dear friend and family,

     Wow this week went fast!! Monday seems like not to long ago yet quite a long time ago all at the same time. Monday what the first day of school. (thank-you so much for your prayers i was surprisingly hardly nervous) all though i was kinda discouraged at the end of the day. I guess i was learning what was necessary to teach them and what was not. Like we were reviewing clocks and forgot to tell them that when the shorthand is halfway between two numbers that you ALWAYS jump back.... and stuff like that i didn't have time to make havoc of my other lessons because math took all our time that day although it was a half day. That evening Amanda was able to cheer me up though...

     Tuesday when better but not tip top. I delt a lot with behavioral issues or rather let it slide...bad idea! It was our first whole day of school so it was interesting seeing how a whole day looks and how much time should be allotted for math, language arts etc. It was rather sad though that morning Amanda or Miss Eberly in school was sick so Sarah or Miss Herr filled in for her.

     Wednesday Lori or Miss Lori got sick with the chikungunya so Ginger, Kendall's wife filled in for her. the day went really good i knuckled down on behavior and gave three kids lashes and should have given another one but it was break time and i was dealing with my third one so he got off the hook but the fact that Miss Crystal does give lashes traveled down through the grapevine and i overheard some of them describing i'm not sure how hard i hit or how i do it not sure. Just for your information "lashes" are not as horrid as they sound....in Grenada all or most school including public schools give lashes and spanking. lasher are dealt to the hand and spanking to the bottom. And there must be a witness there for the spanking. It was funny though there is a boy names Cyle in my class and he is so funny one day he was drawing at the table and for some reason he thought he was sitting to low so he stood up to do what he was doing better and informed me that he is short like a chicken! he is kinda the clown in my room he make believe to strut around while walking to and from his desk to my desk or the bookshelf... Renel is a girl in my class and she can be pretty early in the morning but i normally beat her there so one morning she told me that i am like a roster it took me a lil to figure out what she meant but once i did i though it was pretty funny! that evening then we went to town all except Amanda who was still weak. we got groceries and ran it to the holderman couple who lives here in Grenada i had seen them one or two times before but this was my first time formally meeting them and through that i found out a startling fact.. his name is Greg Unruh and he grew up in Bonners Ferry!!! he had lived there till he was 8 and he has a lot of relatives that live in Bonners Ferry which makes sense... At seven was prayer meeting and it was a really nice time i was really touched to listen to some of the Grenadian woman pray. They put a lot of feeling in there prayers and they prayed like they were in conversation with God. I think we people who grow up in a 'Christian' society get into the cluchey way of praying were it doesn't sound like a conversation any more... i dont know that it is necessary wrong but it kinda got me thinking about how i pray.

      Thursday went pretty good as far as behavior i decide to use the mark system so that straighten them out pretty well and prolly the lashes from yesterday. because i did not have to give any that day...we also had hot lunch that day which is when one of the missionary wives bring food and its a dollar per meal. that day we did have a lil harder time getting our work done but it was a pretty good day in all.

     Friday (which happens to be today. although i might not publish this till tomorrow) went really really good i was so impressed with all my student's we only had in truth around a half day as far a work goes because then at 1 we all go up to a gym near by and play game and do exercises.. and back to my kids being awesome they got all there work done or pretty much two kids have a few things to finish up on monday. What a change from Monday. and can you believe it only two of my kids got one mark today! everything was def. up over the chart! so that was a blessing! This evening then we went to the Highs for supper at first i was thinking it would be nice just to stay home and rewind but i had a very enjoyable time there fellowshipping and then we had senior youth at the church where its 13 and up ya i'm not sure why its called that but there is junior youth to but then they are obviously not in there teens. we had a lot of boys that were prolly 13,14 there so it was loud and rowdy! but it was a really nice evening and Chris had a really good devotions on how hard it is to break a habit. well i guess i'll go and publish it here tonight yet.....i was meaning to get pics. of my students this week but never got around to it so i can't show you any of those but i took some pics. of my classroom this evening so i will put those on here.

 here is my bulletin board we made cars for it the second day of school for art class since that is when it is scheduled for everyone down here little do they know that i was going to do the cars the first day of school for whatever but monday was to busy... i think there cars turned out really cute :)

 ok so the bugs you see on the left are for their birthdays and the rest is self explainable

here is desks, bookshelf and such. and my jalousie's :) had to show of my new word...Natalie has a calendar that teaches you a new word every day  and she had this a few days ago and for you who don't know what a jalousie is..its a window made of slats that open and close together...i love them by the way we get a nice breeze coming in them! the only draw back is that when it rains which it does frequently you have to shut them..

                                   all my kid's names....
                                  
my board that they can showcase their drawings on..right now some of them are in this rage of staying in at break and drawing pictures. which so far i have not minded it......
Prayer requests:
1. There is a girl here that goes to church and she just started college and being a christian and being in that environment is hard. i don't know her very well yet but i think she would be a pretty strong christian but it wears on one being in that kind of environment all the time and she is worried about it to. and was kinda dreading it. and her home life is a hard right now to....
2. That we would know what to do with children in school that push the limits (my class is pretty good but one of my co-teachers is really working on a girl who acts out to get attention)
3. The church here that we could remain strong and reach more people
4. That we could all stay healthy and that we would not live in fear of getting sick :) /and those who are sick right now in the community and in the churches here..
Thank-you so much everyone for your prayers and support it means a lot to me!! ~Crystal