Dear friends and family,

     Wow this week went so fast working in my room and getting ready for school. Sadly Saturday and i was kinda ready for the beach but it rained on an off all day and we all decided that we didn't want anything like last time cuz that was kinda miserable so we didn't get our weekly beach time this week but that ok. We all found we all had a lot to do yet saturday so we were busy. It seems like you can always find something else to do to get ready for school. then that night us American/Canada youth here in Labarie went out to eat at the Nutmeg is was such a pretty location. Then we went over to Kendall and Ginger's house for Micah's Birthday.

 around the circle L to R Sarah, Amanda, Natalie, Ryan, James, Lori that my teacher team for the year except Mr. Moses who is Grenadian.

 they had a wall of these kind of windows at the restaurant looking out into a bay or harbor. We could see the crane on the bottom pic. moving containers on that barg.

   Micah turning 9

Today was nice to go to church and see everyone again and getting to know everyone a lil more. And i thought it was really sweet a older lady here who i had sat with the sunday before said she missed me sitting beside her today. and i got to teach sunday school so that was fun! they are pretty good behaved. Then this evening we went to Fort Fredrickson for a song service. Let me tell you these Grenadians know how to sing and lot of them doing really good. I think it's kinda a cultural thing because lots of people will go down the road singing. Anyway it was so pretty up there and the sunset was really good to!

 just for interests sake the harbor or whatever its called that you see in the pic. above is where the nutmeg is where we ate sat. night.

 singing serves.

 the moon and a few stars i haven't been able to pinpoint the big dipper yet that is something i want to find.

So anyway that catches you up on what has been happening. if you think of it tomorrow. Tomorrow is the first day of school. so we would love your prayers that is all goes well and things start of awesome! im going to post some pictures of when we went up on the point last sunday.

 us girls L to R Sarah, Lori, Me, Natalie, and Amanda

 the guys Ryan, and James

 my house mates Amanda and Natalie

 Sarah and Lori live in an apartment down the road

I stole all these pics. from Lori's camera i took some of these pics with her camera to but anyway i found this pic to so i decided to add it to.i don't know what kind of lizard this is but we have a gecko living in our house we say its Amandas pet cuz it lives upstairs and Natalie wants to get rid of it but Amanda wants it to stay so... its called Amanda's pet. Well anyway i guess i better get some sleep for tomorrow. so anyway so long ~crystal

Dear friends and family,
 
     So i am still alive and i got home around 10pm on thursday. i came in the middle of rainy season so there is showers quite frequent here which is ok. They normally don't bother me just have to run to all the windows and shut them when you see the wall of rain getting close. they don't last very long though..15 or so min.There is a mysterious disease going on here so i would love your prayers because if all of us teachers end up getting it here in the next week and going into the next we will have to postpone school which starts monday of next week. People are wondering if it is chikungunya but we are not sure. i dont know if anyone has for sure got tested. its been all over here in LaBorie or at least lot of kids and some people we talk to say they have had it or someone in there family had it...so i dont no. There some debate on what it might be as well some people say that people aren't sick enough to have chikungunya. The Highs are going through it right now natalie one of my housemates has it. she has a rash and one side of her is stiff in the joints. so it may be getting ready to make its rounds through the teachers. So mosquito spray, mosquito spray..and keep covered up good when in bed.

    But know enough of that sad stuff. Sat. for the first time i was on the beach and its is so pretty! We took two busses down (which is a fun and interesting experience) and i happened to find a huge starfish and one of the girls brought it up when i saw her touching it i was fine with touching it its so cool! And a mysterious creature (probably a crab) that had a big "mouth" tried to get the bottom of my foot before i kicked it away. We had a few showers while we were there and it got cold! we sat up by the tree that we hang all our stuff on and tried to keep it dry. but it was a failing attempt.

     Sunday was really nice i got to see who all worshiped here. And meet them. And get embarrassed by not understanding there was of speaking english. The lady i was sitting beside in church was trying to tell me something and she kept pointing to random people and things so i think after a while we both gave up or else i happened to nod at the right time i don't know. But for the most part when they can speak clear enough for you. and you can catch key words and such. its so weird that we speak the same language when lot of times my brain tones it out and i have to keep telling my self to listen and learn. It was also Natalies birthday so we had the two teachers from up the road come for lunch and then in the evening all the teachers when up to a ridge outlooking the ocean on the Atlantic side. it was so pretty there we saw a wide range of small to huge crabs and i saw a water snake. we then watched the sunset and then we all went down to our house for smoothies, hot pretzels, an leftover cake and games.

     Monday started getting ready for school setting up the classroom and such. im hoping to finish that today or tomorrow the classroom stuff. so we will see once it still looks like quite a mess so hopefully things turn out:P

      Tuesday we were planning on going to town for material for our students desks but then Natalie got sick so we had to go without her. we took one bus down and then weaved our way through people to the fabric store which was crowded with people getting school uniforms and such.  so we finally got out of there that we went to a few other places and then headed to the bus stop. on our way their Amanda stopped and picked up some "pears" what people call avocados down here so i will have to remember that.  last night i sat down an did a lot of figuring out rules procedures discipline and a lil bit of my schedule.

     Oh mom yesterday Amanda bought some mangos from our neighbor boys and then she taught me one way of eating them....you just peel as you go, peel and bite that off. kinda like an apple except you have to keep peeling it. but that doesn't work when sharing it so i don't know how you do that. But i thought that would interest you. well i should go and get some more work done. Love Crytal