dear family and friends i know i am sounding like a broken record but really time FLIES down here!!! it seams like only a day or two ago that i wrote here about last week and now i am suppose to have a whole nother week that i can right abut....well i don't know what day did i write my other post??.... well ok sat. we went on the beach oh it was so amazing!!! it was sooo nice just to relax! and i could just feel all those bad toxins leave my body as i soaked in the ocean....the water is so warm and relaxing and ya.... just amazing... you will have to come experience it for your self to know what i mean.. anyway enough of that. it was kinda crazy i was grumbling to myself about  not knowing what was my responsibility to buy and what comes out of our 'community' fund.so we come home from town and i finally got ahold of this piece of informationt that you should get your own snacks for school lunches. well so for some dumb reason i was rather distraught! (what a silly thing to be fussing to myself about i know)Well lo and behold sunday morning a lady who comes to church here and likes when i sit with her in church said she had something to give me and guess what it was!!! yes, you got it... snacks!!!!! i felt rather embarrassed, and felt like i should share this because it was so cool (and humbling) but anyway God def. got my attention there! ok so i talked about sunday some now. that afternoon the whole church clambered into 3 busses and took off for two old folks home one in Gouyave which had a amazing view of the ocean and all the sail boat out and about..and then we went to  Victoria we did singing and a lil devotional it was a lot of fun..singing down here is a lot of fun cuz you can sing as loud and of key and crackly voice as you want!! And then on to Couture falls which was really nice. we walked around in the water and everyone was saying how cold it was but i thought it felt good it def. isn't like fresh ID mountain water...ok so down here is a map that i found online and i circled some point of interest

yellow: Laura, Limes, & LaBoire

purple: were we went sunday

green: the point i went to the second evening i was here

blue: the beach we go on saturdays

ok so lets see 

monday: schol and then kids club down the road aways were we had crusades a while ago it is me and Amanda's spot to have it so we will be doing that frequently. it was a nice time although i was rather worn out from the day. 

tuesday: school and then a PTA or rather meet all the parents night

wednesday: school and and then went to town and then there was cottage meeting in the eve.

thursday: school and then us staff girls go together for our weekly meal it was at the other girls house this time.

friday (today): school and games class with the students at a guy just up the road me and miss Eberly had to get the games together for that we played doug the ball, and then we split up into two groups the older one on one side of the court and the younger ones on the other side... i organized the game for the older group. we played donkey base or as you all would know it, tree or dare base. this evening us single staff went over to the Foxes for supper and then us girls had to come back for girl club at our house we had 11 girl which i understand was an amazing turn out... it was fun but man am i ready for the weekend and just relaxing. you are busy busy busy here but so far i have been ok and enjoying it. i never was one to always be packing my days but i have not regretted all the things we are doing so that is good....

well i guess that is all i can think of to write right now i have some more pic. here.....

our lovely basket of amazing food... although i'm not sure about the soursop..(the prickly looking thing) me and Natalie wanted to try some but Amanda who had tried it already was kinda hesitant that we by it because she didn't like it but we wanted to try it so we got one. me and Natalie opened it this morning and the smell!!! it smells like body wash which is a nice thing when it is body wash but not when it is food. it rather made us almost gage...we decided we would quietly put it away in the fridge  and see if it would appeal to us later i don't know that it will though...rather skeptic. although when it is in smoothies it is good thursday night sarah or lori made soursop & banana smoothies and they were really good. well enough about the soursop. lets see there is pears (avocados) and lots of mangos the yellow red and i think one of the green are mangos.

 well here is my class we were waiting to go up to the court for game class. i tried to get them to take a nice pic. but they were all excited about game class and the whole building was noise with cleaning going on so i didn't really succeed.... one of my kids Cyle was sick today so sadly i don't have a pic. of him... but in the back on the right is Renel,(a spunky little girl who also loves hugs and talking) Rebekah, (she and her mother would go to church here she is a very sweet girl) David, ( one of the little 'foxes' (his last name is Fox) very sweet my smart kid, sensitive and has the cutest smile) Darrell, ( is normally a nice boy and loves to please. and loves when i let him do a puzzle.) Shane, (  he is really sweet can be one notice i said one of my clowns and is always wanting to tell me something...miss!..miss!!! he says trying to get my attention over the hub-bub of every one else telling me something) Nella, ( my other talkative girl she is a very funny bubbly girl who takes her little stuffed i dont know what it is a lemurs....the monkey things on madagascar you can actually she her holding it on the pic.) Leadon, ( a boy from Laria he loves to play although i think fitting in with everyone here has been a lil hard for him. it seems some of the boys pick on him but i dont know that he is completely innocent. right now his dad is in the hospital and from what he said his dad broke his back. i would also love if you prayed for me to on knowing how to approach and handle him he is having a hard time with his work sometimes. he can do amazing one day and not so good the next and he seems a lil bitter. he wrote in his math book today instead of working something to the effect of miss you will be sorry someday that you are making me do this work and the other day he wanted to poke someones eyes out and he told me in a very defiant voice that he was stronger then me like he was going to try to prove it right there and then. obviously he is small enough for me to handle and it is what his mind is obviously dwelling on that makes me scared! but all in all he is a nice boy most of the time and loves to have fun! i think lot of it is the stress with his day and changing schools and 2 of his cousins didnt make it into our school so ya im hoping all this will go away....

 Nella she wanted me to take passport pics. of everyone...she is taking hers to go to Hawaii

 i got here to smile here

 leadon

 shane i could not for the longest time get him to smile nicely :) but wait did i ever get a nice one of his adorable smile dosnt look like it he is still cute though with out his signature smile....

 leadon and shane

 almost...

 darrell

 david

 renel the lower one shows more of her normal smile :)

rebekah

a little frog we found in our house tonight the smallest frog i have ever seen!! i dont know he was prolly only twice the size of my thumb nail.

 our craft for girls club this evening it was on making choices. Amanda did a really good job at teaching!!

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

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