-I have been able to teach every day since Christmas! My voice has held out, and for that I am so thankful! It is scratchy by Friday, but I can still teach. It definitely has changed. I cannot sing as high as I used to nor can I change pitch very well by the time Friday rolls around. But I am very thankful that I have been able to be in the classroom everyday!
-I finally decided for sure to regularly attend the church down here that is similar to the ones I grew up in. I am the only American and therefore the only one who doesn't speak Spanish who goes there out of about 300 people, but it's good. People have started to talk to me. One couple, their daughter, and the wife's mother have taken me home a few times. That's been quite the trip! The first time, there were 7 of us in their little car! When the first one got out and there were only 6, it felt like a luxury vehicle with tons of space! Last week, the dad was trying to talk to me, and his Spanish is very hard to understand. The funniest part was everything I would say in Spanish, the grandmother would repeat in Spanish for the dad! I was already speaking in Spanish, so it made me laugh! I probably misunderstood half of what he said, but oh well.
-Two weeks ago I had the privilege of going to an English speaking Women's Retreat in the mountains. It was an amazing time of reflection and meeting other Americans on the island. God taught me a lot through it. On Saturday, a group of us went for a very long hike in the mountains. It was beautiful! I went back down on a motoconcho, which is like a motorcycle taxi, with a friend because she had really bad blisters on her feet. That was quite the adventure to say the least! It was a really good weekend, and I am sad it only happens once a year.
-Yesterday at school we celebrated Valentine's Day. My room literally looked like a candy store--it was ridiculous! I am glad it was only a half day, because my kids were crazy the whole time! My mom had sent me stuff for them to make Valentines for their moms, which they absolutely loved. We did that earlier in the week and they took them home on Friday. Here are some pictures of making Valentines and other fun things associated with that....
Making Valentines for our moms and having a fake smile when Miss Seeman pulls out the camera :).
Yes, I can make a Valentine for my mom even with a broken arm!
Amanda and I making cookies for our classes. We ended up with a few more than we had planned--she and I only needed 40 and in this picture there are about 90--we ended up with over 150 cookies when we only needed 80 total for four of us to give to our classes. We spent over 6 hours making and decorating cookies, but it was exciting.
Happy Valentine's Day! One of my girls brought in this cake--notice how big it is. The heart shaped cakes I had always seen were about a third as big as this one!
Thank you Mrs. Seeman for the cool pencils, stickers, and heart candies! My mom sends them a lot of things, and they love it! In one girl's words yesterday, "Your mom sends us a lot of stuff and she's not rich!" They couldn't believe it that my parents didn't have a ton of money after all the things she has sent us. It was a good opportunity to talk about generosity.Let's see, what else...
-Hundred's Day has come and gone. I can't believe we have been in school for over a hundred days! I am still enjoying my kids, so that is good.
-I have been introducing many new subjects/concepts since Christmas. We have started to learn multiplication. I am hoping they will really understand it and be plenty ready for fourth grade! So far they are doing well. Now they have to just memorize all of them! We also started Science, which they absolutely LOVE! We have done many experiments. Right now we are talking about living things, and we were talking about metamorphosis. A couple weeks ago I saw some tadpoles in a little creek right outside the school. I thought it would be exciting for my kids to go out and look at them. We looked on Thursday and they LOVED it! I knew they would want to keep one, so I told them we could. I brought a jar to catch them, hoping one of the maintenence guys would be willing to. Unfortunately, I could not find one yesterday. The kids were so excited about it that I went down into the nasty, slimy creek to try and catch one. They are super fast, and it was taking a while. The kids were all telling me where to catch one. Meanwhile, the guard comes over and starts watching me try to catch one while my kids are all smashed up against the fence telling me what to do. I am sure it was quite the sight! I am so thankful there is a fence there or all my kids would have fallen in the creek! So the guard tells me to scoop faster, and finally I catch one. I get the kids all together and start to head in, and then the guard tells me it's not a tadpole but a guppy instead. So I had to do it all over again! I finally caught one, so now we have a tadpole sitting in our room! I have a feeling it will be dead by Monday, but we will see. Does anyone know how to keep them alive?
I love that here in the DR, today is a day of love AND friendship. I want to say thank you to all you readers who are my friends. I appreciate you a lot! On this day set aside for love and friendship, I can't help but think about the One who is my true friend. He will never leave me nor forsake me. Jesus gave up His own life to show me that love. God gave up His only Son because He loved me! There is no greater love than one who lays down His life for His friends! Thank you Jesus for laying down your life for me and for calling me your friend! May you truly feel the love of our Savior today.
