Another Week

This last week was a little less busy… oh wait, no. As usual we had our Tuesday night dinner and Wednesday night Bible study. On Thursday we had a family over for dinner. They’re from Valparaiso, IN and are working with Kid’s Alive here in Jarabacoa. They have an 8^th grade daughter and 4^th grade son, so Teresa and I have both of their kids. It was a lot of fun and it gave us a good chance to talk with the kids and parents in an entirely non-school environment. Friday night we had dinner at Leah’s (her famous chicken fajita pizza). Saturday we worked around the house and did lesson planning type stuff and just generally got stuff done. Then Saturday night we had dinner at a student’s family’s house (They also have one in each of our classes) and they served us sancocho, the Dominican special meal of throwing every kind of meat and starch imaginable into a rich chicken broth and serving it over rice… absolutely delicious.

(This is Teresa now)

We had anticipated having a relaxing Sunday, maybe visiting a waterfall. However, it was interrupted before it began. I awoke at around 4:30 with terrible stomach pains. That turned into hours of my body cleaning itself out in every possible way (I won’t go into descriptions). By the time it was done, it had ridded itself of everything in my digestive tract- I couldn’t even keep water in my body. Eventually, later in the morning I was able to drink a few sips of water without losing it. That progressed to Gatorade and I even had a few bites of jello and toast before the day was through. We’re not sure if I has stomach poisoning, virus, etc? but a few other JCS teachers also had it this week, and another one had something similar a few weeks ago. All in all, it was not a pleasant experience. But I slept all day and Daniel took great care of me. I praise God for a loving and serving husband. In addition, a woman who from our church stopped in to check on me and give some advice (she is a doctor who goes to our church). It’s so good to know that God is looking after us- even in a foreign country (the thought of going to the doctors here made me a little nervous- they would have given me lots of medicine, etc.) I am also thankful for the timing- I only had to miss one day of school (Monday). Monday was better, but I still couldn’t get up without feeling sick, so I sat on the couch and entertained myself with Veggie Tales, McGyver, and even a little grading. I at some crackers and a banana and by dinnertime I ate some chicken pot-pie Daniel made me. He came home during his breaks through out the day to check in on me.J Tuesday was better and I went back to school, but I was still exhausted and not very hungry. Daniel continued to be a huge help.

Wednesday I woke up and felt completely different- I was myself again! That evening Daniel and I celebrated his accomplishments with fajitas: teacher of the month, and starting grad school on Monday! I am so proud of him!!!

I really enjoyed the rest of the week with my students. Daniel had a good rest of the week too. On Thursday the school board treated all the employees at the school to pizza. It was yummy.J

Friday we relaxed, played games with Leah and Regan, and watched a movie (well, Daniel worked on grad school stuff at home during the movie). So, although the week started crazily, it ended up being very relaxing. J

Please pray for us as we finish up the year, write finals, pack, find a place for our kitty to stay, find a job for Daniel, and start raising support money.