The Craziness of Life

Well, I'm sitting here in my room getting nothing done, so I thought I would update my blog. Always a good thing to do when you're distracted, right? :) I am leaving to go to a student's house for dinner in about an hour, so I have some time to kill.

Where to even start? We are in our sixth week of school here at Santiago Christian School. My kids are starting to get a little more used to the way I do things. The problem is, sometimes I don't know how I do things! It's coming together though. We play a lot of games in my classroom (learning ones of course), and they love that! One of my boys always asks if we can play "Math around the World," as he says. My answer to him is "Maybe, we'll see," in which he responds, "You ALWAYS say that!" My answer definitely reminds me of something my parents used to say to me, and I'm sure I sounded a lot like my little boy too :). They make me laugh every day. One of the little boys split his pants open today. He tried to staple them shut himself. 3rd grade boy+stapler=not good. It definitely did not hold his pants together, so I went to the nurse to see if she had safety pins. She did, but the rip in his pants was too big. She ended up sewing his pants together! Our nurse not only helps sick kids, she sews split pants up too! When one boy hear that, he said, "She sewed your pants?!?! She's a doctor, not a sewer!" Another girl wrote in her journal that she goes to the beach to get a "tang." So next time you are in the sun, enjoy your "tang." :) They say the cutest things! I am definitely starting to speak like a Dominican though. Instead of "Mindy's pants," I have caught myself saying, "The pants of Mindy!" AAAHHH! Oh well.

One thing most of you probably don't know is that Dominicans hate the rain. My kids will get out their umbrellas to walk 100 feet in the rain from one building to the other. You rarely see people out in it unless they have to be. On Sunday, it was raining off and on. My roommate Amanda and I really wanted to walk and get empanadas (a meat-filled pastry) and frozen yogurt. It wasn't raining when we left, and of course we didn't bring umbrellas. We bought our empanadas and started to walk to get frozen yogurt. I bet you can guess what happened. Yep, it started raining. It wasn't pouring, but it was raining pretty good. So here we are, two white girls walking down the street IN THE RAIN eating empanadas! I'm sure the people who walked by us thought we were ridiculous! It was exciting though and makes for a good memory now.

The Lord has given me many more moments in which I have seen how great He is and been reminded of His faithfulness. My kids' favorite song right now is "Our God is an Awesome God." It is so cool t hear 21 third graders, many of whom do not live in Christian homes, shouting out that our God is awesome. I will have to videotape it sometime. What a great reminder it is to me that our God indeed is awesome! He has given me more beautiful sunrises and sunsets. The day we found out the staff member died, the sky that night was gorgeous. It reminds me of the Twila Paris song that says "God is in Control." He sure is, even when it doesn't seem like it. I am so glad He cares about us. I'm sorry if you are getting sick of sunset pictures, but some of these are too amazing to pass up!
Sunday night. Isn't our God creative?
One morning last week. This is from my bedroom window.

We finally have furniture! We still need a few more pieces, but we are getting closer. Amanda and I bought desks on Saturday. We opened mine on Sunday to try to put it together. Let's just say it's still sitting in pieces on the floor :). Hopefully we will figure it out soon! Here is a few pictures of our couches and our dining room table. They double as clothes dryers!
I will try to take more normal pictures again soon. If you look closely, you will notice bright yellow plastic bags on the furniture too. In this country, they use so many bags when you buy groceries! We have a TON of them and we've only been here a month and a half. If you buy three bags worth of groceries, you will probably end up with twelve bags, and that's not an exaggeration! It makes me laugh, that's for sure.

Thank you to all who have been praying for the family of the man who died on Sunday, Rane. He was the sole income provider for not only his immediate family but also his extended family. Please pray that their needs would be met. Continue to pray with me that I would be able to reach my students and that they would have open hearts. I really appreciate your prayers!