Wednesday, March 16- Late Night and Goatspeak

Well it is about 10:45pm here in the Philippines (and my crazy brain immediately reminds me that this means it is 9:45am at home, 1:45am in Australia and 11:46pm in Japan) which is later than I’d normally be awake, however I forgot to shower before dinner which meant if I really wanted to accomplish that today I’d need to wait until after 9:00pm for more water to come in; I’d also need to add an extra half hour to that in order for me to sit in front of my fan so my hair could dry and I’d not be stuck falling asleep with freezing cold, wet hair.  Considering I’m still up, you see I felt it was worth the late night.

The last few days have been very fun.  Yesterday Natalie and I went up to the high school in the afternoon to play sports with the kids.  I ended up playing volleyball (with a soccer ball) for 2 and ½ hours.  I apparently haven’t played in a very long time because I am aching!  I have broken blood vessels all over my arms and bruises covering my hands.   Just walking the younger kids to school today was excruciating as they like to grab our hands and pull us along.  We were supposed to play again today but we got hit with a rainstorm and I was pretty relieved since I can’t even do much without my hands shaking.  I hope we can play tomorrow though and I’ll just have to push though the pain; that or join the crew playing basketball (although that wouldn’t be too successful).

Today I actually got to teach a little.  Richard, a fourth year student who intends to become a teacher, is sort of student teaching while the teacher spends a lot (ehem… ALL) of the day preparing something for the end of the year (seriously, NONE of our kids seem to have classes though they have to be at school).   Anyway, he told me he’d be teaching 2^nd year English and I asked if he wanted any help.  Natalie and I went and I was more intending to just observe and answer a few questions, but he ended up wanting a little more assistance.  So I got up and got to teach them about prepositions and prepositional phrases.   Luckily he was teaching one of the few classes I can easily grasp.  It was a lot of fun—though I STILL do not see a teaching career in my future (sorry to all of you who still think that about me:).  I really wanted to diagram sentences, but I don’t think they do that and that would’ve been a tad much with a language barrier still in place.  Side note though, I am getting better at Ilonggo.  I haven’t had a lesson with Jiji lately, but I am just forcing myself to use the language as much as I can and I make everyone correct me.  I won’t be fluent but I’ll bring a small chunk home with me.

I just finished a little series on the life of David in devotionals that was really great for me and hopefully for the kids too (major kudos to the Breakaway podcasts that helped me in putting the talks together).  But even if they did enjoy it, they liked today’s devotional better; Quiz time over the life of David with FunDip for correct answers.  They enjoy candy in these parts. J

Nat and I were sitting and chatting with Nanay and we got to talking about their financial struggles and where they needed money right now.  With graduation coming up in less than a month, there are some specific clothing requirements for the graduates, one being that they all need new black shoes.  Nanay was saying that that was just an added expense that they weren’t expected.  Immediately Natalie and I had the same idea, so we shared it with Nanay and got it approved.  So on Saturday we will surprise the fourth year students and take them to Marbel to spend the day hanging out and shopping for new shoes.  It is such a small expense for us and it is going to be such a fun day!  I can’t wait.  Plus, it is just so wonderful to be able to take a load off of Nanay’s mind.  I hope she continues to tell me where she has a need because I want to HELP! So many times they almost don’t want us to help because they see us as honored guests; but this is why I am here and this brings me joy (and hopefully them too!)

I am becoming quite the animal whisperer here.  I told you about the puppies (who by the way are named Ben, Bingley and Socks… Socks is my favorite) and they are just getting sweeter every day, however I have also picked up Goatspeak, the language of goats.  There is a goat that is tied up on the way to the Elementary school and we have ourselves a nice (and loud) chat every morning.  I must say, my sound is uncanny and clearly she (the goat, who I’m inclined to name Amanda for some reason) agrees.  This has been a very parenthetical paragraph.

Before closing I’d like to say that I am aware and annoyed by my previous (and undoubtedly future) typos, however I often don’t have time to proofread before posting and after posting it takes too long to return and edit.  This may have been unnecessary, but believe me, I will sleep better tonight having finally made note of this; my apologies.

Well, my hair is mostly dry. I’m exhausted. It’s quiet.  This is an unusual and pleasant atmosphere to go to sleep in.  I better take advantage of it before it changes.  To those wondering, we seem to not be affected by the current devastating weather conditions in Japan.  Nanay did come in tonight to tell all the kids that we’ll be doing earthquake drills and to remind them of what to do in case of a large earthquake (which is put your hands on your head, apparently).  We are living directly above a fault line so they are being cautious, even though we are far from Japan.  Thank you for the love and concern.

Love you all! Thank you for reading my late night ramblings!

This is dedicated to my grandmas.  Both of you! I am SO excited to see my Grandma Joan in 6 weeks (I’m half way done!) and my Grandma Gwen this summer. Love you both!!

A few random pics:

My arm after volleyball... ouch!!

Yes, that is a bat.

Some crafts we made with the kids :)

Sweet Bobby!

My puppies! (L-R Bingley, Ben, Socks)