staircase to heaven.

dramatic title?
possibly.

but let me tell you about one of the beautiful things that is occurring at our house.

as you may (or may not) know, in the DR, it is acceptable...nay...required (another slight exaggeration) to sit on your roof.
there are many reasons why one would choose to perch atop the roof:
1. stargazing (the most obvious)
2. shadow puppet shows on the neighbor's house at sunset
3. quiet time of reflection and prayer
4. sleeping (yes, I slept one night on the roof)
5. watching people in the poor neighborhood (barrio) on the other side of our house.
6. talking to great friends
7. cooking s'mores (yes. for Christy's birthday we sat on the roof to make s'mores. and stargaze and talk. ique bueno!)

Needless to say, there are many great reasons that one would particularly fancy a good sit upon the techo (roof in spanish...one of my newly acquired vocabulary words).

Now onto the good story:
BEFORE:
We used to have to get up on the roof by a homemade ladder that our wonderful, wonderful landlord, Guido, graciously allowed us to borrow.
(below: the ladder)


AFTER:
Guido decided that his girls (that's what I think he thinks of us as...his daughters) should maybe be a little safer when they are going up on the roof. and maybe potentially he wants to build a second story to our house...ENTONCES (therefore) he built us a staircase. Yep. It took him maybe a week, but not we have a fully-functioning staircase. AND Kelsey, Karyn, and I carved our name/initials into it. que bueno, indeed!
(below: the staircase...not fully complete in this picture, but now it is. I don't have many recent pictures)



MORAL OF THE STORY:
get an awesome landlord who thinks of you as his daughters. get a landlord who is motivated to get projects done.


I'm thankful. :)

TARANTULA!

the TARANTULA!
I know many, many of you have been waiting for this story so here goes: during my first prep of the day I walked into a large commotion in the office. I asked "que paso?" (what happened?) they told me to go to the bathroom and see. HOLY SNAP! A HUGE SPIDER is trapped under the garbage can. Wowzers. Then we decided to take it outside and the Domincian science teacher (Mr. Juan) put it outside and let it crawl out. (side note: one of the other teachers has a severe phobia of spiders. that comes into play later...) So the hurrah was over. UNTIL I decide that I want to keep it in my classroom as a pet. BALLER. what other teacher could say that they had a real, wild tarantula as a class pet?? Not too many! So, thanks to Brooke who randomly had a terrarium, I went outside and our amazing gateguard Fausto helped me trap this poor sucker in the cage. Immediately I took it upstairs (away from phobic teacher who never comes upstairs, so plan is flawless right? wrong!) and showed it to my class, who loved it, showed it to the 9th graders, who loved it, and showed it to anyone else who wanted to come see it. 2 minutes later I get a note "Dear Miss Brewer, blah blah blah i'm scared of spiders...blah blah blah please let it go and take it out of the building blah blah blah I love you. Love, phobic teacher" Okay, so maybe that's not exactly what the letter said, and Rachel, I'm totally joking. Seriously. :) But basically I was asked to take it out of the building and then get rid of it after school. Tears were shed in my classroom. I took it to an unknown location for the rest of the day, and then wonderful Christy Elmer took us on her pasola to the ******* (edited to protect sanity) so our little friend the tarantula could have a better life...


Funny after-story: (Rachel, I hope you think this is funny...)
I hid the tarantula in my cubby at school. Unknown to Miss Cunningham. A few teachers asked to see it at the end of the day, but SHOOT! Rachel was sitting in the teacher's lounge on the computer. So we sneakily, very sneakily, took it out of the cage (no just kidding!) I took away the folder that was in front of it, and showed the teachers, after I explained to them Rachel's phobia. I don't think she had any idea. whoops. I'm such a bad person and a bad friend!!

check out more pictures on my picasa site!!!

the reason...

Teaching Update:

I figured you, as faithful supporters, may want to know how teaching is going since that is the ‘main’ reason why I am here.

Where do I begin? I think I could begin by complaining that we have no functioning printer or copier, I am missing curriculum, and have a class that continually beats each other up and are the meanest kids I have ever encountered.

BUT.

I would love to share with you some of the awesome things that we are learning.

In reading I am attempting to do literature circles with them (ghetto style, as we have no copier, so a lot of it is written by hand or they just don’t answer questions about the chapters). ALSO we only have one copy of each book, therefore the students aren’t getting the best possibly experience, but I’m introducing them to it. ENTONCES a lot of what I do is expose them to literature and books. I’ve been buying (thanks to many gracious donations) books for the kids that they have been EATING up (Seymour Simon, Captain Underpants, Magic Tree House, etc.) so that is encouraging. ALSO I think our library has just gotten set up, so hopefully soon I’m going to schedule a time to go to the library and have my students pick a book to do a book report on (when we are done with our lit circles)

Math is going well. I have students who have many, many gaps in their learning, therefore simple concepts like multiplication facts, are lacking. I get discouraged because I know my students are smart, but many of them lack motivation and the necessary skills to continue to grasp the new concepts as we go through the book. I’ve tried to tutor some of the kids (specifically 2) but they still just cannot grasp concepts. Multiplication and Division are my goals for the year…get those areas of mathematics mastered.

Language and Writing are the big struggle areas. I have no curriculum, therefore am making everything up as I go. I don’t know how to teach Language (please don’t be discouraged Dr. Quinn!). They don’t like to write, although I’m trying to think of creative ways to get them to write…

Basically, I’m struggling through my first year of teaching. Which I feel like is typical for any first year teacher. The lack of resources has made it challenging, but there are always ways around it. I’m trying to become a better teacher through it all, even if that means spending my entire Saturday morning at school…

God is faithful, and I trust that He will bless this year as long as I continue to pursue Him and His plan for these students this year…

joy in the DR.

I know I have not updated my blog in a LONG while, but I am going to attempt to slowly but surely update you on my life ...

so I am going to begin with the things that give me greatest joy at working at JCS.

4 words: First and Second Graders.

I LOVE walking out every morning to the cafeteria area and being mobbed by wonderful, loving small children who want nothing more than a good morning hug or a FUERTE low-five. or to just hang all over me. It's seriously the joy of the morning.

I LOVE my lunch time. I have a special time with the maturing 3rd graders as we sit and talk about school, weekends, the latest Jonas Brothers news, and mostly I just love listening to them as they talk in Spanish and I try and understand what they are saying.



I LOVE after schools. I love being mobbed, once again, by the first and second graders chanting "eh-steekers, eh-steekers, eh-steekers" (stickers) until I give in and then have a massive group of students running up the staircase to my classroom. It's SO great.

Mostly I love the relationships that I'm building with the students. Estheisy who I've mentioned many times before is a big joy in my life. Every morning, noon, and afternoon I get ambushed by this little girl. Oftentimes while I'm sitting with the third graders at lunch, Estheisy comes and sits on my lap and I just hold her for awhile and then she shares my lunch with me. I love my special time with my special girl. :)

another joy:
daily I receive wonderful pictures of hearts and people holding hands and stick figures. I keep them all. I especially love receiving pictures from my friend Nathalia and notes from my dear friend Estheisy. After I write Estheisy a little note, I receive the same words in a note back to me. I think I should maybe start saying how awesome she is...therefore I will receive a note saying how awesome I am. no, just kidding!



Bonus story of love.
Today after I brought my students in from recess, they were writing in their Language/Writing notebooks, I happened to look outside and what I saw just made me smile and laugh a little out loud. I saw the first graders (specifically Miss Elmer's class) outside playing. They were giving each other piggy back rides (which they have learned from me...bad example. I'm sorry, Miss Elmer!) but the funniest part was that they were lopsided or the one on the back was much bigger, therefore they would both just fall over. again and again I watched the first graders just continue to give each other piggy back rides and falling over. again and again. Holy joyful. I cannot even lie to you, it made my day so much better.



Can I just say one thing I love about teaching in the DR? I love that I can go to a student's mom's store and pick her up and take her out for ice cream. One Friday night I just went to a first grader's mom's store and just took her out for ice cream. It made her so happy to spend time with Miss Kelsey and Miss Brewer, and it made me so happy to spend time with my little friend. I love that it is okay to just hang out with the students outside of school. SO different than in the United States. We are allowed, nay, encouraged to develop great relationships with students and are free to facilitate those relationship in any appropriate manner possible. One Sunday we had two girls over (twins: Carla Nicole and Carla Camille) just to spend time with us, play Uno, and go to church. Tell me about how that would fly in the US. not. I love this school because of this. :)

I am so encouraged by this. :)

I will try and update more later, but for now, this is the joy that is coming from my heart! :)

words words words

so...funny story.
the other day on the news (and by news, i mean website with news...) i saw a conglomeration of the words the used at one of the primaries. Basically what it does is count the number of times a word (or all the words) is said and then arranges them in a pattern, with the word(s) that occur the most often the largest...

so i decided to do it for my own blog.
i'm fairly glad the largest words are:
"just" and "laughing"
i'm kind of unhappy that the word "school" is so large...my life should not revolve around school. yet it does.

so here it is! (click on it to make it bigger...)




p.s. we found a tarantula at school today.
(more on that story later. i'm really tired tonight...)
check out the pictures on my picasa site:
picasaweb.google.com/dominicanatalie

waves of mercy. waves of grace. :)

I feel like I am always writing about the wonderful activities and adventures that I'm happening...but I want you to know that it's not always easy living in the Dominican Republic. I love living here, and I think it's definitely where God wants me to be and where I want to be.

1. Our support money is lost. Well, supposedly New Horizons sent it in the mail over 2 weeks ago, and we didn't receive it on our last MFI (mail!) day. We don't know why, it apparently never made it to the MFI headquarters in Florida. Jarabacoa Christian School has about $6,000 worth of support in that check that is supposed to go to our new computer lab...so they're frantically trying to find it. We're thankful that they're frantically searching because our support money is very important and essential to our lifestyles as well. We've not received our support money in about a month and a half, so it's time as most of us are running thin...Pray that it gets found. and sent to us. ASAP.

2. Karyn's computer. We're still praying that God will convict whomever tookKaryn's computer to return it. It's so hard to live without a computer--without things for school, without pictures, without an easy way to stay in touch with people, without music--suddenly you realize how much your world revolves around technology. Maybe that's good or bad, but having your link to home suddenly taken definitely makes things difficult.

3. Lost and Found. Today was a gentle reminder that God is definitely in control. As Kelsey and I were sitting at the other girls' house, one of the girl's misplaced her bank card. As we were frantically searching through everything, screaming silent prayers to God to just help us FIND it, I was reminded that God seriously has everything under control. He won't give us more than we can handle. God knew that we couldn't handle another thing being lost, so he granted us our request and allowed us to find the missing bank card. I was so thankful. so thankful. so thankful.

4. Shoe Shine Boys. Today we went into town and walked. It hit me. We live in the Dominican Republic. We live in a 3rd world country. It seems like so often I forget that I live in a country riddled with poverty. I only see our plush houses and our schools and our students who live good lives. But today was a good reminder for me to pray. We were sitting in a little sandwich shop and I just watched these little boys with their little shoe shine kits staring at us...waiting for us to leave. Then we went to Bon, an ice cream shop, and there were more little boys waiting for people to shine their shoes. I saw more little boys today waiting to shine shoes than I've seen while I've been down here. I'm thankful for what I have. I'm praying for these small children that make their living shining shoes. or giving their money to people who make them shine shoes. What a sacrifice for them. Pray for those little boys. that they will be loved. and that they will find Jesus soon.

God's love and grace is so amazing to me. Sometimes I just get struck by it in a new way. I want you to know that everything here is going really well. God's faithfulness is so apparent every day. My cup is overflowing with His love. and it helps me to love others. I'm thankful He grants me mercy every morning! :)

When I am weak, you make me strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)

back-to-back!

HOORAY is what you're probably thinking right now, as you have gotten not one but two life updates in the last 24 hours!

Today was a good day. LOTS of laughter. Good, quality crossword time. quality learning. jeez. I was so happy because my friend Estheisy was back today after being gone for 2 days. It was so good to hug her and talk to her again! Today after school I just held her and carried her around until her grandpa came to pick her up. Can I bring her home with me?? Seriously!

1.bomit
Gooooooooood morrrrrningggggg Missssterrrrr Peeeeterrrrsonnnnnnn.
Every morning every class gets in line as we say the Pledge to the Bible, Dominican National Anthem, and Mr. Peterson says announcements and prays for our day. WELL. well, all of a sudden I see Miss Elmer hurry this little girl off to the office. I notice she had some mud on her pants. NOPE. not mud. definitely VOMIT. some little kid had vomited all over and splattered like 5 other kids. Man, as sad as it was, I was dying laughing. The splash factor and seeing all of the kids FREAK out was just so funny. shame on me! But man. poor kids. how do you recover from vomiting on many of your classmates? is it possible? probably not. but a good story for the future!

2. a super-secret, special project...
Kelsey and I finally revealed our super-secret, special project to the girls in the other house. The day that Karyn's computer was stolen we figured they needed a pick-me-up. Little did we know that would turn into a 3 hour long stint including washing dishes, finishing up dinner, house sitting, and eating dinner! All we wanted to do was cheer them up with our awesomeness. BUT alas. since all of those things happened, we were not able to share with them our super-secret, special project. THEREFORE we have to wait again. It's been about a month and counting. I cannot wait to reveal the finished product to one and all. ANTICIPATION. get excited.

3. badminton.
yep. Taylor taught me well. Not only did they make sure I am a "caring, competent, and reflective teacher prepared for world service" (Dr. Tyner, you should be proud!) BUT they also gave me the knowledge in the highly competitive sport of badminton. This weekend Kristen and I were challenged to a game by the one and only Christy "Birdie Killer" Elmer. Basically Kristen and I had to defend Taylor and Dr. Winterholter's honor. Although Christie put up a strong front, Kristen and I ultimately had the fundamentals to put Christy and Brooke in their place.

4. the nicest note I've ever received.
staff comrarderie? high. let me show you how well I am received at JCS...here's a note I received. After I had sent this sweet, sappy "I think you're the best. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you. etc. etc." note.
this is what it said:

(Emmanuel Garcia helped me translate this sweet note.)

Eres loca. Te falta dos
dientes. Tienes sicote
y grajo. Tienes pelos en
los sobacos. Necesitas
un bano urgente. No me
agradas. No te quiero.
Que tengas mal dia. Miss Staats ♥

English translation:
You are crazy. You are missing two teeth. You have bad body odor and your feet stink. You have hair in your armpits. You need to shower right now. You do not appeal to me. I don't want you. Have a bad day. Miss Staats ♥

As I struggled to translate and had to ask the secretaries at our school for help, and judging by the amount of laughter that was rolling through the office, we were all loving it. Yusenia (one of our secretaries) made all of the people who came in the office read it. At first, I am not sure people realized that it was just a joke, but my laughter, along with the laughter of Yuesnia and Rosaline (the other secretary) tipped them off that Karyn was just kidding. The cleaning ladies, Kenya and Clarisa, just kept looking at me and laughing, laughing, laughing. I'll probably keep this note forever and ever. I have never felt more encouraged in my entire life.

5. basketball practice.
yesterday we had basketball practice! unfortunately for us at about 3:45 it started pouring raining. POURING! so Christie gave the girls the option to either suck it up and play or leave. Some of the girls (oh-my-gosh-i-went-to-the-salon!!) opted to leave, but the ones of us who stayed loved our lives as we sloshed through the puddle-ridden court, attempted to stay on our feet as we ran down the court, and just laughed and cheered so loud when we managed to get the ball in the hoop! I came home SOAKED (that is an understatement...) and was ringing out my t-shirt and shorts, which are still hanging wet in our bathroom--over 24 hours later...yeah, things don't exactly dry quickly here! :)