Surivor Dominican Republic

Unofficially I have already lost said game to Karyn Staats because she's been here longer. I took my title from her.

Anyways...this week was a battle of outwitting, outsmarting and most definately outplaying my students. They were in it to win it I could tell, but sadly they lost. Third quarter is a part of the year I have not seen ever in my teaching career....it's truly GAME time! This is when you make it or break it as a teacher.

When you make it this far you feel as though you've succeeded in something. For me that something is my sanity but this week my students tried mightily to break that sanity. Sadly this was not a good week for support at school either. With about 30% of our teaching/administrative staff out during the week I had no where to turn. Thankfully God only gives us what we can handle. I managed to make it through the week of temper tantrums, split pants, spilt milk(true story), and fits of rage {leading to broken pencils}. God has a very specially eye on my class...things could go so much worse than they have.

This week we were fortunate enough to have Wednesday off...which should be a mandatory day off of school. Granted it would take longer to finish school but having the day in the middle of the week to recouperate from the stress of Monday and Tuesday. And then when Thursday and Friday come they just fly on by.

Some urgent prayer requests..
Parent/Teacher conferences. I have requested to meet with several of my student's parents due to their child's behavior. Pray that God will give me wisdom to say what I need to say via a translator and that we have translators. I am still not able to carry a good conversation in spanish. With the information I have to get across I need to be concise and professional instead of me stumbling over my vocabulary.

A friend here has been very hurt by things that have been happening here both at school and at home. Please pray that God will comfort her and show her the next step.

Yulissa, our AMAZING 1st-4th Spanish teacher. She is not older than me and has two small children 1 and a half and 4. Her mother-in-law has been in the hospital for the last few days (possibly even a week). In the DR you don't leave someone unattended in a hospital because nurses are scares and occassionally you need to replace IVs etc... Needless to say she is very tired from spending nights at the hospital with her. Yulissa is an amazing woman of God, please pray that she would regain her strength and that her mother-in-law would be healed.

For my attitude...I fear we have entered the second winter rainy season...so far it has been raining for about 24 hours straight. Last time this happened it rained for nearly 5 consecutive days! I struggle with sunlight withdrawl so not seeing sun makes me very sad and mopey. Please pray that I will snap out of it! It affects my interactions with others and just makes me what to cry all the time. Not to mention it's chilly without heat...sweats and sweatshirts it is becasue it's only about 60 degrees...I know in the states I'd be running around in shorts, but without heat and continually damp clothes it's chilly!


Most Exciting News!!! The Scholastic Bookfair is coming to JCS!!!! HOORAY FOR THE CHANCE TO GET GOOD BOOKS FOR MY KIDS!!!! Please pray that I don't spend my WHOLE salary there....which I will say is mighty tempting!