Day 21: First Spelling Test!

We are finishing our third week and it’s hard to believe we’re still here, we’re feeling a bit settled, and we’re actually building some friendships. I am very glad those friendships are with both Spanish- and English-speaking people.

This morning my first-graders had their first sight word “test” and the fourth-graders had their first spelling test. Most of them did very well. They’re all still getting used to me and my quirky ways. Some of them are also still having trouble with the language differences, including me!

The older students were working in teams on projects about Mayan farming techniques (did you know they had four different techniques???) and two groups presented theirs. They are incredibly well-crafted and detailed, so I thought I'd share at least one with you!

Grace, Taina, Genna, Danny, and Dahliana's project...
complete with a Mayan temple that's actually a cake!

During our school beach time today, I asked some of the students to speak only Spanish to me. They got a kick out of their teacher trying to figure out and then mimic what they were saying, but they were also very patient. Even the moms were helpful when I told them I was very eager to learn the language. I feel as though it is important for me to learn the ways of Culebra rather than forcing them to accommodate me so not know Spanish makes me feel guilty, in a way.

After school, we didn’t stick around for more than a few minutes because we were both anxious to have lunch and get cleaned up. Our motivations were divergent, however; Hannah was eager to check out our post office box and I was ready to begin lesson planning for next week. Wow! Do we have different priorities or what???

Shortly after we got our showers and lunch, I got a phone call from Aimee, who is a parent of one of our students. She has sort of taken me under her wing and I cannot say how much I have appreciated her already. She has heard me fret several times about where we would be moving to once the end of October arrives. She also assured me she would look for a place for us. She is Culebrense, and the folks here know everyone and everything that’s going on. It’s amazing. It’s like a small town on steroids! I had given her a wish list of what we would like in a place: close to the school so we could use bikes, two bedrooms (or at least one with a place for me to sleep in the living room), and a concrete structure. She called to say she had one for us to look at!!! We quickly gathered our things and drove down the hill.

This is a house owned by her cousin (everyone’s related to half the island, it seems) who is moving to the main island. It is located directly across from the airport entrance, so it’s very centrally located. There is a grocery store a block away, close to school, town is close (that’s where the post office and several other important places are), and it’s on the road to Tamarindo and Flamenco Beaches. Her cousin first showed us a one-bedroom, then a three bedroom (which is way too expensive for us) and then when I asked about the upstairs apartment, her husband explained to me (his English is really good!) that there is someone living there for two more months while his place is being finished and it would be available after that. It’s two bedrooms! When I asked how much it was, they told me what the current tenant was paying and it was way over my budget. They talked for a moment in Spanish and then told me I could have it for the same amount as the one-bedroom, but we would have to pay for the electric. I was so moved and excited I wanted to jump up and down! What a total and complete answer to prayer!! We are very excited! Although we were not able to see the currently occupied apartment, the other two units are beautiful and well-constructed, so I am sure ours will be wonderful. Hannah and I are both beyond pleased!

From our apartment hunt, we ran a couple of in-town errands and received our first letter from Jessie!! It was such a treat to see her handwriting and hear her journey of having her tonsillectomy surgery and ongoing recovery (although it’s not been a treat for her to go through it!) We LOVE getting letters!!!

Once back home, Hannah began preparing for her first venture out with new friends. Abbie has set up a type of mentoring opportunity for the kids and is just so happens that Hannah’s mentor is Aimee’s daughter, Amdry! What’s extra-special about that is that Amdry has kind of adopted Hannah, too, as her mother has me! On top of that, she’s a few years older than Hannah, is a sweetheart, and is a great student so she is a wonderful role model for Hannah! Amdry and her dad came up the hill to pick up Hannah at about 6:30 and took her to a basketball game. Hannah had five bucks in her pocket, so she was on top of the world! Independence with cash! What could be better???

With my alone time, I was able to spend a good amount of time catching up with my dad and then my older daughter on the phone. Dad is healthier than he’s been in a while, and Jessie is moving to campus tomorrow. She’s feeling frustrated from not healing as quickly as she’d like, and she had a personal bummer today, but she knows she is moving in a good direction and is seeing the positives in life, so that’s good! I also read a book that some of my students will be reading this next week. It was a very nice evening for both Hannah and me!

I went down to the gym a bit before 9 to visit with some of our new friends and to pick up Hannah, even though she had called to ask if she could stay longer. It was great to see other students away from school, all fixed up for their night out, and also nice to see parents and other community members. The island has several teams and they choose them in a random way, so some of the boys on opposite teams are brothers! It is a very competitive event, but jovial at the same time! On the way home, Hannah said she was ready for bed, and it took her very little time to announce that she was ready for prayers!!!

On a side note, it is extremely frustrating to STILL not have internet. I have so much more appreciation for the way things in the States are put in place to quickly get things back in working condition after a storm. I know there are times we’ve been without power, cable, and/or internet, but you can always see people working on getting it restored. It’s not that way here. The bank is still closed and people are pretty unaware of how long it will be before the phones and internet are back. Fortunately, yesterday I was able to use the ATM, but the people who used it just before me were not as lucky. Go figure!

At any rate, there is so much to thankful for today. Progress on learning Spanish, finding a place to move into that truly fits our needs (and some of our wants, too!), feeling accepted by people here, hearing my dad’s and my daughter’s voice, having electricity for several days, getting mail, having no rain today…

Thank you, God, for a day full of goodness!