Cockroach Fiascos and Blessings

Once again, I’ve been slacking on my blog! Sorry folks!

Wednesday was Liberation Day! No school for the kiddos, but for us, teachers in-service at 8am. It was supposed to be only an hour and a half, but it turned into 2 and a half. After, most people went to the ruins and swimming. I had a lot of stuff to do, and knowing how long these little excursions take, I decided to stay behind and do a lot of stuff. I did lesson plans, entered in grades, and planned some extra activities for my class. After I was done, I sat with Danny, Roy, and Pastor Tim in the hut and talked. The group got back around 6 something and when they got back, Riley, Roy, Danny, Pastor Tim, and I went to the Rusty Anchor and ate some delicious food! The restaurant had a beautiful view and we all enjoyed a soda and burgers. (Well a good salad for me). It was so relaxing!

Thursday wasn’t too peachy for me. The first part of the morning went alright, but after PE, we went back to the classroom and I just felt AWFUL. I felt like I was going to faint, I was sweating excessively, and my stomach really hurt. I asked my assistant to teach the rest of the day because I just couldn’t. I went back to the apartment and just laid down for a while. I told Mrs. Edward I would be able to teach my 5^th-7^th periods for high school but when that time came around, I just couldn’t do it. So I went down to the office to ask if Mr. Edward could sub for me since he attends that class anyway. But he was no where to be found. So I went to the high school to ask Caleb to sub for me since he has a free period. He was at his apartment though so I ran over to the apartment and he was very sweet and said he would sub for me. So then I went back to my own apartment so I can lay down again. But…. I realized I had given my keys to Caleb and was locked out… So I had to run to Jen’s classroom to get the keys. It was pouring the rain the entire time and it was raining so hard, my skirt was totally soaked. There really wasn’t any dry part! I took a good nap after that and felt better in the late afternoon. I got up and decided to make cookies for my high school kids. Although I felt better, I just had this feeling inside of being drained. My cookies were Nutella and chocolate chips. I think they were quite delicious and they were pretty fun and easy to make! That night, I stayed up a little later because I was helping some people grade papers and enter in grades. When Jen and I got back to our apartment, everyone was asleep already. So I went to my bed and sat down and as I was sitting there for a second, I heard a rustling noise on the bed next to me. I got up really quickly, grabbed my Kindle, and shone it on my bed to discover that there was a giant flying cockroach on my bed. All of a sudden, it flew somewhere and couldn’t find it anywhere! I ran over to Jen and told her she had to help me find it. So she brought her flashlight and we finally found it, it had flown on my alarm clock. I was inching toward it, getting ready to kill it, when it suddenly flew at me and Jen! We hugged each other and screamed and it landed on the fan right near by us.

 “Kill it Jen! Quick!”

“Why me?? It’s YOUR room! You kill it!”

“Ahhh no I can’t!”

But I took my flip flop and wacked it. It wasn’t totally dead though because it was still wiggling around. So Jen, with a “ha!!!” stomped on it and killed it. I was quite paranoid going to sleep after that. I checked my bed very well before getting in!

Friday was a great day for me! My kids were better behaved than usual and high school classes went good! When I went back to my class, I found that one of the kid’s parents brought me a smoothie! It was so delicious and refreshing! I miss smoothies so much! After I brought my kids in from recess, it started to POUR outside! It was raining super hard and for a long time and I waited for a long time so I could leave with all my stuff without everything getting wet. No such luck. So I left anyway and got back to the apartment soaking wet. As soon as I walked it, Karyn yelled at me to put on different clothes, we were going to go run around in the rain. And that is exactly what we did! We ran around and splashed in HUGE puddles and played on the playground in the pouring rain. The kids thought we were pretty funny and we went on the merry-go-round with them. Friday night was a good vespers! They made a call to people who wanted to be baptized and quite a few people went up! Including Mrs. Jano, my teacher’s assistant’s mom who was very strong in her religion but decided to be baptized into the Adventist church! Mrs. Jano was very excited! J

On Sabbath, after church and a huge potluck, we went to the church for the baptisms. There were 16 people who gave their lived to Christ! It was a beautiful thing to see! Pastor Carlos, the evangelist who came was the one who baptized them. Before we headed to the church though, in the apartment, Karyn had changed into more comfortable clothes and her room door apparently likes to lock on its own. So she had her church clothes in there and we could not get into her room. There is no key and so we tried bobby pins, scissors, and even knives to try and get in. We tried for at least an hour to get in but couldn’t. So when Franky ran upstairs to see if we wanted to go to the baptism, and we told him we could not get into Karyn’s room, he immediately took a butter knife, and opened the door within a minute! So we all went to the baptisms. 16 people! 16 people giving their lives to Christ! Each of them had a unique story to tell and I am proud of each and everyone of them! That night, there was a music and testimonies vespers. Whoever wanted to come up and tell a testimony, or sing a song, could do so. Ellie, Karyn, Jen, Kim, and I decided we wanted to do something. Roy accompanied us on the guitar and we sang the song “Your Hands” by JJ Heller. Karyn did one harmony, Jen and I another, and Ellie and Kim the melody. We only had an hour to learn the song but I think we did a great job! We learned it pretty quickly! J The vespers lasted for 3 hours and by the end I was very, very hungry!  So some of us whipped up some Big Franks and mac and cheese. It was really good!

Sunday morning, I was suddenly awakened at about 6am with something hitting my neck. I looked around but couldn’t see anything, so I assumed it was just a dream. A few minutes later, as I was falling back asleep, I felt something crawling up my arm. I look down and there was of course, a huge flying cockroach. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my flip flop, and immediately killed it. Considering how scared I was, I was surprised I didn’t scream or hesitate in killing it! Haha! It was a rude awakening though and I could not sleep for the remaining hour I had to sleep in. At 7:30 I finally got up and got ready to go because Danny, Jen, and I had our work bee day today. The grass was super wet and muddy so mowing it was really hard and the lawn mowers are just awful. Mr. Johnson and Danny worked really hard on that and Jen and I raked up the wet cut grass. We were all tired and really sweaty by the end, but it looked pretty good! My arms will probably be sore tomorrow but hey it was a good workout! Other then that though, it’s been a chill Sunday. I love the lazy days!

Hope everything is going good back home! Miss everyone a bunch!