Good Times

Warm evening sunlight, cool ocean breezes, gently swaying hammock, and Fernando Ortega piano.  That was an hour of my late Saturday afternoon spent in the common room at staff housing.  For some reason, the first three or four days last week I was so, so tired.  The I-can-barely-keep-my-eyes-open-if-I-sit-down kind.  That made teaching a little difficult, seeing as I do most of that sitting down.  It did help some, though, if the kids were bad or wouldn't focus, because having to correct them or ask them to settle down was a great way of reminding myself of the opposite: "STAY AWAKE."  Anyways, it was nice to have that time to just think and read after a long week.  "He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul." ~Psalm 23:2~

Ten girls, hot tea, fancy dresses, and delicious food.  That describes Sunday afternoon, when some of the girls here put on a goodbye tea party in honor of Amy Rumbaugh, who's leaving for the States and will be gone for a while.  That was so fun and special.  The girls even asked two of the boys here to be waiters.  The poor guys.  They did a great job, though, and didn't die or anything because their reward was getting to play video games whenever we didn't need them.  We all sat at a table outside in the front yard of one of their houses, and afterwards we had a photo shoot.  Flowy and girly and fun.  That describes it pretty well.

Cold Coca-Cola, chocolate no-bake cookies, my Spanish notebook, and the Perspectives manual.  That's been my afternoon today.  Eryn, Benton, and Sammey all finished school early, so now I have some free time to write and do Spanish homework and read some for Missions 21.  Dianna, the lady who tutors a lot of the missionaries in Spanish, is also tutoring me.  I really appreciate this.  It's SO NICE to be able to review what I've learned in the past, and learn completely new things, and it's definitely helping my Spanish improve.  And each Monday night at his house, Dr. Don Rumbaugh teaches a "Missions 21" class (basically a condensed version of Perspectives) for anyone who wants to come.  So I go to that, and I'm learning a lot there, too, and really enjoying it.

AND here's a tour of where I live in staff housing.  You go up those green stairs, and open the screen door...

...and the common/living/whatever room is right inside the screen door.

 If you take a right after the bookcase on the wall there...

 ...and go down this hall...

 ...until the very end...

 ...you come to my room!

Isn't it nice? :) I am currently sitting at that little table.