Odds and ends

Friday night we had a group arrive from a little town called Wisner, Louisiana. The men are helping with some construction here and the women have been doing some painting and will be going to do more painting in a village called Acamal. One of the group members preached last night at church. He talked about how Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. That was an encouraging message. Jesus is all we need for all our todays. He's the same God he has always been.

It was like Christmas yesterday morning for myself and a few of my housemates. Our parents sent packages to the group and they brought our stuff in with their luggage. I was very thankful for that.

Teaching is going very well, I am starting my Basico students (7th-9th) with novel reading. 7th is reading Esio Trot by Roald Dahl, 8th is reading Grandma's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl, and 9th is reading a biography about St. Patrick. I am excited about developing the English reading program. I'm grateful to Deanne for letting me borrow some of her books to look for good titles. I also found a Frog and Toad book among some give away books that another family dropped off at our house. That was a wonderful surprise. I love Frog and Toad. They are so funny. I read a few of those stories to my 4th and 6th graders the other day. They make good read-aloud stories, and are simple enough for second language learners to understand.

This morning was a busy morning. I went to the market at 7am with Deborah and Irma to go shopping for this week's lunches. It's my turn to cook lunch this week. Irma is my ticket for getting all the good deals at the market. She knows where to get the best stuff and what a good price is. We still had a lot of money left in the budget when we were done shopping. Hopefully my meals will all go well- I've never cooked for this many people before. But I cooked this afternoon and that went well. I made baked breaded chicken and roasted potatoes. I think the hardest part is the planning and the shopping. The actual cooking is easy. It will also be a little tricky getting lunch together when I work all morning and we eat right afterschool. So I'll probably do a lot the night before.

I got a little bit of a sunburn today, because I walked to and from the market twice and then I had to do two loads of laundry outside in the pila, because we don't have enough water to run the machine. We haven't had a good rain in weeks. I have to say, in spite of the hassles of dry season, I would choose this over upstate NY winter any day. I definitely don't miss the snow. I have been enjoying the sunshine. I take my classes outside as much as I can, especially in the mornings because the classrooms can be a little cold in the morning. Sometimes I can see my breath. But by mid-morning it warms up.

Yesterday morning I went to hear Pastor Mike tell a testimony to the visiting group about how he and Tonya came to develop the ministry here. (They are the founders of Inn Ministries) It's always neat to hear what the Lord has done and how he teaches people things along the way. They had been doing a lot of evangelization and church planting in the surrounding villages when the Lord gave him a new vision to start a school here in San Cristobal as an outreach to the community. I'm hoping I'll have time to go tonight to hear him talk about the vision they have for the future with Inn Ministries. I do have a lot of planning to do for my classes, though. I should have done that yesterday but I wasn't feeling very well. Lately I've been a little sick. I think it's allergies, though, so I'm going to start taking allergy medicine again. I have felt a lot better today.