean that I didn't want ANYONE to know that I secretly loved that show...) Anyways, we decided that Barney's "I Love You" song is a parable for God's unconditional love towards us and of Jesus' Greatest Commandments. Jesus' 2 greatest commandments can be found in Matthew chapter 28:37-39. Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.
And if I need to refresh your memory of the Barney song, "I love you, You love me. We're a happy family..." God loves us unconditionally if we allow Him. We love God with a human love to show Him our appreciation for what He has done in our lives...with all our heart, soul, and mind. We are loving our neighbors as ourselves (i love you. you love me.) double meaning.
This stuff is deep.
Love teacher's lounge stuff. :)
getting late...need to go to bed!
lades!!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Week Update & AHHHHHH!!!
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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