Island Life

Highlights

2009-09-19T16:08:00.000-04:00

August - September

Mid August
School starts. I love my children/students. We have a good time.
September
Roommates move in! :) Happy day. Holly and Alicia are two fellow JCS teachers; between the 3 of us we teach preschool, elementary, & middle/high school.
4th- I planned a surprise party with Holly’s mom via e-mail. We enjoyed pizza, cake, Wii and the essential DR power outage. It was a good time.
5th- The first waterfall trip of the year: a pick-up truck, mountains, a short hike, and the beauty of God’s creation…amazing!
12th –The first trip to the beach for the JCS staff: Sosua, sun and La Sierna (the mermaid – it’s a grocery story with AMERICAN foods like cream cheese, cereals, bagels, pizza, etc…) and super Saturday of fun!
18th – RUNNING WATER!!!! We had been without running water for nearly 2 weeks; an experience that tested my patience. But we thankfully had a water supply close for dishes and extremely understanding co-workers who let us come and shower at their houses.

Those are just some of the big highlights of the year so far. I am definitely learning to enjoy life a little bit more this year and don’t always put school first! I am beginning to cooking here and so far am pleased with what has turned out.

Overall I am definitely loving my new house and it’s amazing views and private back porch.

Prayer Requests:
- Continued joy.
- Patience with a few of my students.
- Continued desire to learn Spanish ( I have tutoring every Monday)

Prayer

2009-08-04T08:58:00.002-04:00

Many may have received the prayer alert that was sent out last night. Please continue to be in prayer for the staff, administration and board of my shcool.

Time to hit the road via a plane...

2009-08-01T19:00:00.002-04:00

It's that time again for me to board a plane and fly south to the Dominican Republic. It's only been 5 weeks since I left but I'm so ready to be back and see my friends and students.

These five weeks have flown by between work, writing curriculum, and just living in a house that is on the market life has been exhausting.

I leave tomorrow possibly having said goodbye to Crystal Lake for who knows how long. Mixed emotions on leaving behind my home of the last 11 years (despite only residing full time here for 6 of them).

Please pray for safe flights, complete baggage on the other side and a ride...still not 100% sure who's getting me but that's sometimes to be expected. I'm very excited to go and move into my new house and get settled.

Busy Weekend, Busy Life

2009-07-06T17:44:00.002-04:00

This past weekend I drove with my parents to Minnesota to see friends and family.

On Friday night we stayed with some friends of my parents who have experience in having a daughter overseas. It was good to hear about their daughters ministry in Japan and to receive much needed tutoring on raising support effectively. Thus the delay in letter mailing. I am so excited to rewrite my letter so that it can be consice and clear. I hope the result of this fine tuning helps you understand my ministry more effectively.

Saturday was spent with aunts, uncles, cousin, & grandma. It was good to see most of my family which I haven't seen since last June!

Saturday evening was spent with the Johnsons and then Sunday we turned around and drove home.

My life has been super busy since I landed at home 2 weeks ago. I have found myself working full time, writing curriculum, and planning the first and second grade reading calendar! YIKES!!! and then I am busy writing my support letter.

I hope that you will check back for more frequent updates as the time gets closer for me to go back. I plan to fly back AUGUST 2nd.

HOME

2009-06-22T19:54:00.002-04:00

I have been home for the last 48+ hours.

I returned home late Friday/early Saturday. I encounter many delays during travel; however, did not miss a single flight!

In the DR our plane was late arriving which meant that I landed at MIA - Miami with just under and hour to clear customs and hightail it to my gate. Thankfully my flight was also delayed in Miami due to lightening strikes. So I made it to the plane and boarded 2 hours later than planned.

Since being home I have been extremely busy studying Spanish, reading ESL curriculum books, planning for camp and readjusting to a life of "luxury" compared to my DR habitat. It has been weird to drive and go to stores, but thankfully any culture shock has happened someplace out of the "public" eye.

Anyways, I am busy working for NISRA and SEDOM this summer like that previous 6 summers...that's a long time to be at the same summer job, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

4 days

2009-06-15T10:23:00.002-04:00

home in 4 short days.

there is still so much to do packing wise, but that's not what i've been doing.

this morning i sat down and worked on correspondence. woo...what a way to spend my morning. i currently have written roughly 3 rough drafts this morning of very important letters. 2 of which many of you will be seeing in your mailboxes soon (hopefully next week!)

please pray for the JCS staff as many of us are flying home or have already flown home. mainly prayer for re-adjusting to life in the united states. and for the staff staying here...who will be missing their co-workers and friends.

for me - i land on friday and start work on monday. pray that God grants me enough rest this week and week-end to be prepared for work. i am thankful to even be working since i missed all the training for both jobs. God is good and faithful.

anyways. now that the writing is done...it's time to focus on the packing part of life. which is semi-difficult since i still need to live the next few days....so for now it's sorting through piles that have accumulated on my arch-nemis ---flat surfaces.

Letting Go of the Sword of Self-Sufficiency

2009-06-07T20:52:00.002-04:00

Please excuse any grammatical, spelling, or time lapse mistakes as this entry endured a power outage and a short-circuiting keyboard.

Today was probably one of the most convicting church services I have ever been too. Popin (Po-peen) my pastor talked about Moses and the Burning Bush; when Moses was in the desert because of his own self-sufficiency. He took a sword to seek justice and fled. God took 40 years while Moses was tending his father-in-law’s sheep to bring Moses to the burning bush. At that time God chose to use Moses with a staff instead of a sword to free an entire country!

Moses held on stubbornly to the sword of self-sufficiency and justice, just as we do. We my not tend sheep in the desert, but we all experience our own deserts of loneliness. God meets us in these deserts and asks for our swords and gives us staves. It’s up to us at this point to lean on the support of God or throw down the staff and go our own ways again. But God does not give up because He still wants to use us; sinners!

God wants to be our “business” partners in the journey to transform the world into His likeness even though He doesn’t need us. He wants to work with us because we can show the transformation of a life lived in Him. God chooses us for 3 reasons:
1) HE loves us!
2 HE knows our potential.
3 Someone has to tell the world about God’s glory.
While we may feel useless, God provides answers at the perfect times. He is the I AM. – He is unchangeable, the Alpha and Omega, the God who was, who is, and who is to come, He is absolute, He is with out cause, He is essential. The knowledge of this God doesn’t transform us or those around us – we can only be transformed by a personal revelation!

We can’t truly be revealed to God’s glory until we give up that sword of self-sufficiency that we hold. Only then will God reveal His true glory to us, just as he did to Moses with the burning bush. By giving this up we are giving up the right to say “I CAN” - can you do that? I know that I can’t… I struggle every day. My life can not be based on I CAN and Maybes.

God calls us to prayer…a life of surrender. A life in the desert allows us fall to our knees and listen to the voice of God that is always there, just BEGGING to be heard.

LET GO – Let go, Let go – let go of whatever you are holding onto and hold God’s outstretched waiting hand. He will lead us were we need to go.

At the beginning of the year I wrote a list of what I wanted God to do while I was here or what I hoped God would do. That’s ridiculous…God isn’t told what to do. He tells us what to do. God has done most of the things on my list. He has just done them in ways not so conventional. I am happy that He has answered my strange requests.

I recently finished a study on Hebrews called Hoping for Something Better. I highly recommend this study for anyone who struggles with emotions dealing with depression or an overwhelming sense of short-comings. God is good and has planned a life full of hope based on trials that lead us to him…just as God led Moses to the burning bush with a rod in his hands that later went on to free an entire country.

Now I am doing a study/reading a book called Come Closer based on 15 invitations from Jesus to come and be near him. I am always convicted and touched as I read each chapter…identifying with the crowd that Jesus was talking to. I have come to desire the friendship and companionship of our Savior more deeply than the salvation that originally drew me into the fold. I have come to the place where Jesus is truly beginning to take a human form.

As I end the school year I am looking forward to the next year and how I can be the example of Jesus to my students. I can simply do that by loving them…staying for one more year…showing them that love…for some of the incoming second graders next year will be the first year they have had a certified teacher for more than 4 months. I want to show them Christ’s love. I want to put down my sword so I can love them not on my own but love them with God’s guidance…will you join me by praying for my student’s next year? Will you venture out of your desert place and let God lead you by the hand to what He has planned for you?

I hope that you will.

Winding Down

2009-06-04T17:48:00.002-04:00

As the school year winds down I am overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have! Yikes...3 suitcases a few MFIs and many hand-me-downs sure does add up!
AND then I think of all the stuff I need for next your to become a good second grade teacher. God will provide he always does. I may have to wait for the new things but it will be worth the wait.

URGENT prayer...sort of silly/selfish/actually legit...my computer has been malfunctioning for the better part of the last few months. I will need to purchase a new one this summer most likely. Please pray for a computer to be provided as money is very tight OR a quality used one will be found by Ash who has been so helpful to me but also to my friends here. He's sort of a celeb among all of us who he has helped...without him we would have waited months to get any sort of help. so a big thank you!!!

i need to go before my keyboard completely makes everything disappear. :(

MAYO en la Republica Dominicana

2009-06-01T19:09:00.007-04:00

Sorry for the lengthy absence...they do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder...so without delay let me fill you in on my life while I've been away from the blogging world.

May 1st - 3rd grade field trip to Santo Domingo. I know I went on long adventures in elementary school. BUT I never realized the dedication and patience it took on the part of the teachers.

Needless to say there were rewards too. Like the aquarium/McDonald's and lots of singing on the bus.

Here are some snap shots of that day.

May 5th - Cinco de Mayo - first one in a Spanish country but sadly it means nothing here

May 28/29th - Volcano Days

May 30/31 - La Playa

Brief Hello

2009-05-09T17:50:00.002-04:00

Greetings from the Dominican Republic where it is nice and balmy.

This entry comes after a long last few days. This week was our last short week before school is done on June 10th. Today much like the last day or so I spent in my room with a migrane. Thankfully this migrane was not accompanied by virus bug that I had Thursday night into early Friday morning. It has been a long few hours since solid food. Thankfully I have wonderful friends who bring me Gatorade and sub for me at school on short notice.

Home in just about 40 days.

Blessings

2009-05-07T06:09:00.002-04:00

Just received word from Amazon that 2 of my items on her wish list have been purchased! PTL! Thank you to the person/people who did that. I am so excited to start DLR and DMR with my students next year. :)

The weather here has not gotten utterly unbearable yet...relishing that while I can.

Tastes of Home

2009-05-05T21:36:00.002-04:00

Today has been a good day with lots of tastes of home:

1) 24 hour power! Today was the first day that we have had power all day in about 2 weeks. HAPPY DAY

2) Hot shower! a full 8 minutes of hot water...rare.

3) America Water Pressure

4) THUNDER - it normally doesn't thunder here but tonight it did and it was glorious! I miss Indiana thunderstorms.

5) Bubbles. I got to watch my kids chase bubbles today with no reserves as too who was watching. so cute.

T- 2 months

2009-04-28T17:45:00.002-04:00

In only a mere 8 weeks I will be setting foot in the United States for only 6 weeks.

Before I can come back there are some very important things that must be done here.

1) Finish writing the 2nd grade spelling curriculum...yes, I, am writing - more like modifying the A Beka first and second grade curriculums into 1 along with the East Lansing School Corp. Sitton Spelling program. I am not a huge fan of the current curriculum so I'm supplementing it and using the best parts. AND making it ESL friendly.

WHY undertake such a huge task...well it's easy save money on one part to get more money for another part. WOOT. all this in hopes to have a decent Reading curriculum or at least a better Math.

2) Grades...always and forever on the minds of every teacher.

3) Packing up my life, but I'm getting ahead of myself with that one.

But back to the curriculum. I have created an Amazon.com wishlist of several curriculum supplements I would like to use next year. The beauty of Amazon is you can buy used. :) below is the link to my wish list. The items are ranked in order of my highest priority...once you see them you'll notice most of them are high.

You can see Brooke Anne Jantzen's entire Wish List at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/PW5BXWCQLNY7

More later. That's it for now.

Remember when...

2009-04-21T18:34:00.005-04:00

...I first posted about my beautiful new stairs to my roof?

Sadly they will soon lead to another house. That's right our landlord is building a second floor! :(

Today when I got back from town I saw
one GIANT cement truck with powder and cinder blocks.
about 15 Dominican men only 3 of which were the workers.
and one very happy and busy Guido.

Goodbye to the sweet view of our surroundings.

Goodbye peace and quiet.

Goodbye carport for drying clothes.

To see some pictures of our lovely pile of blocks/wall/fortress we now live in visit Natalie's blog.

*** do not believe everything you read--refering to the last portion of her blog...i did not talk to any of them except our landlord Guido.

Solo en Cristo

2009-04-12T13:57:00.003-04:00

HE IS RISEN!

Today that is what I hold on to. Today I am sad and very homesick. But regardless of my homesickness, Christ still rose again on the 3rd day so that I might have life.

Three years ago I stood on top of one of the mountains here in Jarabacoa and had sunrise service with 25 amazing people. Just a week ago I stood on top of the same mountain again and saw my town; not just a town where I had spent 9 days, but a town that has become my home.

Celebrating my third Easter here has been a challenge. I haven't had the comforts of 25 smiling faces or a home cooked meal to look forward to. Instead I get to be blessed by my friends here in the DR who I only have known for 8 months. It has been a hard day full of tears and heartache for the opportunity to celebrate just one more Easter TU style.

This afternoon I will go to church and be blessed once more by the smiling faces of my church home here. It will be good to go and sing, clap, possibly dance and praise Jesus because He is risen.

I do not want this to be sad because as my student said "Jesus came to kill all the sadness". He came so that we could live with sadness, but have hope for our future home.

IN CHRIST ALONE
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt of life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

It Was Time For Something New

2009-04-10T18:07:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the remodeled blog of me, Brooke.

I decided that since I am going to stay for one more year I better make my page a bit more user friendly. I am going to be slowly adding rearranging things on the site for the next few months. but the background and the header are here to stay I think. I like them.

On the right you will find everything to know about why I'm here, mailing address, past posts, and how you can help. I hope to be working up some charts for everyone to see where their support is going.

I am very excited to be staying another year because that allows me to continue the bonds I have made with students and some families here. Also the school is in transition as we will be saying goodbye to several teachers at the end of the school year. AGAIN if you need a job or knows someone who needs a job please e-mail me!

This past week has been spring break aka Semanta Santa (Holy Week). Holy Week pays homage to the Catholic society that dominates the DR like many Latin American countries. Unfortunately it isn't used to celebrate Christ's resurrection instead it becomes a week long party to drink and be crazy. This weekend will mark my 3rd Easter in the DR. It is so crazy to think that two years ago I was just setting foot on this island for the first time. God has been so faithful in those two years and continues to show His hand in many situations.

I headed off to the beach earlier this week with 5 girls. Thankfully there was no RAIN this trip! We set off on Monday morning armed with lots of bags and eagerness. We made it to San Fransico our first stop of the trip to head ot the grocery store; exciting I know. But here where our grocery options are limited it's nice to just browse the seemingless never-ending aisle of goods.

Then it was off to Nagua for some ocean-side basketball; none of us were amazing, but we had an amazing time soaking up the sun and playing with on of the little boys who stopped to watch. When we left 30 minutes later we had quite the crowd gathered to watch.

Then it was the final push towards Las Terranas. Sadly I have no pictures of our incredible adventure as again another camera has seemingly bit the dust. My "new" (6 month old) camera now only produces pictures in purple with black lines through it. I have not dropped it or gotten it wet so I am very frustrated. It's very discouraging to buy something when money is tight and then have it not work. Please pray that Kodak will help fix it or replace it.

Once we arrived in Las Terranas we unpacked into one of our apartments for the few days we were there and split up. Some of us going shopping for food and others going to the pool. It was nice to be away from Jarabacoa and unwind. Monday night involved a beautiful sunset (I promise to steal other people's pictures to share) and wonderful spaghetti dinner made in our tiny kitchen. Then it was off to bed in our nice big beds after wonderful hot showers.

Tuesday involved one thing...sunshine! I spent as much time outside as possible doing devotions on the beach, reading, snorkeling (first time) and then some wonderful pool time later on. I wish I could say that snorkeling was a success, but not prepping myself for the experience mentally was a poor choice. Perhaps some other time now that I can know what to expect.

Then Wednesday it was back home after one more moring on the beach. After our drive home we were all ready to crash and sleep.

The rest of the week has been pretty low key lots of reading and relaxing and avoiding the sun now that my back is nice and red. I spent this morning at school lesson planning for the week to come. I'm hoping that I can jump back into teaching with few problems.

I will do my best to get pictures to show you what a great time I had so stay tuned for more. Also, please be patient with site rearranging; it will probably take some time.

Frustration

2009-04-03T10:59:00.002-04:00

Currently I sit in our administration building typing away at the updates of my life. Biggest update and frustration would be the lack of internet at my house. We have now been without internet for one week. I hate the dependency that I have on it here because it's my only connection to the outside world.

Next is SPRING BREAK is only 4 hours away!!! WOOT! 9 days of relaxing and sun. I'm headed on another 5 hour car ride to the northeast coast with 5 other girls. I'm super excited! Pray for our safety. I will leave Monday 6th and return Wednesday the 8th.

Easter and Reflections by 3rd Graders

2009-03-30T19:46:00.000-04:00

Reflective Writing Assignment on Easter
Just a few quick responses of what’s been going on in my classroom during our study of Easter. I have tried to leave the responses as unedited as possible but explanations are included. Many of my children know the right things to say when they are prompted…this writing only included what you see below; the question.

Question: What Does Easter Mean to You?

Student #1
Easter means to me like playing in the yard with my cousins and sister the best sister of the world. I like spring and easter in spring. At Easter I play for Jesus Christ and bow my head and my eyes. I will be happy he arrived again from the dead and he is the Holy Spirit. I love Him with my heart and he loves all the people. He pertects us with his hole life and he kills the sadness. He uses his good powers to pertect the world and all the person’s should love him. He lays down his life for his sheep (our Bible verse from two weeks ago; John 10:11). He does not come to destroy our lovely world and that’s all you need to know about Easter.

Student #2
It means to me that is when Jesus Christ came to die. It was not fair to Jesus because He is very powerful and he died on the cross to help his people. He came be the bread and water of life (chapel lesson).

Student #3
It means love, he wanted us not to sin, he died for our sins, without him we would be ded (dead). God sent Jesus to die for use, Jesus got risen from the ded, he got hurt out of kindness and love for us.

Student #4
He died for our sins.
He died for others.

Student #5
Easter means to me that he died for us. He died because he is mighty to save (another Bible verse (Zephaniah 3:17). His our father and he is mighty.

Student #6
Jesus died for our sins that means it hurt. We learned that he died and that he came out of death! He rose! God is Jesus’ dad, he sent him to use to help us and die for our sins. That’s why we learn and celebrate Easter because Jesus came out of death! Jesus is the King.

I challenge you to think about what EASTER means to you…think about everything that is Easter in our lives. I would love to share some “adult” perspectives on Easter with my kiddos. If you want to respond you can do so in the comment box or by sending my an email at miss.jantzen.jcs@gmail.com (the e-mail I check at school during school hours).

Meanwhile, the rest of my life is going as well as could be expected. There are always the moments when you think you can’t take it anymore. God has been faithful with everything and will continue to be faithful as long as we approach him. We can’t do this on our own.

God has sent pint sized love my way in the form of the first graders. There smiles and hugs and sometimes kisses make my heart happy and confirm that I am meant to teach. I am able to show them love without even opening my mouth by giving a high five, a smile, a hug, or running around making a fool of myself with a bubble wand! (BUBBLE WANDS would be a great donation item! HINT HINT! They are available at your local Wal-mart for only a dollar! SEASONAL or TOY aisle)

As we go into the Easter season I am drawn to many songs that have influenced my understanding of the significance of the Jesus and His resurrection. A true appreciation that has formed recently would like to share the titles below and the verses that have had the most impact on me. God is so good!

Our spring break is coming up in a mere 4 days now! HOORAY!!! 9 days of nothing but relaxing and spending quality time with people. I will trekking the 7 long hours to Las Terranas for a few days outside of Jarabacoa and perhaps then visiting Santiago to do some end of the school year shopping for storage items.

Mighty to Save – Hillsong
Jesus rose and CONQUERED the grave.
We’re singing for the glory of the RISEN KING! How awesome is it that we don’t serve a dead GOD!!!

In Christ Alone
Pretty much the whole song is powerful!
Here in the death of Christ I LIVE.

To Know Your Name- Hillsong
The precious blood of Jesus Christ redeems, forgiven I’m alive set FREE!

Please pray for JCS as we are going to need to recruit lots more teachers! Please pray that people will respond to our need. And if you need a job…come work for us! It’s not perfect, but what is?

2009-2010

2009-03-22T14:36:00.002-04:00

I would like to apologize for my absence from my blog and from life in general. I am a poor communicator and that is something I will be working on for the next year and 6 months. You all should be hearing from me a lot more frequently as I am planning to stay in Jarabacoa for one more year.

I will be teaching second grade next year and will be raising support again. I am currently working on a support proposal that many of you should be receiving within the first week of the official summer according to the calendar.

Currently I am going to fill you in on life here for about the past month.

Last I blogged about my weekend in the capitol...so much fun! Since then I have house sat for a family from school with a few of the other teachers, had my parents come to visit, and seen one of my professors from Taylor here in JARABACOA... busy month.

In finishing out this school year I ask that you pray for my students everyday. I have a very difficult class that hasn't responded well to many forms of discipline. I often want to cry at the end of the day...which is not healthy.

Pray that God will become the center of my thoughts as I have so much to do and learn before next year.

We have spring break in 2 weeks so pray that all the teachers will have enough strength to make it through.

Check back for updates on how the transition and planning of next year is going to go.

el capital

2009-02-18T16:26:00.006-05:00

last weekend i was off to the capital for a whirlwind trip of 24 hours of sun, city life, and a concert at possibly the largest venue i've been too.

we headed down by bus on saturday at 10:00. the bus ride was nerve racking because i wasn't sure how i'd react. i only got motion sickness when we were about an hour away, but that hour was pretty long.

then from there is was off to job's father's house for our afternoon or relaxation and errands. the house where we stayed was job's house growing up but is now open to missionary's for relaxation. the house is beautiful (3 floors), a pool, and an outside patio that is amazing. the outside gardens/patio area look like the come straight from a home and garden magazine. i have posted a few pictures below.

the beautiful patio, pool, garden area

after a relaxing afternoon it was off to see juan luis guerra - one of the most famous dominican artists ever. the concert was packed, we left our original spots because we didn't feel 100% safe where we were and we wanted to enjoy our time. see the pictures below for a look into a dominican concert...lots of drinking, smoking and dancing. it was hard not to partake in the dancing because everyone was dancing and latin music requires movement. :)the stadium well at least one half & juan luis on the big screen

then back to reality on monday. monday turned into a very stressful day as i had the last straw broken with one of my students. he has been suspended since, pending a served detention after school. please pray for him has he is not remorseful at all for his actions towards myself or the other staff.

praise! the book fair is in town! currently we have raised $600 towards new books for the school. however that seems so small considering my junior methods class at 32 people bought more than $700 in one order alone. small steps are good.

my parents are coming in less than a month. please pray for them as the are getting ready to travel. we have some big things to discuss when they come so pray that we are praying about what we will say.

Excursions

2009-02-13T21:17:00.002-05:00

it's time for another weekend excursion here in the land of the DR. this time we are piling not into a CR-V but instead into a big yellow bus. hooray for new cultural experiences on Caribe Tours. not being a seasoned bus traveler I am a bit apprehensive about the travels down the mountain and then back up on sunday.

we are heading down to a juan luis guerra concert in the capital. i am excited to venture to the capital for the first time and spend my afternoon lounging by a pool reading a book.

this week has been difficult with learning to let go of my students and their behaviors. love the sinner not the sin...and i have a class full of them...including myself.

i will post pictures once i return.

hey and good news it stopped raining! after nearly 7 days of rain the sun came out and shone brightly in the sky. the rivers are still incredibly high, but the roads are nearly dry. i can't imagine it raining for 40 days and 40 nights straight...noah and his family must have been really bored when they weren't taking care of the animals.

rain, RaiN, RAIN

2009-02-10T05:55:00.002-05:00

As of this morning it has started day 6 of continual rain fall! Which means it has been raining for the better part of 127 hours (as of 7:00am). Who knew that the ground could hold so much water?! OR that the atomosphere could hold that much water!!!

Yesterday I had 6 kids in my class so I couldn't teach everything that I needed too. We'll see if I have less today since many of my kids sick with colds and coughs.

Anyways, off to school to prep with other plans if my class is super small again. I may just teach and see what we get done...we'll at least start spelling today and possible do some math board races again.

good news

2009-02-07T16:09:00.002-05:00

I'm up and feeling better! I believe I was exposed to either food poisoning or their was some sort of item I am allergic too in the food I ate this week.

I had wrap from a local restaurant that had oil and vinegar on it. I haven't had any other reaction to oils before other than in mayo. So I'm inclined to think that it can't be that. But one never knows.

My headache is gone right now; however, I'm sure it will come back soon. It is most likely linked to the crazy pressure associated with the rainy season/week we are having.

Thank you to those who prayed for me yesterday. I began feeling better and was able to keep food and water in my stomach around 1pm! :) since then I've kept a pretty soft diet of eggs, bread and the occasional cookie (karyn and natalie made them this morning!).

the bad equation

2009-02-06T06:51:00.002-05:00

rain + migraine + stomach bug = a very bad sad depressing day :(

and since it's raining it's only 50 degrees in my house right now...brr.

that's where i find myself right now. at home on head-teacher and director mandated bed rest.

last night i came home and was just weary and exhausted from a really stressful day. i was just tired so i went with rachel to go get my nails done. when i came home i made myself dinner and talked to my mom. it was around then that started having my migraine.

generally my migraines come in different levels of pain; this one was pretty bad so i decided that i should call it a night at 8:30. so after a fitful few hours of dozing off i slept until 2am. at 2am i felt very nauseous which is typical when i receive my migraines but it also normally means they are almost gone. so i still had hope of going to school.

that was until i spent a half hour in the bathroom. at 2:30 i crawled back into bed exhausted and what i thought...empty. unfortunately not the case. i spent the rest of my morning trying to find a way to sleep that would not trigger my reflex.

so at 6:00 I crawled out of bed to shower in hopes that the lukewarm water would make me feel better; nope. so at 6:30 i sent word to my head-teacher and the director that i would be coming in to write sub plans.

so off to school i went. thankfully i did not feel the urge to throw up while at school, but as soon as i got home it was there. our cleaning girls are here so i'm trying to hold off until they leave.

please pray that i can stay hydrated! i haven't been able to keep even water in me this morning!! :( also please pray for whoever has my class. my class has been in rare form this week causing all sorts of issues.

please pray that God will talk to me today as i take lesson 2 in letting Him take charge. forced relaxation needs to be more fun and less sickness...in my opinion.

Verse of the week from the elementary staff meeting- also a good verse for me to memorize when dealing with my class...

Galatians 6:9
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

MFI Love

2009-02-03T16:43:00.005-05:00

I LOVE MY WONDERFUL FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!! and MFI for delivering my treasures!!

who knew that a box including laundry soap, good TP, and slippers could make a person so happy.

i also recieved a box of treasures from my dear friends Andrea and Megan! :) i love them...chocolate, pencils, stickers, gum, and a blue hippopotumus! ¡que feliz!

not to mention cards and my new ipod charger. my ipod cord got corroded and died so i know have a new charging cord and new car charger...all for $2.64...thank you amazon.com.

days like this make me so thankful that i have mail! God provided all the smiles and encouragement i needed right when i needed it! :)

2009-01-30T22:11:00.006-05:00

Goo, Giggles, & Grins

Friday, ¡Por Fin! What a crazy adventure this week as been.

Sunday: Playa Rincon
Monday: Playa Fronton
Tuesday: School
Wednesday: Pinkeye
Thursday: School
Friday: Goo and the Carla's

Today school couldn't get over fast enough. I was so ready to be done with this week. I am still fighting something, but I'm not sure what to do about it since I don't want to go to the doctor. Until then I drug up and sleep...perhaps purchasing some coughdrops in the candy aisle will help.

Today we made Goo or Ooobleck properly. It was an insane endeavor on my part without the assistance of someone else. Being Friday the students weren't listening and were doing just about everything they were NOT supposed to be doing. But oh much fun was had by all...including yours truly until it came time to go back inside. Then I was ready to say "see ya" and let them run wild...but I did not. I stuck it out and dealt with temper tantrums instead. Here is our group picture collage with close ups of almost every one in the picture...I did a collage because it allows you to see the individual expressions on each person's face!

After school I took the time to unwind after a crazy afternoon. Then Christy Elmer and I went over to the Carla's house for dinner. They have moved into a much better house and have their own room now! Their mom is getting remarrried to someone who actually provides for their family! Their new house is much closer to school and in a much safer neighborhood. I hope that their transition to a new family and a new house is good for them. When I first got there we helped Tonia their mom hang up clothes and get things ready for when Luis (their stepfather) moves in. Their girls were such good helpers. Then it was time to play games. I made a collage of everything that happened there too; so I don't have load individual pictures. I am continually thankful that God has put me here this year to minister to families like the Carla's.I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am planning on spending the rest of mine lesson planning, doing laundry and getting rid of the migrane that has decided to visit today.

2009-01-29T20:15:00.013-05:00

¡Fotografías!

Playa Rincon please note that the small boys are in every frame of the panoramic picture. This is beach #2 technically, but beach #1 in the photo log.
I ♥ ocean waves.

I also ♥ Estillo Tours and their friendly driver who picked us so we wouldn't have to walk through this (see below). When Natalie get's her photos online I'll have a link...her pictures are more accurate and probably better quality....
Las Galeras - beach #1. Our "home" for the trip.
Christie Collver and I...goofing around in an "abandoned" boat.
I love this picture. I love it for 2 reasons; 1) it's gorgeous and 2) I love sunsets here.
Fronton - beach # 3 the whole reason we piled in a car for 6 hours! This picture (above) was taken from one of the openings on the trail in/down to the beach (below).
picturesque and peaceful
Check out this site for more information...Dulous Discovery School & Playa Fronton. Dulous is the other Christian school in town. It is a very hands on learning - Montesorri style school for PreK-12. I looked at working here too, but JCS is where I was supposed to be...but they do some pretty cool things at their school.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I hopefully post the results of making ooobleck with my 3rd graders soon (that is if I am brave enough to pull out my camera around water, cornstarch, and 8 year olds).

Plan B is not Plan A Recylced...The Saga of 3 Beaches in 3 Days

2009-01-28T10:58:00.003-05:00

This is the story of how 6 girls piled into 1 CRV for 62 hours of Dominican Sand and Surf. Teaching in the Dominican Republic has had it’s perks in the month of January…like no 5 day weeks of school! So to celebrate Juan Pablo Duarte one of the founding fathers of the FREE Dominican Republic we hit to road.

On Saturday morning we loaded our backpacks and snorkel gear and took off for the North East coast. We drove from Jarabacoa to San Francisco to Samana to Las Galeras. Being in a car for nearly 6 hours was not as much fun with the roads that awaited us.

The drive from Jarabacoa to San Fransico was a nice pleasant drive very reminiscent of driving through north Wisconson in the summer…pine trees, beautiful rocks, and a 4 lane highways with good quality pavement. Also on the way to San Fransico we say our first glimpses into the farming industry of rice. They use airplanes to crop dust and huge tractors to turn over the fields yet do most of the harvesting by hand.

After leaving San Francisco the roads turned dramatically worse. Sometimes the road was so bad that it was sometimes one lane. We drove through Nagua which was the first time I had seen the ocean other than flying over it. Seeing the ocean for the first time was great; despite the pouring rain outside the car. We left for our trip with a 55% sun and 40% rain prediction. (Thankfully most of the rain came while we were driving and not on the beach enjoying our vacation.) In Nagua I saw some of the devastation that was left by the hurricanes this fall. Nagua is on the NE coast where most of the hurricanes hit the hardest if they came from the north. Entire neighborhoods were gone and all that remained was cinderblock foundations many of which were no larger than 10 x 10. Those small foundations probably housed a whole family.

The roads the rest of the way were 2 lanes with potholes that nearly covered the whole road…so our wonderful drivers had their hands full with maneuvering to keep the rest of us comfortable the best they could.

The next big town we arrived at was Samana which is known for it’s bay and for whale sightings. We didn’t go on a whale expedition but it was easy to tell that whale watching was a huge industry. The downtown area was very nice and well kept due to tourism. But as soon as you left the town it was back to shacks and poorly held together outhouses. I saw lots of wildlife sitting in the back of the car…there were pigs, goats, horses, mules, ducks, chickens, and the occasional wild turkey (I was the only one who saw them…but they were there).

We drove about 6 hours to reach our final destination of Las Galeras…a town that the main road literally runs into the ocean. We stayed at a hotel and were within walking distance of food and the beach. We headed to the beach the first afternoon after naps and lunch. The beach wasn’t spectacularly kept but the views were great. There is huge resort in Las Galeras so that is where most of their money is at.

On Sunday we had the grand plan (Plan A) of driving to Boca del Diablo and then hiking in to Fronton a small beach that is only accessible by boat or a hour hike. To our dismay we went to leave to find that our car would not start! So after trying to figure it out on our own we were assisted by 5 kind Dominican men. Despite the language barrier, no owner manual or any mechanics it took 7 hours to identify the problem, fix it and then decide what to do. We instead settled on heading to Playa Rincon (Plan B).

Playa Rincon involved a half hour drive down yet another bumpy half there road. On this road we were passed by car after car ignoring the bumps. We concluded that people who drive that way either replace their axles every year or just buy new cars. In one of the towns we passed we came across a lady killing her chickens…some of us actually saw it….not the most pleasant thing ever. Along another point we saw fields of pineapples growing and more wild turkeys.

If you’ve been following my blog you know that it rains a lot here. We saw the results of the rain in road width red clay mud puddles. It was definitely an off-road experience but with a road still present. Anyways we got to the end of the road or so we thought…people had parked. Only when we had stopped to look did we see why people had stopped. The road the rest of the way down was completely flooded. Imagine walking outside of your house and seeing water knee deep, whole street across and about 30 feet long sections of road not visible. Yep that’s what awaited us at the bottom of the hill. We considered throwing out a plan C but we were “rescued” by Esitllo Tours. We managed to catch a ride on their big Daihatsu truck with one of their tour groups. The ride through the puddles was much happier. We were able to watch everything else around us; like whole families walking through the water, supercross bikes (dirt BMX style), and the ice cream man on his little moto. It was quite the experience. But the beach was worth it. The water was pristine, the waves, nice sand, and about a mile of untouched beach. The palm tree groves were spectacular too. Here I went body surfing with some of the other girls; it was so much fun (despite the salt water up my nose)!!!

Sunday we finally made it to Fronton. When we first got to Fronton we saw 2 cruise ships sailing. Cruise ships are huge!!! It’s crazy to think that I live on an island that is a cruise destination. When we started hiking it was so frustrating because I didn’t know what to expect; since breaking my camera this year while hiking I am a bit more apprehensive. The hike to Fronton takes you through the forest along the coast. The area of the trail we hiked is rumored to also be used for drug trafficking from Columbia. No drugs were seen in transit along the trail; happy day. Every once and a while we would come across and opening and see the blue expanse of the ocean…holy cow is it beautiful!!!! The last half of the hike was tricky due to hiking mainly on coral and mud, but the beach was worth it. I received my sunburn here and a few blisters.

After hiking out we went down to see Boca del Diablo (Mouth of the Devil). Basically it’s a giant hole in the ground that gets filled with water. When the water pressure is to great is spits spray out of the top. You can throw things inside and they will get spit back out…we sent a palm branch shooting out maybe 20 feet in the air. The sound it makes is not a happy sound it’s very dark and menacing. Then it was time to pack up and come home.

It was a great trip and I really enjoyed it! I will try and post pictures soon. I am at home today with pinkeye, but have already felt a huge difference in my eye since starting drops last night! I have to continue the drops for 5 days and then it should be gone. Thankfully my pinkeye is more of the North American strain…the Dominican version involved pockets of stuff on your actual eye…gross. So I’m pretty happy I caught it early!

Still Preluding....

2009-01-27T19:45:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow will be the day I at least compose my blog from this weekend. I now have pinkeye...something related to the ocean water I fear or hiking yesterday. I have already begun my eye drop steroids so hopefully I'll be back at school on Thursday teaching away. Until then this is lesson 1 in relaxation and trusting God.

Prelude...

2009-01-27T12:05:00.002-05:00

There will be no extravagent photos included in my blog entry for some time from this last weekend. Our modem decided to die while we were away so I can't upload pictures quickly on the school's computer. I will however attempt to share the memories of the weekend with you at a later time. I don't want to right my long blog on the school's time. Please check back within the week for a full synopsis of the weekends happenings...they are not to be missed.

Rain Count

2009-01-24T04:39:00.002-05:00

36 hours and counting of continuous rain.

I'm off on an adventure this weekend to the coast so hopefully we will have sunshine there and some beautiful beaches and no injuries as we hike...if indeed that is what we end up doing.

This weekend is a lesson in patience, spontaneity, and life outside the 23km circle I've been living in here!

I will try and post pictures when I return.

Surivor Dominican Republic

2009-01-23T15:57:00.002-05:00

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!

Times they are a changing...

2009-01-20T17:42:00.004-05:00

Happy Inauguration Day/3rd Quarter

This week is a week of change for many people...some are starting new semesters, some are starting new quarters, and some are starting new careers.

My students made the switch yesterday from history to science. They also were introduced to the 90-minute Language block used in the US schools. I am so excited to have a schedule that allows me to break my day up and actually focus on the key components of the English language. I am hoping that through using this method, I can improve their quality of work all around even the smallest bit. My 90-minute block allows me to teach spelling, phonics, and grammar all at the same time with a built in read aloud time! Normally by 3rd grade phonics are fairly automatic in the states, but I'm starting at square one. I am focusing on blends to start with because many of the students can't read our spelling list and the blends that are on it. Phonics is also crucial to good spelling. I have amazing spellers in my class, but I have a few that are going to see the benefit of daily phonics.

Thanks to Natalie for my amazing b-day gift of the first 8 books of "The Magic Tree House" series. My kids are loving them; especially my boys! Hooray!!!

My students also started music yesterday. After talking to almost all the teachers all the students are learning about the musicality of Michael Jackson...yep, I really hope they learn the Thriller dance just because it would be really funny! I'm excited for my kids to do music because I share the same excitement for music as they do. I miss piano tremendously and I occasionally go play on the schools untuned piano.

I am in need of wisdom with a few of my students because of their incredibly unruly rude behavior. Many of my children have close to free reign at home so enforcing rules for them is sometimes difficult. I receive many tears because they aren't used to being told no or follow the directions...today I made 2 students cry because I disciplined them. At least they don't enjoy their punishment. If their behavior continues I'm not sure what I will be doing with them - other than prematurely graying.

Tomorrow we have off due to it being Agriculture Day...I'm not going to complain for a day off and away after the first 2 days this week.

23

2009-01-16T16:31:00.002-05:00

23 is the 8th prime number in case anyone cared...it also happens to be my age now. i don't like the sound of 23. however it was michael jordan's number...which segweys me into 10 years ago. looking back on my life 10 years ago i was awkward 7th grader living in a new place just making friends. how funny that 10 years later i too find myself in a new place making friends.

i am extremely thankful for natalie who is now my longest constant attendee of birthday events in last 4 years. not having the same group of people every year is extremely difficult, but it makes for interesting stories later on in life.

i have now celebrated my birthday on 3 continents and in 4 different time zones. the states, england and now the DR...surprisingly all have had one thing in common the last 4 years...gray, cloudy, rainy skies. i was thinking this will be the year i have a warm beautiful day for a birthday. perhaps next year i will have sunshine a typicallly cloudy day.

tonight i will be celebrating with the 8 single ladies of JCS. it should be a good time of laughter, pizza, and cake. i am thankful that i can share my day with them despite my teariness at the moment at the dread of having a party.

Just a recap of my birthdays over the last 5 years:
2005 Home
2006 Upland, working behind the front desk for many hours as a sub that eventually earned me a full time job!
2007 Oxford and London England
2008 Washington D.C. Various war memorials and bus
2009 D.R.

.concerts.bowling.swings.kickball.

2009-01-14T20:33:00.003-05:00

When you live on an island and work at a small school and don't speak the language well you spend a lot of time with the other people you work with and their friends. This weekend was no exception. For quite possibly the first or second time since being in the DR I have had a weekend that was entirely full!

Thankfully I was able to get all of my work done to and yet manage to have time to play. Friday was a great day because it meant that I had survived the first week at school! Rachel had a friend in from the capital Job who she knew through teachers from last year as well as her many mysterious friends here in the DR. Anyways Job came to visit. Naturally we had a party/gathering/pizza&game night. So over pizza, chips, salad, and salsa our evening began...

After a few hours of food and conversation it was time to bust out the games. Half of us played Tabbo and the other half played "Bang!"(an Italian western game). Once we all got bored with our respective games it was time to pull out a game that resembles Pictionary and Telephone...names pending or yet to be invited...comments or suggestions are welcome. So gathered in a circle there sat twelve grown adults laughing hysterically at stories that transpired from one thing to the next.

Saturday included glorious coffee cake at the Christy, Karyn, and Rachel's house. Nothing to start a day like a warm hot breakfast. Granted it was more like brunch but it was still wonderful. I was also able to finish 98% of my grades on Saturday morning as Ben and Anna had gone to the beach and Nola needed some company. Saturday evening we attended a concert held at my church for the youth of several churches in the area. We all knew several people who were playing in the concert and it was a wonderful time! I loved the feeling of worshiping with people around my age again...it made me very nostalgic for TU chapel. Most of the songs they sang were songs that I have already mastered in Spanish so I felt that I could truly enjoy my time and worship God!

Sunday it was my turn to make breakfast. Breakfast turned out okay despite the long ordeal that it involved. In the span of getting breakfast ready I dropped 3 flaming matches on my toes, nearly burnt several pancakes, had things fall on my head from the cupboard and a few other things. I was frazzled by the time it came ot eat. Thankfully the food tasted okay.

Sunday evening I went bowling. Now had I known that I was going to go bowling in the DR I would have brought my handy dandy bowling brace. Bowling was so much fun; we went to celebrate/send off Revani who is headed stateside to go to college! I would have never guessed that there were serious bowlers here, but there are. On the flipside I also went bowling with people who had never been bowling before in their life and they were 21! Just not that common I don't think.

And then sadly Monday came and it was back to school. I have survived this week but it hasn't been without the Lord's help. My students were absolutely insane early on this week! Today I was given the chance to play at recess with my kids. I had so much fun playing kickball, swinging, giving underdogs to the little first and second graders who can't pronouce my last name. I wish everyday of teaching could be so enjoyable!

Prayer:
Continued joy in my students
For my Bible study with Christy Elmer- that we would really hear what God wants us to hear
For relationships within the school
Migranes - I have been getting very bad migranes lately and I'm not sure why. Earlier this week I woke up and spent my morning before heading to school sick and in pain.

Praise:
For a wonderful day
For a weekend full of fun times and memories...like almost dying on CE's pesola! But don't worry I'm fine...just wasn't on 100% of the way.
For lack of illness thus far::I have had a few stomach bugs but nothing to the point where I have needed serious care.

Palm Trees and Mountains

2009-01-10T13:44:00.002-05:00

I am back and doing my best to enjoy and readjust to life here.

Biggest news - Nola nearly doubled in size since we were gone. So she's now not so small and cuddly...and she's definitely found her lungs. :(

Coming back was a fairly uneventful aside from huge turbulence over the mountains in the DR. Natalie and I made it through security with all our items and began our journey back to the warmth that had been calling us since we left.

Monday I spent about 4 hours at school getting things set up and re-arranged my room since I had a student leave over break.

Tuesday officially began school again despite the looks of our straggled numbers at morning annoucements. The 4th grade class had 5/12 at flag time and gained a 6th part way through the morning.

Anna's brother is here this week too so I haven't had much company to spend time with which made for a fairly lonely week, but it was ok. Because now I'm making up for the lack of human interaction early on with a people filled weekend.

This next week is the 4th-12th grade finals week so they only have half days. I will be spending my week teaching 8-3:15 as usual; with a few late nights thrown in for report card filing. yippe.

Then on Friday we have staff training so no students and semi-three day weekend! :)

I'm so thankful that I was able to come back this semester and teach. But when the time comes to say goodbye I don't know if I'll be able to return to suburbia. I was reminded how much I dislike the uniformity of middle-america. Life here is so vibrant and colorful with glorious flowers and mountains all around.

Detour de Lincoln Oasis

2009-01-01T11:08:00.007-05:00

Well, "Happy New Year" to everyone. I hope everyone is staying warm right now especially if you happen to be in the northland. It's cold outside! Well, my new year's started off well and has progressively gotten more interesting as the hours have gone on.

And then started driving to see my wonderful friends in Fort Wayne. I've been waiting too see them since July! So I'm driving along enjoying my drive and my Dominican music because right now that's the closest thing to warmness I have. But sadly at mile marker 149.45 my car died...mi coche es muerto. :( que triste!!!! All my plans in my brain are going haywire and I'm freaking out which I tend to do when things don't go according to my 10 page Google driving directions. Yes, 10 pages for some reason my printer printed the directions in the visual impared font size.

I don't know if you've ever had your car just die on the highway - the Illinois tollway/highway system - one minute you're going along and then there is nothing...it's pretty much the scariest thing in the world. I thougt for sure I wasn't going to make it to the shoulder, but I did and quickly called my parents. Not exactly the phone call a parent wants to get ever, but it's not the worst phone call they can get either. So after explaining my situation I begin my very long, very cold wait (my nose still hasn't thawed).

Between the first phone call to my parents and the tow truck arriving I have 3 state sherrif officers stop to see if I was okay. I would now like to thank the Illinois State Police for their kind and courteous officers. Granted even with their presence I still felt like I was going to die by semi-truck or SUV...let's just say I'm happy I'm not there.

So after my hour wait for the tow truck he finally arrives. I am now frozen, most likely experiencing the first signs of frostbite or hypothermia due to have no heat in my car. I did however have my sleeping bag, which I used for a little while but then realized it wasn't going to help me since I didn't have a hat on covering my head!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT! Always keep a spare hat in your car! You never know when you'll need to keep your body heat contained while waiting stranded on the side of the road! Also never turn down the opportunity for a hot beverage when one is available and the temperature outside is below 30 degrees.

Anyways. I am now sitting in the Chicago Southland Lincoln Oasis over 80/94 enjoying free wireless and heat! I must admit I feel slightly like a homeless person lugging around my luggage waiting for my replacement car to arrive. Not only lugging it around by changing and washing up in a rest stop bathroom...this is a new experience; hopefully not to be repeated in the future.

Good news: in less than 45 minutes I should be on the road again :)

Better news: in 2-3 hours I'll be seeing my friends

Great news: in 24 hours I'll be at TU!

Bestest news: in 72 hours I'll be over the US flying south to the warmth of the DR!!!!

6 Days Away from Warmth

2008-12-30T18:00:00.009-05:00

First of all let me recap what's happened in my life since I last wrote on my blog - 2 3weeks ago...[this is a reposting of my earlier entry due to formatting errors that certain readers thought needed to be addressed]. So I'm sorry if you've already read this once.

During the week of the 14-20th there were many things happening: including a staff coffee house, a Christmas program and a staff luncheon. Things were mighty busy between teaching, making cookies, helping organize 23 kids to sing at the Christmas program and least of all packing to come back to the states!

Photos of the week (December 14-20th)
My class outside of our door...we won the most original/educational door award. For the whole month of December we studied Christmas traditions around the world. Everyday I place that country's flag on our globe along with the traditional greeting of "Merry Christmas" in that country's native language. In all we covered 20 countries ranging from the D.R. to Japan to Russia.

Other door winners were 1st, 3rd, and 5th. Although every class received an award courtesy of Miss Staats and 9th grade.

Here are my 3rd graders along with Miss Hahn's 3rd graders singing at the Christmas program. The 3rd grade sang a version of the "Twelve Days of Christmas". Despite the rain and not having a piano at the last minute they did a great job of following Miss Hahn's direction.

And the last picture of the week is just a friendly reminder of where I live [note: if you do not like rodents please scroll down and skip this picture :)]{Behind the rock there is a rat...}

Enough about that week, on Saturday the 20th I headed home to what felt like the frigid arctic North Pole, but sure enough it was just Chicago. My journey began in Santiago and then took me to Puerto Rico via a small plane {see image below}. After landing in Puerto Rico I was instantly overwhelmed by all the English! I have been so used to hearing Spanish for so long that hearing and understanding everything was super overwhelming. Which thanks to veteran teachers at JCS I was already expecting. After a brief stint at the San Juan airport it was time to time to board the plane that would deliver me to the brutal cold that awaited me. At that time Chicago was experiencing subzero temperatures....brrr. So I went from a beautiful sunny morning morning with a temperature of about 75 to -5 in 7 hours. Not so much fun. Also upon landing at O'Hare I was again struck with an overwhelming of English. I think I was in tears from my gate all the way to baggage. But I made it home safely. :)

The following days were spent bundled up in layers and layers of clothing while my body readjusted to the cold weather it was experiencing. Thankfully of Friday it rained and melted away all the snow! :) I was happy to have 50 degree weather even if if was accompanied by rain.

Back to Christmas; I truly had a WHITE Christmas(before Friday we had about 10 inches of snow on the ground...even more than MN!) Christmas was a nice laid back day which included a new backpack which I wore around my house (yes, I know that's silly...but I was super excited)!

Friday involved me spending way too much money on my children and my room at school; however, I'm excited to bring back reading rugs for my children. Now they won't have to sit on our cold concrete floor anymore. Thank you IKEA for having affordable floor coverings!

While home I was also able to see old friends while I was home which is always great! I am blessed to have amazing friends here that can pick up friendship after being apart for 4 months. :)

Being away from home for so long has made me realize what I miss while I'm there and how privileged students are here. People at church and my parents had lots of questions about what I missed and what I wish I had there. Here are just a few things of each:
Things I miss:

nice soft toliet paper (enough said)
good quality chocolate - there's nothing quite like a Reese's or Butterfinger when you need a chocolate fix
water pressure - we get our water through a tinaco tub/barrel on top of our landlord's roof so the water we receive is whatever can fit through our pipes at the speed of gravity
having a microwave - we reheat everything on the stove and somethings just don't reheat well that way
having a car to get from point A to point B - to go to town you normally have to clear your schedule and plan on doing just that and not much else
insulation and American windows - having a concrete house without windows that shut 100% makes life very noisy - we can hear everything in our house and the goings of our neighbors as well
a functional copier: our school doesn't have a reliable photo copier or printer so resources for my kids are sometimes nonexistent
quality books for my classroom library which currently holds books with copyrights from the 1960s!!!
borders and lettering for my bulletin boards

Things I like about the DR:

I love the warm weather :)
watching the sunrise over the mountains from our roof
having my own classroom where I'm not trying to prove to anyone but myself that I can teach
the students at JCS
my co-workers
my housemates
my morning play sessions with Nola
the small joy of communicating with the 1st and 2nd graders in my broken broken Spanish
learning new Spanish
getting mail twice a month
watching God provide whatever I have needed thus far...despite my wanting much more as a selfish human

I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has prayed and/or given financially. Both types of "gifts" are appreciated. Initially I had a goal of raising $6000 to supplement the stipend I am being given from JCS. Today about $2500 has come in. Would you join me in praying for the additional monies to come in for my monthly support as well as my classroom needs? Currently I am supplying 97% of my classroom needs -- books, rugs, prizes, resource materials, etc. If you feel led to give please see the right side bar for details.

My plans for my next 5 days at home take me to Wheaton [New Year's Eve with some dear TU El. Ed. friends], Fort Wayne [New Year's Day and part of Friday with my dear 1L friends], perhaps a visit to Taylor with Natalie, and the home and maybe even a drive to Harvard to meet up a fellow JCS teacher. And then on Sunday the 4th driving back to O'Hare and boarding a plane that will retrace my whole trip back to the warmth and sun of the DR.

Kinder Bueno

2008-12-14T07:09:00.003-05:00

To my surprise yesterday turned out to be quite the interesting day. It started out normal with every intention of being super productive: laundry, pay the phone bill, grade my math tests, grade other papers etc... the list stopped at paying the phone bill. I spent my morning in town with Kelsey talking and spending some time with her running errands for last minutes Christmas gifts etc... I now have all my gifts bought I will just need to wrap them when I come home.

Then when I returned home I had 4 missed calls on my cell phone and a phone that kept ringing. So no less than 5 minutes after I walked in the door I walked back out the door to head to Santiago. I don't know if I've every done anything quite so spontaneous since ever...since I didn't haven't ask my parents if I could go. I just left. If you know me you also know that I'm not really one for just leaving and going places without any agenda. So off I went with Natalie, Karyn, and Christy down the mountian (Christy did an EXCELLENT job driving).

Our adventure began at McDonalds...yes, McD's. My first American fast food in 4 months. I greatly enjoyed my chicken nuggets w/ BBQ sauce. Then it was off to La Serena for some over stimulization of consumerisum to help us get ready for the US in 6 days. While there I managed to buy a mug for myself since our house has 1 good mug and 2 travel mugs. I also purchased UNO for my kiddos (our class copy got stolen)...they should be very happy on Monday. I also purchased the most wonderful candy bar of all the Kinder Bueno...the Italians know how to make a "melt in your mouth hazelnut/chocolate delicous goodness candy bar".

After La Serena there was a Nutella filled churro experience, que bueno [again with the hazelnut and chocolate]. Then we quested to Jumbo/the Mall. Jumbo = Wal-mart sort of; I will need to go back at some other point because we didn't not have a super long time. The ulitmate reason of going to the mall was the movie theater. We went to watch the new James Bond film...we were 4 of 12 in the whole theater it was awesome.

And then finally we went and enjoyed wonderful sushi at this adorable sushi restuarant hidden on a side street. It was amazing...I get to have the left overs for lunch today.

And back we came. Right now that pile of grade is taunting me with being incomplete so I must retire and finish the pile.

6 days and 12 hours!

happy moments in a day

2008-12-04T18:29:00.004-05:00

as usual cloudy gray moments pop up during a routine day at school; today was no exception, but there are the moments that make you incredibly happy to be a teacher.

1) reading: we do reading at JCS in small groups for grades (1-3) using leveled readers. I teach level B as of this week. I used to teach aa the 3rd lowest ability group and loved my kids. most of my kids were first and second graders with poor reading background so while they worked hard they still were struggling. i formed some good relationships with those students and miss them so much.

i did have two 3rd graders in that group as well; since they are older they advanced to level B with me (actually i chose level B because I wanted to stay with them). Joshua and Cristofer have made great progress and I wanted to continue supporting them and building their self-esteem. I am thankful to have them in my group yet again.

A) anyways, the point of this whole story is today at break I went to go say hi to my favorite little girl from my first reading group Lisleydi. Lisleydi is one of the happiest and joyfilled kids I've ever worked with; she always brings a smile to my face. and whenever you ask her how she is the answer is always "happy". today was no exception. I asked her how she liked her new teacher for reading and she said ok. then she said can i tell you something in spanish? [normally if they have something very important to say they want to say it in their own language...] so i said "i'll do my best to understand." Mrs. Williams es agradable, pero quiero estar en su clase otra vez Miss Jantzen. ¿Por favor? {Mrs. Williams is nice, but I want to be in your class again Miss Jantzen. Please?} I just about started crying...I was like hooray I'm actually making an impact on somebody's life while they may not even be in my class, somebody appreciates my teaching.

B)I also love hearing from other teachers that their kids come back to class happy after reading. Sometimes I feel like my reading lessons are a flop, but evidentally my activities are fun. I feel that they are occasionally tedious/repetitive, but then again learning to read is just that. I love it when kids rush up at lunch and say "I'm excited for reading tomorrow, are you going to read the Pigeon book to us?" "Can you read to us now?" I love that they are eager to learn.

2)walking to town
I love walking into town. I love seeing students outside of school and watching them process seeing their teachers outside of school. What they don't live at school? I remember that whole transtion of factual understanding in first and second grade.

I love running into people from the school and stopping to say hi and chat.

I secretly love carrying bags of groceries by myself in front of all the moto drivers and not taking a moto. It's fun to see how people react to a white girl carrying groceries up a hill and not really caring.

3) I love that it's December 4th and I'm wearing shorts and t-shirt.

3.5) I love that I have a half day tomorrow!!!!

4) I love that in 16 days at 7:30pm I'll be landing at O'Hare.

5) I love that in 27 days I'll be in Wheaton with El. Ed. friends

6) I love that in 28 days I'll be in Fort Wayne with my amazing 1L friends.

and in 31 days I'll be right back here in Jarabacoa...a lot of stuff can be crammed in a glorious 1 month span.

God is good and gracious and has provided me with enough grace and patience to survive the first 4 months of life abroad.

Santiago

2008-11-30T08:35:00.002-05:00

Well I had my first Thanksgiving away from home and it was quite a unique experience, but it was a good experience nonetheless.

Yesterday, I had the chance to go to Santiago for a day of shopping and just to get out of Jarabacoa. It was a good but very expensive day, but then again I was able to get my Secret Angel shopping done and get some large quantities of staples.

My most exciting find came at PriceSmart aka Sam's Club/Costco I found 19 dry erase markers for about 70 cents a marker!!! I can now give my kids there own marker for Christmas Hooray!

Right now I'm writing this with Nola who is happily sleeping away on my lap...having a puppy in the house is such good therapy.

Mind Games

2008-11-17T19:16:00.002-05:00

You know that feeling when you feel like your mind is playing games on you? I'm assuming most of you do and most of you understand that Satan loves to make us feel this way. I think Satan has been having a little bit too much fun in my brain as of late.

I am writing this after another tearful evening wrestling with God and what my purpose here is. From my neighbors smoking habits to my kids at school I often feel dejected & physically and emotionally unprepared to fight Satan's spiritual battles.

I am thankful that my time here has brought me closer to God and His truth, but I am saddened at what I can not do for my students...they must chose to follow God and obey. I can't just granted them obedience even though I wish I could.

My neighbors on the other hand get an assist for their nighttime recon into my brain thanks to their illegal smoking choices occasionally. Their smoke wafts in to my room where it gets stuck and makes me severely nauseated and keeps me up anticipating sleep and the day to come during which time I try and pray, but often find myself worrying about this or that; obviously not trusting God.

It is hard to think that I have been here for almost 4 months and what a time of growth and discovery it has been. I am constantly surrounded by God's beautiful creation, the glorious sun, and other people who have chose this endeavor too. We have that at least in common.

Being a self proclaimed OCD/busy bee it is hard for me to stop and be still. Something that God taught me about this past weekend when I got to house sit for one of my students with another teacher. My student lives about a 30 minute drive from school in a beautiful log cabin/dr. quinn medicine style cabin...a far cry from the cement house i live in here. It made me homesick for comfortable couches, TV, the library, and a bed without springs sticking out! But the most of all the time without phone or internet gave me time to think. It's uncomfortable for me to sit still because I'm constantly thinking of what I need to do (even now I'm writing a list of things to do tomorrow). But it was good...I had plenty of me time on Saturday when I woke up at 5am to cows moo-ing (techically lowing I think is the appropriate word), but regardless I had some quality thinking and praying time.

Prayer Requests:
I have 3 boys in my class who need serious love and attention. Please pray for guidance I try and show them this without encouraging their bad behavior.

Emotional Stamina - tears are frequent and unexplained most of the time

Physical Strength - praise I have not gotten severely sick, pray that my sleeping continues to improve (I wake up 4 times a night because of dreams or nasuea)

Relationships at the school. I need to do a better job of reaching out...I'm letting my language impediment stop me from conversations...I need to learn to laugh at myself.

Strange but true - one of the first graders' uncles was kidnapped and is being held for ransom (I believe $3,000,000 US). Anyways, Alexander misses his uncle alot. Pray for the family as this is difficult I'm sure (i've never personally known someone with family who had been kidnapped).

Praise:
my lack of sickness
our vonage phone - i've been able to talk ot dear friends in the states as well as my parents.

Saturday Night Live - DR style

2008-11-08T19:32:00.003-05:00

Recently (as in 5 minutes ago), I was sitting on my roof listening to the sounds that make up Dominican Saturdays. At first it sounds an awful lot like chaos between the screaming kids playing in the street, to the pots and pans being clanked as they are cleaned after dinner, to the thumping bass of the colmado's radio behind our house, to the acoustic guitar player outside of our corner colmado. All this noise while the trees stir with the passing of the clouds over an extremely bright moon. It is moments like that in which I wish I could capture everything into a picture.

Nights are alive with the music of Dominican culture and it's nice to be a bystander to it all. To have the ability to absorb everything incognito from the safe distance of a rooftop. To be able to lie back and watch the stars and moon disappear from sight and reappear as the wind blows the clouds across a beautiful night sky.

I wish I could share the beauty of it all with more than just words, but that is all I have to offer.

Life Update...Complete with Pictures

2008-11-06T20:10:00.005-05:00

Life Update…

I’ve been failing at blogging as of late…my apologies. I’m loving life most days and becoming increasingly frustrated on others. Let’s take a walk back down memory lane over the last 2 weeks.

2 Weeks Past: October 24^th-ish

October 24^th – Teacher work day aka compile grades and do report cards…fun times. Also an incuse to watch Facing the Giants as a staff; if you’ve never seen the movie you probably see it for the sheer entertainment factor…not necessarily the acting…just the entertainment.

That Sunday- Ariel Kelly at church…to most of you Ariel Kelly means nothing. He happens to be one of the many Christian Reggatone artists that have emerged in the past years. So church started normal with 30-40 minutes of decent praise and worship in a PACKED sanctuary (roughly the size of the Stuart Room plus the lower lobby (for my TU readers)). Then the awkwardness starts…some unknown person that is connect to Ariel Kelly gets up and does a mini-awkward opener. Then Ariel Kelly…rap/reggae for church…odd….but it’s one church experience I won’t forget.

28^th- Christy Elmer’s birthday…fantastic times of good restaurant food and S’mores on our roof…pre-stairs being completed.

30^th- stairs are complete

November 1^st – please see below photos…

Our new stairs and our beautiful house & the beautiful view.

AND a Dominican Sunrise photo...my favs of all my pics alway...

4^th – This begins the saga of the worst afternoon ever here at JCS in Rm 204.

1:10 – Yulissa our Spanish teacher and the MOST patient and loveable person ever is beside her self due to one of my student who hasn’t done his homework for 8 homeworks in a row. I myself am not please with this news but have to move on to teach…History begins. History goes well enough, I’m pleased…let’s move on to Language…here is where the tide turns…

2:15 After completing my review of synonyms and antonyms one of my students decides that he needs to put his lunch box away from under his desk. He decides to just yank on it not stopping to think that it could be stuck on the leg of his chair. After much huffing and puffing and drawing entirely too much attention to himself he completes his task. What you have to understand I have a very “laughable” class…they’ll laugh at anything…SUPER frustrating. Anyways, now that my two worst gigglers were going this boy got extremely upset; when I say extremely it is an understatement. In the process of my helping another student I see a pencil go flying through the air (007 knife throwing flying)…the pencil ends up in my nice newly painted drywall. Thankfully the pencil missed the intended target, but I know have a pencil stuck in my wall and a still very angry child, plus my heart is racing at what could have happened. So I take the time to walk the student all the way downstairs to the office. I come up stairs to inspect the damage to find that the pencil landed in the middle of another of my student’s names. The student decided that it would be a good idea to write his name on the wall…oops! He now is also in trouble losing his lunch play time to clean my walls. 10 minutes later we have all calmed down. I am still as jittery as before because I’m still thinking of what could have happened. I decide that that best way to calm myself down is to read aloud to the kids. My kids are huge fans of the Pigeon series (thanks Dr. Quinn for hooking us on them Jr. year) so we read Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus…voices and student read alouds too.

2:25

At the end as we are heading back to our seats to do our math (only 30 teaching minutes left in my day) a jacket is swung through the air by one of my free spirited students. Only problem is the zipper of the jacket hits of my kids on the head…the student it hit tends to be somewhat of a complainer so they started crying…I thought nothing of it until about a minute later when I asked him to come to his seat. When he got up I noticed the line of blood running down his face and the small puddle of blood on the floor. Hitting panic mode now I rush to the child and walk him down stairs along with the child who hit him in the head. The time now is 2:35…in the past 15 minutes I have had a pencil thrown at my wall and had a child have his head busted open by a zipper…being one who doesn’t react well to this much surprise I was doing my best to keep my panic under control. Thankful I made it through the rest of my day.

Thus concludes the majority of my adventures. I am babysitting tomorrow night…bonus. Sad news I have Saturday school detention supervision on Saturday (obviously) …good news I’m a morning person anyways. Sorry if the formatting is strange I stopped trying to make it look nice.

welcome to the 60s...

2008-10-27T17:33:00.003-04:00

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

2008-10-22T18:16:00.003-04:00

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

2008-10-14T19:30:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-11T00:03:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-06T19:39:00.006-04:00

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

2008-10-03T18:14:00.006-04:00

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...

2008-10-01T19:24:00.002-04:00

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.

Heart Checks

2008-09-28T19:23:00.004-04:00

After a tearful day, I am emotionally wiped. And as usual I find myself at blame for quite a bit of life. Me and my stupid ego always assume assume assume...and as we all know nothing good comes of that.

I need lots of prayer because I need people but not the need that is a good type. I am just a needy person. I hate being needy and hate that I don't know how to express my need without making people feel guilty. I need to work on that. I need God to provide people for me outside of JCS.

I need God to allow me to be content with who I am something that I can't do and that I can't conquer. I've been fighting and fighting since 10th grade.

I've got the brokeness part down I just need to the growing part to commence...sooner rather than later.

Prayer Requests for the Week:
1. my relationships
2. my interactions with my students
3. my emotional strength
4. money to buy curtains....or at least a store to buy fabric at.
5. contentment with my life and who i am as a person.

Pictures for All

2008-09-27T08:23:00.011-04:00

This would be my empty room at the new house.
My Bed and my mosquito net!

Salto Biaguate(sp?) Our Sunday morning excursion...just one of the perks of having church in the evening....you can go on fun adventures in the morning.

My students practicing their readers theater productions. This group is doing a book from Reading A-Z called Hippo's Toothache.

Pinochio.

There will be more pictures later when I have more time to upload them. Today my activity is having my computer completely reformated because it caught a very bad virus. So sad news is I'm losing a little over half of my music library but thank goodness for Picasa because I won't be losing any of my pictures!!!!

Learning Life's Difficult Lessons

2008-09-18T21:58:00.002-04:00

Sometimes life is like a mosquito; annoying and painful. Currently life is just annoying; like a small mosquito that flies around your head at night when you're trying to sleep.

I have all these swirling thoughts that go around and around in my head while I'm trying to teach. I find myself distracted by these thoughts and by the 4 students that are not on task and growing increasingly annoyed daily. Today I had finally had it! I responded incorrectly and had to ask my students to forgive me...tough but necessary.

I am struggling with how to show my students Christ's love in a way that they can understand. Sometimes discipline needs to be done in a loving manner but I've been struggling to find that balance of love and logic (funny, someone actually wrote a book on that). Thankfully, we have other teachers who know the students are equally as willing and concerned to sit down with you and talk. I think without them I would be lost and ready to quit.

I came to the DR with the purpose of following 1) God's will and 2) to be broken...and that is what God is doing. He is checking things off my list and breaking me in more ways that I know how to handle at once. Being broken is often viewed as a bad thing, but God has shown me in the past that being broken often leads to more growth and knowledge in the long run. Pray that this continues to be the trend and that I learn to love my students despite being overwhelmed with them.

Life on the non-school front is good; I am no longer sick! Our house is getting settled and I have found a good church to call my church home here. Ironically, it's the church I wasn't planning on attending when I first moved down here. I am attending Amor y Quisqueya (roughly translated Love and Brotherhood)[also known to my TUSB team members from 07 as the "Jumping for Jesus" church]. I attended here my second Sunday ever in Jarabacoa back in 2007 on Easter on which church lasted about 3.5 hours...I was pretty sure I didn't want to go back. But now I call this church my church...yes, church is still about 3 hours but I love the 1 hour of worship and trying to decipher my way through the nearly 2 hour sermons each week.

Prayer:
My patience as I continue training my students (both is school work and in their behaviors)
Health (so far other than the flu I've been good).
My students (Carla Nicole, Noah, Luis, Estanli, Ronnie, Jumel, Nicole, Anya, Brenda, Emmanuel C., Emanuell O., Brian, & Marlyn)
The school as we continue our construction and ACSI accreditation.

Rest and Relaxation

2008-09-13T19:13:00.002-04:00

My life has been super stressful right now with moving and school. Not that I wasn't expecting life to be stressful here, but I wasn't expecting it all at once.

Between getting a new student this week and moving to a new house I was shot. Instead of going to the beach like I had planned today I spent this morning throwing up and ill at my house alone. Way to spend the first weekend at the house...sick. It turns out to be a 24 hour flu bug so I'm done with it now. But I think I'll hold off being sick for awhile more.

MOVING DAY!

2008-09-11T10:42:00.002-04:00

Hooray for moving to new houses! Today is moving day here and my house is more than just excited! We are so ready to be gone from our house. Last night we had our last encounter with our flooding bathrooms for what hopefully will be the last time! Our new house is super cute and close to school. This will greatly reduce time it takes to get to and from school = the ability to sleep in.

Week 5

2008-09-07T20:51:00.003-04:00

Prayer:
Patience.
Patience.
Patience.

Our move this week.

Planning....that I won't get into a rut with my lesson planning. I'm trying re-evalutate my lessons; especially my Bible lessons. I don't have curriculum so I'm struggling. I want to use the ACSI curriculum, but I don't have $90 to buy the teacher's curriculum. The student book is only $17 so I'm considering buying that and using the activities from there. Please pray for guidance in making this decision. Also if anyone has good suggestions/old curriculum send them my way.

Week 4.... DONE.

2008-09-05T17:04:00.002-04:00

Well I've completed week 4 of life in the Domincan Republic. This week was a crazy week because of living in the here during hurricane season. This week we only had 3 and a half days of school due to the Secretary of Education here. We have however been granted permission to decide our own school open and closing procedures because of being a private school. Hopefully we will not have this confusion in the future with future storms.

Also this weekend we were going to go to the beach, but we have canceled the trip due to hurrican Ike. So we have no plans at our house this weekend other than to relax.

It's Been One Month!

2008-09-01T18:59:00.004-04:00

Well friends, I’ve officially been here for one month. I can hardly believe it’s been that long other than the fact that I have bills due at the end of this week. Oh, the joys of being a grown-up. Just a quick recap of what’ s been going on in my life as of late.

We’ll rewind all the way back to August 3rd and stepping into my house in the Dominican Republic. On August 3rd the water wasn’t working…we fixed that. I had no internet no big deal; the school had it so life was grand.

Skip ahead to August 8th…internet still isn’t working. Anna has moved in and things are going pretty well. The next week the internet came and went shortly after arriving. We got it in back in working order for all of maybe 5 days before our first tropical storm. Now we had no power, no running water, and no internet…fantastic.

August 18th-29th- School starts, internet is working, life’s going well. Natalie arrives with wireless. Good news for Anna and Natalie…I’m still wired at this point. Kelsey arrives alongside of Hurricane Gustav. No power, no internet, no running water. Power returns as does our wireless; we have it fixed only to experience a power surge. We lose our Vonage and wireless; thankfully not our modem. One blessing.

So after trying to reconfigure everything we are just accepting the fact that we do not have wireless and must do things stationary, one person at a time.

So we have some connection to the outside world…the next thing that goes wrong is our plumbing…evidentially we have an abnormally small septic tank…the tank was just emptied last spring and already most likely needs to be emptied already. Our house is teaching me especially to just go with the flow…I am not a very “fly by the seat of your pants” type person and this is really really really stretching me. Stretching and growing are very difficult when you are already going through some sort of culture shock. During this whole ordeal I wrote out why I’m here…I’m hoping that having it posted by my bed I can remember daily my purpose.
1. I am here to teach.
2. I am here to love my students and the other teachers.
3. I am here to be broken.
4. I am here to let God grow me as He sees fit.
5. I am not here to run away from dealing with past issues in my life!

Living in the DR has definitely grown me in so many ways already. One area besides flexibility I need to grow in is the ability to stand up for myself. I often find myself being overly responsible for everyone’s problems. I think that not have siblings I missed on out the whole over protection thing and I’m exhibiting those skills too late. There is a reason I get called “mom” on a daily basis. I am trying so hard to adjust to living with 3 other girls. Having never lived in a house with more that 1 other person I am finding new adjustments have to be made daily.

I also need to learn how to find joy in small situations of inopportunity. I know I’m not an outwardly exuberant person but I need to be to live here. The seriousness is literally making me tired…I need to learn how to have a balance…also a weakness.

Anyways, enough with the serious portion…here’s some fun glimpses into my school life. I love my students as I’ve mentioned several times. I wish that I had more resources to offer them and that I could have students observed for LD/ADD, etc…but that’s not the case. I am so thankful for my background knowledge about special ed; it has helped get me this far into the year. J

My day starts at 7:30 with staff devos and prayer…a truly unique experience and definitely a needed one.
7:55- roll outside. We greet Mr. Peterson “Gooood Morrnning Mi-st-er Pe-ter-son” [the kids pronunciation] and then do our morning announcements and the national anthem.
8:05-8:30 a little thing called seatwork or bellwork
8:30-9 Bible (still adjusting to having to teach this…to kids who only own Spanish Bibles)
9:00-9:50 Reading
9:50-10:05 Break time (aka eat yummy pastelittos from the cafeteria)
10:05-10:35 PE/Art – my prep time
10:35 – 11:05 Sociales (Dominican history) – more prep time
11:05- 11:50 Spelling
11:50-12:30 Lunch (I have lunch duty once a week)
12:30-1:10 Spanish – wait…another prep period [in all I get just about 1hour and 45 minutes of prep daily]
1:10-1:50 History (United States naturally…but with a slightly more global twist)
1:50-2:30 Language Arts
2:30- 3:00 Math
3:00 – 3:10 Read- Aloud

And thus goes my day; everyday…I love my prep time because I rarely have to plan my lessons at home. J At home all I do is grade and grade and watch Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman with my housemates…pretty sweet.

Currently I am fighting a cold so hopefully it will go quickly as I can not really afford to be sick right now.

This weekend we are going to the beach! J Super excited to go the coast since I’ve only been there once and it was to get on an airplane.

Here is some pictures and some classic examples of why I love my 3rd graders.

Spelling Word Sentences
Spelling words are in italics…just a quick glimpse into the minds of Dominican 3rd graders…and their knowledge of American pop culture!
Marlyn is fuzzy.
At recess I played with the Jonas Brothers.
We are on the globe.
I am frosty.
I am fuzzy.
At school Hannah Montana stepped on my foot.
Before school the Jonas Brothers hug me.
Joe Jonas have fuzzy hair.

Prayer Requests

- the rain will hold off long enough for the septic tank to be fixed if needed.

- i will continue adjusting to life with multiple roommates.

- i will learn to be flexible.

Praises

- no one has gotten Denge like last year :)

- my legs are still eaten alive; but not to the point they were at spring break.

Rain

2008-08-25T18:24:00.002-04:00

Week two is underway and it's going to be a long week full of tests and quizzes. Sadly that makes for squirrley thrid graders; totally understandable though. Giving the first test is always a forboding feeling because you never really know what to expect until you start to grade. I'm hoping that I've been doing enough to help my students pick up concepts and learn.

After being here for 3 weeks our house is finally full. Kelsey arrived on Saturday, but it seems she has been for longer than that. It is such a blessing to have such wonderful housemates. Life will certainly be full of laughter and I may actually relax a little bit as the year goes on.

I am finding out daily that life here is going to grow me more as a person than anything. Daily life is making me laugh at the small things that go wrong instead of my normal tendency to over analyze life. I know for many people that must be thrilling news that I may actually relax for once! Dominican life could potentially be helpful for future teaching ventures and for my life in general.

Learning to laugh will be crucial as next week we start our reading program at school. I have been placed with the 1st graders. I love the first graders but they don't speak English and well right now my Spanish is probably about at the level of their English. Should be a fun year teaching them how to read and recognize words. I

Rain...it isn't even rainy season yet and it's raining...but for now I love the rain. Rain here means cooler temperatures, less sweat and lots of wet & smelly dogs. But the temperature thing is a wonderful break from the heat.

Week One - Check

2008-08-22T21:41:00.002-04:00

Well week one is done and in my book that's a pretty big deal. Like I stated earlier this week I love my students. They continue to blow me away by their crazy need to please me. Every afternoon they have Spanish with Ms. Abreu and when she leaves they always stand up and greet me. So cute.

I don't have many fun stories to share from this week; however, I'm sure they will happen through out the year.

I am excited for this weekend because we actually have shopping to do now that our house is complete. We have done some switching of living situations so our final roommate Kelsey is getting here tonight! We can finally go shopping for decor for our walls, kitchen, etc.

Right now Natalie and I are watching random FNL videos from IWU on YouTube....good passing of time. We also finished season 1 of The Office tonight...bonus.

It's hard to believe that I've been here for 3 weeks now! It honestly seems I've been here for longer than I really have been.

Week 2 involves School House Rock...pretty solid.

First Day of School

2008-08-19T21:13:00.003-04:00

Well I survived my first day of teaching; granted it wasn't very hard since my students are amazing! After one day I already just love them to pieces :). I am blessed to be receiving on good authority "one of the best classes the school has seen".

My kids are very easy going and love math for some strange reason. I am interested to see how tomorrow goes with having the first day done with. We are supposedly starting our reading program tomorrow which means Running Records for all. Thankfully I once had a teacher who taught for a whole semester the art of the RR. I informally checked my third graders and the RR shouldn't be that difficult from what I gathered.

I have a few students who struggled but that is to be expected from 2nd language learners; so all in all I'm not too concerned. I have one girl who blew my mind...she's from New Zealand (and yes she has the cutest NZ accent in the world!) but she can read anything I've put in front of her so far. When I talked with dad today he said she'd already read the whole Narnia series independently - at 8yrs old!!!

I'm very excited to go back tomorrow and see what new things I can learn from them and teach them too. Right now I sadly have to lesson plan as Natalie gets here tomorrow!

Of Dinner Parties and Storms

2008-08-17T14:34:00.002-04:00

Today we welcomed back the appearance of the sun after it's 2 day absence due to Tropical Storm Fay and the very low clouds and constant rainfall that accompanied it. Aside from it raining and being damp the storm wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated.

The storm even passed with only one major power loss the very fist day. :) However because the school was busy with construction at the time of the storm much of what needed to happen didn't get finished. Leaving us with one extra day to get ready for the next school year. School will start on Tuesday which will be quite an ordeal since things are done differently here than in the US.

I am super excited for the year to start and very thankful for the people God has place in my life here. The group of old/new American staff is outstanding. I am so thankful that we have bonded so quickly. So far we have had Friday/Saturday dinners together which is nice to have everyone around a table laughing and sharing a meal. Hopefully we can continue that throughout the year as our schedules allow.

This Week:
Monday - teacher work day
Tuesday - first day of school
Wednesday - Natalie arrives

Pictures!

2008-08-14T15:03:00.005-04:00

This is the staircase that is being built right outside my door in my classroom! (the door to the right goes into my room)

Our back porch complete with rocking chairs and a view of the mountains.

My beautiful house that I share with 3 wonderful roommates (Anna, Christy, & Natalie)!

I'm so excited to finally be putting pictures up at my own house! We finally got our internet situation figured out today thanks in part to Enmanuel the school's IT director. I'm so thankful that someone was able to figure out our problems. School starts on Monday right now, but with the way construction is going I'm not sure how things will get done unless we help install stairs too. I'm very excited to start school now that my classroom is all set up; just waiting for my door to be relocated to the other side of the stairs and it'll be good to go.

Blessings

2008-08-12T12:47:00.002-04:00

I apologize for the incoherent flow of this post but I'm just writing what comes to mind! :)

God has provided answers to 2 out of the 3 problems I wrote about yesterday. He also provided a working DC connection for our modem. Life is continuing to go well and I still haven't set up a single thing in my classroom which is driving my a bit insane since we have Parent Night tomorrow.

I'm loving the preping of lessons without the stress of a supervising teacher constantly hovering over my shoulder and the freedom of planning without the TU lesson plan format. As much as I love writing 3 page lessons, life is much less stressful.

Christy arrived last night around 9:30 and is already a blessing to Anna and I as we are getting things in our house sorted out. We are anxiously awaiting Natalie's arrival next Wednesday and have much to do before she gets here.

Problems with the No. 3:

2008-08-11T13:02:00.002-04:00

Problem 1:
3ft hole in front of my classroom door. Hopefully by the end of this week I will have a new doorway that is safely accessible for everyone. In order for this to happen my old door must be removed and relocated 7ft down the hall; once that is complete my old doorway will be blocked off and the new stairs will be open.

Problem 2:
Currently Anna and I have 3 leaking pipes in our backyard. Due to our leaking pipes our yard floods and we have no water pressure in the house.

Problem 3:
Yesterday our propane went out; no big deal, but we don't have the key to open our propane cage! So in the end that problem just adds to all our other problems we are working through.

Good things:
Anna and I will have a 3rd roommate tonight who has lived in the house and can help us learn the quirks of all the house.
I have wonderful new friends who let me use their computer and internet since ours insn't working.
Health, I passed the 1 week mark and I'm still alive and well. :) Let's hope this keeps up.
My ability to be patient is growing daily.
I am getting extremely excited to be planning lessons and preparing as best as I can for my class to come next Monday.

Answers & Blessings

2008-08-09T14:18:00.002-04:00

Before coming down to the DR I was told I was only going to have one roommate; I was quite concerned at what this would do for my cost of living. Thankfully since I first left the United States 1 week ago God has provided 2 new roommates for me!!!

Thankfully my house is more than sufficient for 4 people and we'll have room to entertain other JCS staff as well. :)

We are still "roughing" it without internet due to missing cords. Once Monday comes the search will begin again. Once Christy comes it will be like Christmas because she'll know where things are at.

Hopefully I'll also have a floor outside my doorway this week too!!!

"How to Shop at a Foreign Meat Market 101"

2008-08-07T18:11:00.002-04:00

Written August 5th - 7th
A quick recap of the last few days; I am all settled in and am finding Dominican life quite relaxing right now. I’ve had a few “I wish I had the ability to fly moments”. One today; I was minding my own business when I heard noise in my backyard, being alone I immediately panicked and stopped everything I was doing entirely. My senses are learning to pick up unusual noises above the barking, mooing, baaing, motorcycle engines and children. Often times it sounds as though people are in my yard. I discovered the reason for that is I have a gate that opens up to an alley leading down to another group of homes. However, today I did have people in my yard; 2 boys (around age 8). I think I scared them just about as badly as they scared me. Hopefully, that will be the last encounter of the like. I will be very happy when I have a lock for my front gate. For now I have a large stick in my house.

Along with other unusual things that I have happened...I have a dog who sits outside my gate. Evidentially the girls last year fed him along with 2 other dogs that they took a liking too. We’ll see what happens when Christy gets here on Monday.

Today was an adventure in itself before any of that even happened. I woke up at 2am to pouring rain so I knew that the road would be flooded again. With that in mind I took the “long” way to school this morning; all “paved” roads so no question as to what I was walking through. The road I was walking took me all the way down near a baseball diamond that SI uses for its sport site so at least I knew where I was and it was only a short distance back to the road to take me to the school. I am definitely getting my cardio in everyday carrying a backpack up and down hills to school. I can’t wait until that doubles when I have papers to grade.

Going along with adventures; I bought and assembled my own bedside table/desk today. The table was purchased at La Cancha a store with pretty much anything you want…sort of similar to Big Lots. The table was only 320 peso ($10) – something similar to it in the states might cost $25. If it survives the year it will even fit in my suitcase to come home!

Also on the agenda today was “How to Shop at a Foreign Meat Market 101”. Despite being very scared to buy meat, I was able to go with other JCS staff members who are more experienced at the process. There’s nothing quite like having your hamburger packaged while you watch…so at least it’s very fresh. It also made a very yummy addition to my diet of mainly green beans, fresh fruit, cereal, toast, and water.

Tomorrow starts my official teacher training at Jarabacoa Christian School. I am very excited to see what is in store for the few days. As of tomorrow I will have a Dominican insurance card and a Dominican bank account. Next step on living in the DR is adjusting to eating with my neighbors…no literally with them at this point, but at the same time. They don’t typically start dinner until 8pm. Regardless of the noise I really like that everyone is at dinner together; they seem to be having such a good time from the numerous conversations I hear. Family is such a crucial part of life here unlike the typical US family with people going 7 different places. I really enjoy that pary of DR life.

Training has been going well; we've been talking alot about the differences between US and DR cultures which has been a very helpful refresher course. I have been busy trying to set up my classroom which has proved very difficult as they are putting a new staircase in the school right outside my classroom door. So litterally right now I have no "true"floor leading into my class I jump across the grid for now....it should in theory be done before school.

Right now I am staying with some of the other staff because my cistern was making very bad noises so I decided that I should have it fixed before anything else happend. Hopefully I'll be fully connected at my house with running water and internet soon!!! My house/roommate gets here on Monday!!!!

Thank you all for keeping me in your prayers; life is quite the adventure. :)

36 hours and counting...

2008-08-04T08:29:00.002-04:00

What a journey to my house it has been (FYI, my house has a name Casa C. Rey; it’s probably just the name of the person who owns the house, but it’s still pretty cool).

On Saturday I said goodbye to my parents at 4:30 for what I thought was the last time until Christmas, but it turns out I was wrong. They got special passes and came to wait with me at the gate. This means I was able to buy Starbucks before I left! I had two very uneventful flights to Miami and then again to Santiago.

I was met in Santiago by one of the board members and her son. From the airport we headed up the mountain to Jarabacoa, past Student’s International (my house the past 2 spring breaks, past Genesis, and to Christy’s house. Christy is a fellow first year teacher (at JCS; she is a 14yr veteran to the teaching field) who has been here for a week and is all settled. I stayed with her on Saturday night because my house wasn’t quite ready.

Saturday night was fairly low key as I had just gotten there and it was evening. Christy and I went into town with Tim & Laura Stanley also new teachers who live right next door to Christy. We did some minor grocery shopping and just enjoyed exploring Jarabacoa. Because of the set hours of light and darkness it’s hard not to go to bed at 9pm because it pitch black. The flip side of an early bedtime is an early morning, but with roosters that wake you up at 4:30am I’m not too upset.

Today, I moved into my new home. A cute stucco ranch with amazing views of the mountains! The outside of my home is more beautiful than I could have asked for with flowering trees, a few plants and a covered porch and carpark. The inside is adequate with limited furniture, but decent. I have a back porch where my Dominican washer is at, along with rocking chairs!!! The rocking chairs may move out front once my gate gets a lock, but I love having rocking chairs! I also have my very own cistern/well. It resembles one of the hatches from Lost at first glimpse, it even has to be checked like the main hatch in Lost. Instead of every 108 minutes, I need to check the water level every three days. Pictures will follow as the school’s internet is not exactly the fastest thing in the world. I hope to write about once a week or more depending on the work load I have and the power situation.

Prayer Requests
Loneliness, my house is not near any of the other teachers.
Getting my internet set up. I need a password from Christy; until then I’ll be using the schools.
Learning how to use my Dominican washing machine; it has different operating instructions than a US washing machine.
I have no desk or dresser; so I must use the kitchen table and suitcase for non essential items…patience to do that!
God will provide a means of transportation for my water. The store/school is too far to carry 5 gallons of water and school materials.
Health, the roads I walk to school flood. That I will be protected from any parasites living in the water I have to walk through.

Praises
I made it safely with all my luggage.
I’m been here for 36 hours and no noseeum bites!
Aside from some rust on the tub and a broken lid on my toilet everything is in good order in my bathroom. I have a new stove and fridge (despite it being covered in mold when I moved in…I quickly remedied that.)
So far all the new teachers seem wonderful. I’m by far the youngest so far.
I survived my first night alone despite strong storms.

Leaving on a Jet Plane...Back at Christmas

2008-08-01T19:39:00.002-04:00

Well the time has come to write my last post in the US; so as a result I have made some updates to the site like the description.

I am leaving tomorrow bright and early (3:30am early) to catch my flight at O'Hare. My flight leaves at 6:15am and will land at Miami around 10:05. My next flight leaves around 11:15 which will get me to Santiago around 1:20pm (EST).

From the airport my unidentified ride will take me up the mountain to Jarabacoa and to my new house. Yes, a house! I will share a house with one of the fellow teachers who was there last year. I am looking forward to getting to know her more; however, right now I don't know much expect her name and what she's shared in a few brief e-mail messages.

I most likely will not write again until late next week as I don't know my internet connection situation.

I will try to post as soon as I can to let everyone know I arrived safely.

Farewells

2008-07-28T13:53:00.003-04:00

Farewells have begun; in fact I've said goodbye to almost all my Taylor friends. :( I only have 4 more days until my adventure officially begins & am I no where ready to be leaving. I have piles of things to be packed in addition to packing up my room as well. The next 96 hours could prove the most stressful.

Please pray for me and my family as we say goodbye; it's hard for us all as I am an only child. This is an extremely large step - perhaps the largest I've taken. Being left in the mountains for camp with zero connections pales in comparison to moving thousands of miles away. I'll be moving into school housing where I will have 3 roommates...none of whom I even have names for :/.

Good news though I get to check out my curriculum tonight!!! That will be a huge blessing :) I will no longer be "teaching" 100% blind.

12 days and 14 hours....

2008-07-20T10:19:00.002-04:00

Or at least right around there...I will be landing in Santiago, DR! I am so excited to go and teach, but am beginning to become anxious about all the little unknown details that have yet to be decided; like my roommates, what all is going in my suitcase etc...

For this afternoon at least I'll put those aside; we're having a party for some local friends so they can come and send me off and say goodbye. I hate almost all goodbyes; they always seem so final. But I am extremely lucky as I'll be coming home at Christmas.

I'll try to update everyone right before I leave in only 12 days.

Planning Frenzy

2008-07-11T18:14:00.002-04:00

So much to do in so little time. This girl is feeling very much like a chicken with its head cut off! Today while running errands I stocked up on some classroom essentials like name tags, stickers, pocket charts, and more; not to mention finding things to wear with my snazy new JCS polos. Polos are to private schools as designer is to public schools... Having a staff uniform will cut the amount of time it takes to get ready down immensely! We'll see how long my enthusiasum for said polos lasts.

I'm so excited to get to know the staff and students at JCS, but at the same time I'm extremely nervous about not knowing my housemates. 21 days and counting....eeks!!

I've Got a Ticket to Ride

2008-07-03T09:51:00.003-04:00

Please excuse the lame reference to a Beatles song, but it's true! I have a seat booked on a plane that will land me in Santiago, DR at 1:20pm on August 2nd! Counting down the days currently seems stressful as I have no idea when I plan to pack my life away into 2 suitcases. I'll worry about that later...this weekend holds more enjoyable moments! A weekend in Indiana with 6 of my closest friends. :)

Letter of Intent

2008-05-22T10:28:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to fill everyone in on my official job in Jarabacoa. I have recieved my letter of intent and am sending it off! Goodness it's hard to believe that last year I had only just been out of the country for my first time and now I'm going to go live abroad!!! God sure has a funny ways of making us grow. Anyways, that's all until probably July when I start packing up.

Here is a picture of where I'll be going.