What a day!

I’m currently wrapped up in a blanket sitting in my room with a cup of what seems to be similar to hot chocolate.  Nothing here is very sweet, so it’s the closest thing I’ve found to help satisfy my sweet tooth J.

So last night around 10pm, I woke up to the sound of thunder and intense winds.  Now, I love thunderstorms, especially at night, so I was pretty excited to hear the sounds.  About a half hour later, I ran to the window to see rain coming down in sheets from over the mountain.  The lightening show along with the long-awaited rain and booming thunder was amazing.  I slept quite soundly.

This being said, I overslept this morning.  However, I am thankful that I did, because I was able to wake up to the familiar voices of my parents on the phone.  Around 4:45 I received a call from them, making it a late night for them, but we were able spend some good time talking.  So much is happening in my family that it was nice to feel a little caught up on all the details! 

After I hung up the phone, I began to get ready for the day.  Brr, it was so cold!  I put on my warmest clothes, as well as the casual day T-shirt the teachers were required to wear to school today (I find it interesting that on casual day, teachers have a uniform, but every other “uniform” day, we may wear whatever we please J).  Thankfully, my host mom had a rain coat and umbrella for me to use on the walk to the taxi.  The rain was still pouring, the thunder still booming, and the lightening still flashing.  So I was all smiles this morning, loving every minute of this weather.  I must admit, I wanted to just have my class over to the house, sit, make popcorn and watch a movie.  We could make it “lifeskills” lesson American style, right? 

I arrived at school to find that there was no electricity.  The classroom was so dark. I could not recognize a single student, they kind of blend in with the darkness.  But in the first 2 minutes in the classroom before I left for morning meetings, I was welcomed with wet hugs, and a surprise fake snake sitting on my chair.  I was legitimately freaked out for a minute… the students loved it.  Then at the morning meeting, we sat in darkness.  One person put their phone on the table for a little bit of light, but it was mentioned that I was really the only person who was visible; thank you, white skin. 

So we spent a half hour dancing and singing songs to warm up.  I love to hear the kids sing.  They get so into it, and every person is singing at the top of their lungs and dancing.  It really gets me going in the morning.  That may easily be one of the things I will miss the most about teaching out here.  Back home, I know the level of excitement in singing and dancing won’t match the level out here.  Then students were given time to draw and create stories, because there was really no way to do much else with how dark it was.  I told the kids to pretend they were losing their vision like Helen Keller, and they loved it. 

But the feeling I had this morning was so wonderful, I was full of smiles.  We were all wet, cold, muddy, cold, smelly, cold, and also cold.  But it was so cozy.  During devotion time, 4 girls were  cuddled up next to me, and we were all just able to sit and go around saying why we loved God, and what we were happy for today.  We finished making our tree on the wall together, and I had some fun with the kids.  Come 10:30, the electricity was back on, just in time for me to see a fully lit classroom while they all ate their chicken feet again (I got a picture today, I wish I could upload it!).  Today wasn’t the best day in terms of time with my teacher, but the kids helped make it fun for me.  After 1 pm, they were misbehaving terribly whenever the teacher left the room, so I tried again to work on behavior management without much success.  But the week is over, I can’t expect too much on Friday afternoon!  Hugs on the way out, and kisses from many of the kids left me with a smile and good attitude going into this weekend.

It’s going to be a lazy weekend, cold and rainy.  I hope to get to the post office again soon, even though I know it may mean a 3-4 hour journey J.  I hope the weather is beginning to cool down for all of you in the states, send the warm weather here ASAP!