Tuesday Oct. 16, 2012

                Class day. This is by far the most stressful day of the week for me. This is the day that i teach the 3rd and 4th graders. They are the most rambuctious children you have ever seen! My parents better be grateful that I was a perfect angel when I was little! Today for class, what I decided to do was give them a quiz over the body that I had made in town. This didn't go quite as well as I would have liked. None of them seemes to remember too much about the body. I also gave a girl named Lisvania her choice of some chocolate or cookies in front of the entire class. I did this, as i explained to them, because Lisvania listened, participated, and behaved herself in the previous class, she was getting a reward. After the quiz, I decided to go over colors with them. It was all I could muster not to yell at these kids. They are always trying to test me and acting up. But I am just really happy that Eric is there with me, because I don't know if I could do it by myself.

                Later that afternoon, I asked if I could go back to town for a little bit even though it's not my day off and I was supposed to help with bread that day. On Monday I did not get a chance to talk with my parents or post my blog. So I really wanted to get those things done along with a couple other errands. Fortunately I was able to catch a taxi with Erin on the way into town.

                On our way back out to Familia Feliz, we got onto a taxi that we wern't sure if it was a real taxi or not. But there were 3 of us so we felt safe (Annie was already in town because it was her day off). But shortly after we got out of town, one of the people in the taxi said that they forgot to buy something in town and wanted to turn around. So we turned around to go back, and no sooner had we done that then we got a flat tire. Our taxi broke down and we had to walk all the way back to the taxi station. On the walk back, my only pair of sandals broke. On the way out of town. When I could no longer buy any more. But oh well, such is life. I knew I had duck tape at the orphanage, and duck tape is the answer to world peace.

                We ended up waiting long enough for our taxi guy to fix his car, go to a couple stores, and come back and pick us up for round 2. It was quite the adventure back. I felt bad though because I was not supposed to be gone as long as I was because I was supposed to come back in order to help with bread. By the time I got back, they were nearly done.

                Another good thing that happend today was that Calvin got back from touring around. It was really good to see him again and to hear about all the things that Eric and I need and will do later. He is glad to be back too. However, he is only here for about 10 days until he moves onto his next mission site.

                That evening before I headed to bed, Erin, Annie, Calvin, and I had a little talk under the stars about politics and the end time events. We just openly expressed our feelings and fears and just encouraged one another. It was a very good healthy talk.

Wednesday, Oct. 17 2012

                Since today is not a bread day, it is usually pretty dead. So I planned on doing my laundry today which I am desperately needing. But as soon as I looked at the sky, I knew it was going to rain later. So that tanked my idea there. Later on, around 9:30, Calvin stopped by and we talked more about his travels and how Eric and I should do things. Then after that was the main activity for the day, talking with steven about bread.

                For a little over 2 hours, Stevie talked to us about bread and how it is to be made. He wanted to give us a lesson on it where we took notes and he taught us. It was......interesting. He showed us pictures of tons of different kinds of bread, and percentages, and other bread sutff. I am very excited to be able to learn how to make different kinds of bread. So hopefully I will be able to make some when I come home.

                Oh, and before I forget, I asked Joel to show me a couple of chords on the guitar today which he did. I was pretty excited. I can now strum 3 chords! Not too impressive, but a good start. And now, for the past hour or so, it has been pouring down raining. So what does that mean for the kids? Well what else? Soccer. So I suppose I will go join them!

                That was a ton of fun! We just played soccer in the mud and rain with TONS of kids. It was extremely unorganized withkids mostly just running around and falling when they try to kick the ball. And to answer your questions, yes, I fell a couple times while attempting to kick the ball. After this mock game, Eric and I did another penalty kick competition with the boys. I'm not sure, but I think I won the first round (or at least tied).

                Later that evening it was discovered that once again, all the water was out for the entire compound. So that is something we will be dealing with for the next couple of days unfortunately. But after the soccer matches, a lot of us younger volunteers met up and played a game called "Dutch Blitz" in the candlelight. It was so much fun playing and bonding with the other workers.

Thursday Oct. 18, 2012

                I did not get very much sleep last night because 4 different times Joel and I were woken up by a 8-10'' rat munching on some of our trash in the room. Each time we got up and attempted to catch.......ok fine, kill it. It is so funny to see Joel go after these things because he HATES these little critters. He takes his broom and starts destroying everything in his path trying to find it. He looks just like the old lady from the beginning of the animation movie "Ratatouille". If you have not seen it, you should watch it so you can understand what I am seeing in real life! Anyways, on the fourth attempt, Joel was able to smack it about 40 times with the broom and then swept it outside. Unfortunately by this time, it was about time to wake up at 5 am.

                Today we were supposed to make bread but due to the rain, all the firewood was completely soaked and there was no clean water. So baker Steve and I made a bread rack with 8 shelves to stack the bread pans. This is to avoid putting the pans on the ground when they need to cool after being pulled out of the oven. It is essential to keep things from getting INSALUBRE! Eric would have helped but he had some classes today and then needed to go to town around noon to take care of a few things.

                The shelves took Steve and I most of the day because there are no power tools here and the wood is pretty hard. Not only that, but we were using screws for the massive thing. And did I mention that we didn't have a screwdriver? All we had was a leatherman pocket knife. But we got the job done and we both feel very accomplished. Not too much else happened today. Tomorrow we will be making bread and using our new shelves.

Friday Oct. 19, 2012

Saturday Oct. 20, 2012

                Sabbath is always such a welcome at Familia Feliz. Today baker steve gave the sermon which was kinda funny in that he likes to use very big words which made it very hard for the translater. After church we all went up to Asunta which is a little river about 30 minutes up the road from Familia Feliz. It is a very popular place to go and relax on Sabbath afternoon's. We spent much of the day there. After this, Eric and I went right outside of the compound to take a shower at a pipe that shoots out water with very good pressure. It is significantly better compared to the trickle that i get in my house. That evening, we all went to bed fairly early because 5 of us had a big day planned for tomorrow.

Sunday Oct. 21, 2012

                Today Eric, Melissa, Erin, Calvin, and I woke up early and drove to town because we were going on an excursion at 8 am! We all decided that we wanted to go ziplining in the jungle. this was super exciting and only costed $30 USD. The excursion began with a 30 minute boatride upstream, then a 45 minute walk uphill through the jungle, and then 8 ziplines going from tree to tree far above the ground. We were flying through trees and spinning and screaming, well, at least the girls were screaming. It was super fun and totally worth it! after that, we were able to take a couple hours in town to get online and run a few errands. so that was a wonderful chance to get some things done.

                I only have this week left to prepare for my sermon on trusting in God. Yikes. I am getting kind of nervous. Wish me luck! I will be sure to let you all know how it goes

P.S. sorry for now pictures recently....more computer issues