What a week!

We are continuing to adjust to our new life in the D.R. The thing we both are having the hardest time adjusting to is the water problem. This past week the water was constantly going on and off. On Saturday we started a load of laundry at 7:30 in the morning. Then the electricity went off, then came on and the water went off, then vice versa. We finally finished the load in the evening. Then, to top it all off, the water went off Monday night and stayed off until Wed. afternoon. It's frustrating to see the dishes pile up, the bathroom get very gross, etc. And it's pretty hard to keep things clean here as it is. It's hard to feel overwhelmed at work and come home to a dirty, waterless home. To add to it, our phone has stopped working for some reason. We can receive calls but not make them.
On a positive note, though, the books finally arrived! After over 1 month of school the books came on Tuesday. Next week will end our six weeks. It's flown by!
Although it's been more tough than I expected, God has taught Daniel and I a lot- about the importance of prayer, the importance of remaining thankful, and the importance of remembering that teaching is not our life's purpose. When I remember that I am here to serve Him, not make all of my students brilliant, my anxiety decreases. It's been hard learning to teach ESL students. But my first priority is to show them God's love as I teach them other subjects.
Thank you all for your prayers- Daniel and I have certainly needed them! We know that the hard times make us realize how much we need God. They also unite us together, and our relationship is growing stronger through them.
On a lighter note, we had another bat visit our house. :) And we're thinking of getting a cat. The zoo continues...

Phone number

Our number is 809-574-2871. Of course, I don't think anyone has an international plan and would call us. However, assuming it works out to share flash with our neighbor, we're going to get vonage and have a 630 US area code! Yay! :) You all could call us then!

We have a phone!

   Well, our phone line is finally hooked up, but unfortunately, due to the way things work around here, we can't add internet to our service for 3 months (nor can we upgrade our service plan to get a cheaper international rate).  So for now we're still using our neighbor's connection.  She is trying to get high-speed, which we could then share, and so there is a chance we may end up with high-speed internet for cheaper than it would be for us to have dial-up (which will we choose??).  Unfortunately, I don't have our number written down, so I can't give it to you :(.

   This past weekend, we had a great day and a half at the beach (3 hours away) and staying at an all-inclusive resort right on the beach for $70 per night for the both of us (not bad, huh?).  It was much needed and the break was wonderful.  I even took the time to watch about half an hour of ND football- probably the worst half-hour of football they played so far in the season, but oh well.  We also got to stop at what most of us would think of as a supermarket but to us it was more like an amusement park and were able to get fun things like eggroll wrappers, frozen calamari, crushed red pepper (which is greatly lacking in this country), and even natural peanut butter. 

   In not-so-good news, I was sick Wednesday and came home from school early and collapsed and rested the rest of the day.  Teresa was also beginning to feel under the weather too.  Whether from the rest or the anti-parasite medicine we're now taking (it's only $1.50 per treatment and it's over-the-counter, so people here said to take it even if in doubt), I'm feeling much better now and Teresa doesn't seem to be getting very bad. 

   As so many of us have been affected, our little inconvenience from Hurricaine Rita was that it made it impossible for the flight with our textbooks to leave Florida, so this means that we should be getting them next Tuesday, as long as the plane can fly.  It has been tough not having textbooks and has been a real financial drain on the school needing to make so many photocopies.

   So, yeah, what else is going on... Teresa is out with a bunch of ladies at a fellowship dancing thing that I don't quite understand.  I'm babysitting for our neighbor's son and getting to relax and lesson plan.  We're looking forward to a weekend home, hopefully getting to do some things around our apartment.

  God bless you all!

Sad Mailing Day

We only get mail once every two weeks and we didn't get any mail today! Please send us mail- even if it's just letters! We don't have to pay for flatmail under 1lb. We would love to hear from you!
P.O. Box 24770 #PMB-ECDR
West Palm Beach, FL 33416
;) Have I begged enough? ;)

Peterson’s Blog Stardate 0911.05.214.03

Posted by Teresa. Daniel’s comments in italics.
2 weeks ago we embarked on embarked on a journey of stellar proportions. We were entrusted with the delicate mission of training young minds. I don’t know about your mission, but mine has been anything but “delicate.” AHEM. Anyway, we have been entrusted with this precious job and are taking it quite seriously. I show up for work every morning. Well, I am anyway. The students enter into the school building every morning, eager to have their minds fed with new knowledge. (HA!!!) Seriously, though, teaching has been hard work. We enjoy (most of) our students and have good days and bad days. It’s really nice to be working in the same building as Daniel. Our rooms are across the hall from each other, so we can glance at each other and smile during the day. I also get to hear Daniel cracking down on the 8th graders. (They’re a wild bunch) The most annoying problem about school so far is that we don’t yet have the books. They should be arriving this Tuesday. It will be very nice to have them. And save a lot of paper from photocopies. We are trying not to “take our job home” emotionally. We do, however, have to take it home physically in planning and grading. We still need a 1st grade teacher. Anyone interested? Seriously!
As far as non-school life goes (is there such a thing?), we still don’t have a phone! Sorry mom and dad. This also means that we can only get online at other people’s houses. We really want to keep in contact with you guys and be able to update our blog more often. It’s hard not getting homesick when we have little contact with people at home. :( We miss you!!!!! On a much more positive note, ND beat Michigan!!!!!
Anyway, we’ve have a good but long week. Wed-Sat there was a retreat at Escuela Caribe and we went for Wed, Fri, and Sat evenings. They invited us to join them and even fed us. It was a good time of worship and listening to some really good preaching from a youth pastor from Colorado (Aaron ___? ). On Saturday we went hiking in the morning. Today (Sunday) we’ve been relaxing. We also went to the store and decided to try some random food including canned sardines in tomato sauce; cassava bread; fig, coconut, candy stuff; and other stuff. We also saw that they have canned mussels, calamari, and shrimp. We’ll have to try it sometime- it’s our only real way of eating seafood in the mountains! But next weekend we’re going to the beach for Sat-Sun, so we’ll hopefully have some REAL seafood then.
Well, it’s still hot and sticky here. I’m already missing fall colors. Please send pictures of pretty trees changing colors! Hey, there goes the electricity… for the 3rd time today. (But at least that means it came on three times! And the water only went off a few times!)
Alrighty, hopefully we can find someone to let us use their computer to send this.
Signing off for now… from a galaxy far, far away…