First Full Week

What a week! I am interested to see who learned more this past week, the students or the teacher...

Julie and I both had kind of rough weeks. Julie started Sunday morning with nausea, headache, and fever. She had it off and on throughout the week. I was lucky enough to only get it Monday afternoon as school was ending. Not fun. Thankfully, we are both recovered. We believe that Julie ended up getting Dengue fever, a virus that is making its way around the island. Poor Julie - first full week of school in a new country and she has to battle a tropical disease. She's a tough one, though!

We each had a rough day, school-wise, too. Mine was Wednesday. I took each management problem, each broken rule, each incomplete piece of work very personally. I internalized all the problems, becoming more and more frustrated. We skipped P.E., and I left school trying to hold back tears so no one could see how angry I was with myself. Julie left me a teacher devotion to read from a book she has. I read it twice with a deep conversation with God in between. All the teachers, my parents, my friends back home, and most importantly, the Lord we very encouraging. The Lord helped give me an attitude adjustment, reminding me why I'm here (to share Jesus with my students), who I'm here for (the people around me, not myself), who I can depend on (Him), who I can't depend on (me), where I'm headed (heaven - there's a room with my name on it). I put a smile on, made my attitude the brightest and most exuberant that I could muster, and greeted each child like he or she was the VIP of the day. And while the management problems didn't go away, and the day didn't go smoothly, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I did my best to share Jesus, to teach and encourage, and I left my concerns aside. Thanks, Lord, for reminding me of who you are and what you have done for us all.

Friday we got a surprise: the Prime Minister declared that all schools, public and private, be closed at 11 to prepare for Tropical Storm Maria who was expected to hit the island late Friday night. Children were picked up early, and teachers spent a couple of hours packing up classrooms, pushing furniture away from the windows, covering bulletin boards with plastic to protect everything from wind and water. That afternoon, Julie and I were invited over to the Johnstons' to wait out the storm. We partied with stir fry, a game of Settlers', and homemade popcorn. We woke up Saturday morning to hear that the storm wasn't supposed to hit until the afternoon. We played with the girls, had homemade cinnamon rolls for brunch, watched a chick flick, still no storm. The day was bright and sunny and pleasantly breezy. About 4, Pastor and the girls took us to First Choice to do some grocery shopping and drop us off at home.

It didn't start raining until 3:30am today... and that was it. We missed the actual storm and just got some of the rain that was following it. You really can't depend on what the storms will do; it is a blessing that there was no damage to the island.

In other news, last weekend I had noticed a strange rash on my hands. Talking to one of the pastors, we thought I was having an allergic reaction to mango sap (same chemical as in poison ivy). It didn't clear up, so a school parent who is a doctor took a look and prescribed a steroid to stop the swelling and a antihistamine to combat whatever allergy was occurring. I am happy to report that it is slowly clearing up. No idea what caused it. Can't remember anything different I ate or touch in the past weeks, but I guess I will just have to keep an eye on things.

Blessings on your week! Week 2 - here we come!