So sorry to all you fine folks for not posting an update in such a long while. No excuses. Although, I was busy, I didn't feel quite inspired, and I had a lot of other things on my mind. Okay, three excuses. Not good enough, right? Yeah you're probably correct. Anyway...
Things have been going fairly rapid-fire lately. The month of August whizzed past and we are now in our last two months of school. I have already purchased tickets to come home, which makes me very excited! I should tell you a little bit about that, though. I had been praying that God would drop the ticket price (I know a bit Mennonite-ish), but God hears our prayers, no matter how small, right? I started monitoring airline prices via my trusty KAYAK app. I even wrote a quick C# program to monitor ticket prices from multiple dates. However, for several months, the prices stayed at an average of $600, the lowest $526.
One day, Melody mentioned how ticket prices were down a lot. I checked and to my jaw literally dropped! Here were tickets for $439, which included two free checked suitcases to boot! I didn't waste much time snapping that up. God is good! Lord willing, I plan to fly home on November 4 and return to Guatemala on January 7, the day after my sister Lydia's birthday. The time spent at home will be short, but I plan to make the most of it!
You probably noticed I said return. I will indeed be returning for another year if everything goes according to plan. I plan to first spend a month in Guatemala learning Spanish, before busing back to the deaf school for another year of teaching.
As far as school goes, I have been pretty busy. Jairo started coming to school again after not coming for three weeks. I've been pulling my hair out trying to teach him number order (this seems like a recurring situation doesn't it?). Yea, he's not the fastest learner, but he is making progress. Slowly, but progress nonetheless.
I've also been teaching my students more words in preparation of the next and final competition this year. Sometimes my students think there's no more brain-space, but I always try to find another unfilled cranny. :) Funny story about that. There was this formidable word on the list they needed to learn. A nine letter word called triángulo (triangle). They were having royal conniptions about it ("that has NINE letters!!", "but, that's too HARD!!", etc., etc.), but don't you know, within a very short while, they had the word installed into their brains. Explain that please! Something about the challenge, I guess...
The thing in the picture above is a trompo, a top that you wrap string around and then throw, as you can see Carlos doing. It's the time of year to have one--I think everyone in school has at least one, for sure among the boys. It's a little funny to us Americanos, but they have seasons for toys in El Salvador! A certain time of year everyone plays with marbles, which was just recently. Now it's the time for trompos. A little later on, when it gets windier, everyone will be playing with kites. It seems strange, but that's how it is!
Outside of school, I've been pretty busy as well. The two last weeks I had been (unsuccessfully) trying to get my El Salvadoran license. I was able complete the driving test successfully, but they refused to give me the license because of the red bar on my Pennsylvania license that says "Under 21 until..." They took that as an indication that I was a juvenile driver (under 18), no matter how hard I tried to explain that it was just to check for underage drinking. I even showed them my real juvenile license which I was supposed to throw away, but didn't. No go... So we had to go to another office in Santa Ana, where I had no hassle (thank God).
Cool story about that as well. I had taken my vision test earlier with my driving test. However, when I came to Santa Ana, they asked me to do it again. I didn't have my driving glasses with me, so I was afraid I might fail just because of some glasses I forgot. I prayed about it, and sorta guessed at the letters, and don't you know everything went alright! I was really thankful for that!
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| The finished product! |
I was also working on getting my wifdom teef pulled (see what I did there?) :) I'll spare you the bloody pictures and needlessly gory details. I went and did that last Wednesday (finally!) after needing to take medication first and after my blood tests were done. The actual surgery took about half an hour to cut out two teeth and everything for under $300! I had asked Loncho about which doctor to go to, so he very graciously went along twice to get everything done. I don't know what I would have done without his help. Thanks so much!
I've been praying for patience lately with my students and just in general... and by the way, don't ever do that unless you're sure you want to be taught (in God's way)! I think you know what I mean. There have been a number of incidents recently where I found myself getting frustrated. Then I think "oooh I see what you did there, God!". Sadly, I fail the test often, but I'm sure God won't give up on me. He is the Great Teacher!
Oh, and one last thing, I had a very happy birthday on Saturday. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! It was different not having a birthday at home, but it was still fun. I had spent the weekend at the Ramos's and they gave me a wonderful birthday party complete with cake and ice cream. I was very blessed!
Thank you so much to each of you for your support, prayers, cards, gifts, etc.! I really feel your support. Keep praying for me--it really does help. Satan has been trying hard to disrupt the work here, but he will not succeed if God is with us!
Also pray for:
- José, a student who had been suspended from school. He hasn't come back since. Pray that he would respond to God's promptings.
- Silvia, one of the girls that stays here during the week. She has been giving Andrea, Melody, and Becky a lot of problems lately. Pray for a breakthrough.
- CICS in general. As I mentioned earlier, Satan is always trying to cause problems and confusion. We've been feeling that a lot recently. Pray for victory and clarity in teaching and mentoring the children.
