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