welcome to the 60s...

It has finally reached 60 degreesish in the evenings here in the DR!!! :) warm days and cool nights what a lovely combination.

I am super excited for the wonderful break from swealtering heat. Granted I still lose plenty of water out the old sweat glands during the day outside in the sun.

This week starts parent/teacher conferences....yikes! I've never done one of these before so thankfully I have a nice family first. I'm hoping that all of them go smoothly and that I can learn more about each of my students.

I have discovered first grade as it should be again...not the bad memories I had from last year but fun loving, cute first graders who love you because you carry them around or give them a high five. Getting swarmed by the first graders brings a huge smile to my face and I love it and them. I love the surprise hugs and the surprise kisses that find themselves on my cheeks when I stop to talk another teacher.

Life as I Know It

My real life consists of crazy adventures during the day and crazy adventures during the evening too.

This morning was a hoot starting from 8:40 this morning during Bible. I should have seen it coming but I didn't. A discussion on sin can't exist without talking about the Garden of Eden...enough said. And then my kids were just crazy wild today so lots of strange things were said the rest of the morning.

Then I helped Natalie's class paper-machete their reading projects. Flour and water with fourth graders very amusing.

Also, I came home today to find our landlord building us stairs to our roof!

MFI

I like MFI days they make life highly exciting. Today I received curtains, new sheets, and most excitingly matches! Anyways, MFI helps the week go by quickly regardless of how much you receive.

It's hard to think that at home it's turning beautiful arrays of colors and here it's still green. Today it was cold enough to wear a sweater to morning announcements so that's mid to upper 60s at 8am. It still gets up to about 85 and without a fan like this afternoon that's brutal. I am thankful that our weather has been relatively calm since the slew of hurricanes etc from early September.

I am loving life here and loving my students despite their need to drive me crazy sometimes. I am excited that our new school psychologist is finally on the payroll and working because I'll be spending some time with her soon regarding a student. I feel like I'm failing this student because I don't have the time or resources to give him the help he needs. Pray for encouragement for me on that front.

I need to get working on my history lesson for tomorrow when I get observed. :/ not looking forward to it.

Dia de la Raza

Day of the Race. One word....chaos. Anyways the morning chaos was worth the hour and 15 minutes I didn't have to teach today and the immense number of pictures I took and the fact that I got to hang out with my kids at school.

Please see the link for photos of my day.

Elephants and Slides

First of all a picture or two...sans any elephants or slides.

Hi! From the bottom El Gran Salto Jimenoa.

The beauty of the Dominican Republic- also this waterfall can be found in Jurassic Park.
On Sunday a group of us went up the mountain only to come back down the mountain on a steep inclined path. The path was while extremely slippery! The slipperiness cost me my camera LCD screen;however, I can still use the viewfinder as is proof of the above photos. We spent about 3 hours at the base enjoying the serenity of the river and being the only ones there! The way back us was not so fun as I am reminded of still today.

Back to the elephants and slides. I'm teaching my students how to write creative and expressive stories. It is easiest to do so when you have a funny subject hence the elephants. Here are some of the best of the day.

"The elephant went up the ladder. He got scared. He tried to go down but he could not. The slide when KABOOM! The end."

"Once upon a time there was a circus. This circus was the biggest circus in the world. One day the owner of the circus left the gate open and the elephant got out! Then a child found the elephant and took him home. They went to the park and they went on the slide. Then they went down the slide together. Next, they went to eat ice cream, chocolate, and drink Sprite. The child's name was Emmanuel and the elephant's name was Peggy. Then the child took the elephant home and they lived happily ever after."

Elephant on a Slide

One day an elephant named Lila wanted to explore. She was bored of being an elephant; she never did anything fun. So, she went to her old old grandpa; he gave her a book about stuff that people did. Finally, she found something fun. It was a picture of an orange slide. She went to a small town where she found a house with a slide. She knocked on the door, a girl named Lauren answered, "Hello, what do you want?" "I want to use your slide", said Lila. Lauren said, "okay." So Lila hopped on, "WEEEEE!!!! This is fun, but my family will worry about me." So Lila went back to the jungle. [this is written by my best language/english student-she used everything found here, but I just placed things where they belonged]

An Elephant and a Slide

Onceupon a time there lived an elephant. He {dreamt} was the only elephant in the whole world! The other animals were trying to figure out what he was. The giraffe said I'm pretty sure he is not a monkey. The okapi{FYI: is a native mammal to the Ituri Rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is also known as the "forest giraffe" despite having stripes like a zebra.[[worldbook]]---evidentally I missed this memo in grade school science.} said he is not a zebra. So when he woke up there was a slide. Everybody got a turn on the slide and when it was the elephants turn the slide fell over. The end.

The joys of 3rd grade imaginations.

Faith, Hope, Love, Living and Laughter

Please see the following picture in reference to the title of this entry. In the picture you will find pods with those words on them. The pods are found down by the river here in town and were a gift from one of my students. I took it upon myself to spruce them up a little bit as they are sort of boring on their own. I love the fact that I was given pods as my first teacher gift...it's sort of amusing.Faith: God called me here to grow in my faith and relationship with Him.

Hope: God is teaching me hope for what is to come and trust him.

Love: I am here to love my students and the other teachers.

Laugh: Well when you have 13 students...life can become pretty comical. For instance our Bible verse quiz this morning. Because we had 2 verses this week I made a written quiz and provided a word bank of the missing words; all the students had to do was fill in the right word in the right blank. No problem...if you had studied. Those who did not study provided me with some interesting renditions of Psalm 95:1-2. Which should go as follows "Come let us sing to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our Salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song."
Here are some of the responses I recieved...
verse 1: Come, Let us shout for joy to the Lord; let us Rock aloud to the Lord.
verse 2: Let us come before him with thanksgiving and Rock him with music and song.
verse 2: Let us come before him with Rock and thank him with music and song.
My Bible verse sounds more like rock concert when you put it that way. Although we should be that excited to praise God.

Live: I am here to live in community with my students and their families...not something so heard of in the states. This week I was invited to go to one of my students homes for dinner. Carla is a twin; her tiwn's name is also Carla. Confusing yes, but not entirely uncommon. Anyways, I went to dinner with Christy one of the first grade teachers who taught Carla Camille in first and second grade. It was so good to see their house and spend time with their family. I met their great grandma, their uncle, and their cousin. They are scholarship students so they literally come from very little. Their house is small but they are some of the happiest students I know. Last night our house "watched" the Jovian eclipse from our rooftop. God parted the clouds for the first half of it, but was more important was the fellowship and laughter that was shared on the roof.

I am so excited that I finally am having fun things to share! Please continue praying for my class. I have one student who hates coming to school because his classmates and it's making him sick. And I also have another student who acts as if he is under the devil's control. Please pray for me and the other teachers who deal with him. We need serious guidance so that we know how to interact with him when is is struggling.

When I Grow Up...

The dreaded question when we are in high school or college, but the joy of little kids...I had my students write a journal entry on what they wanted to be when the grew up. All I have to say is enjoy. [I left them as written - editing for excess "ands".]

Brenda:
when I am big I want to be a singer and I wear a dress purple with flowers and with white shoes with flowers white. I will sing Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, Camp Rock, We Rock, High School Musical 1,2, &3. I will have my hair pretty.

i want to be a doctor and help people when they are sick. If they are dieing or if they can not breathe or whatever it takes to help them. If a lot of people have the same sickness I just do whatever it takes to help them.

Estanli:
When I grow up I will be a police man. I will pertect the world. I will help people when they have guns. I will pertect the people when they need help. I will call the police when the bad guys stop and I say stop they will go away. I will help men to stop when they need. I will help the catch the bad guys. I will help the good guys when they need help.

Luis:
I want to be an astronot (astronaut) when I get big. Then I can go to space in a rocket so I can get money and everything for my house.

Marlyn:
I want to be a doctor cause they rescue people and they be nice to each other. I like them because they are brave. and they don't say ill things. I plan to be a doctor because they give me a shot and I don't cry.

Emmanuell:
When I grow up I go to be a police officer. I get money to be a police officer & to kill the bad guys. I kill the bad guys to have a car and to have a gun to kill bad guys.

Jumel:
When I grow up I want to be a model and a singer. I plan to do this by going to a singing and modeling school. If I can't go to school for that I will go to university to study well and get enough money to go to modeling school. My life will be better because I'm going to become famous. My mom will finally go to New York with my dad, brother, and sister. MyAuntwill finally buy lots of clothes for her 7 kids. My grandma and grandpa will go to an English class and will get money to buy a house. And that's what I have to say why I want to be a singer.

Nicole:
When I grow up I want to be a model because models are fabulous. I plan to do this in USA with Jumel; we want to be fabulous [they already are sadly]. My mom and dad said to be a model because models are beautiful. When I was two years old, I dreamed about it when I sleep. My life will be beautiful, cute, and nice. I will thank God about all the things he had given us. I will thank my mom, dad, sister and family.

Anya:
I want to be a sinentist (scientist) and a autror(author) when I grow up; because I like to write creative stories. I plan to study plants and I plan to write a story called "The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow". It will have a chapter called The Night Time Journey. I think that life will be easy and hard, but it will be fun. I might also study animals and the planents. I that I will enjoy life and be famous.

Noah:
When I grow up I want to be a magician. A magician does magic with a small touch. Anything can disappear and who knows where you will go. That's why I want to be a magician. I got the idea when I listened to "The Magician's Nephew".

Ronnie:
When I grow up I want to be a firefighters.

Carla:
When I grow up up I want to be a singer. I plan to do this by going to school.

Brian:
When I grow up I want to be a baseball player. I love baseball.

Obviously some students wrote more than others, but they still all completed the assignment. It was nice to see what they really enjoy doing beyond what I get to see in class.

It's hard to belive that tomorrow marks 2 months of my life here in the Dominican Republic!! I am so thankful I have made it thus far. I am conitnually learning more and more about myself and how God is going above and beyond to break me as a person. Recently I have cried everyday over my students and what God wants me to do in their lives. Often I feel hopeless and lost, but I always seem to make an impression on someone. I am beginning to reach a deeper connection with them and am even venturing to dinner at one of their houses tomorrow. I am very excited to go and interact with students and their parents outside of school. I am thankful that I am givent that opportunity here.

After 2 months of being here our house is finally 100% functional and complete! We have 2 functioning bathrooms, water 24/7, and our newest and most exciting addition Vonage!!! We have everything working at once, so hopefuly this will continue to be the trend.

Hope you enjoyed the stories.