skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Hmm, yeah, I watched "Gladiator" last night, for those curious about the title.
Tomorrow will mark our two-week anniversary in Costa Rica. Two weeks sounds like nothing, I know, but I can assure you, we are being kept extremely busy, and it feels like it's been far longer than a fortnight (who uses that word anymore? we really should) since we left Austria.
Teaching English- far easier said then done. You never realize just how inconsistent a language is until you have to teach it. Why does every grammar rule have an exception?? Why can't they all just follow the rules like they're supposed to? Why do "kn" and "ph" and "ough" and "th" make such ridiculous sounds? You don't feel very smart or capable as a teacher when you have to tell your students "I don't know why that's the way it is, but that's the way it is."
Really, though, grammar atrocities aside, teaching is going pretty well. Like I've said before, it's as much a new thing for me as it is for them. With the second week behind us, I think we're finding our groove. Today we started reading through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - combining vocabulary and reading skills at the same time. Plus you get a good story :) Works out well!
Okay, I won't bore you anymore with teacher talk. Here are a few more of my thoughts of late:
1) We have gone from being Guntramsdorf's resident night owls to being exhausted by 10 pm and up before 7 am here in Costa Rica. This has been consistent every day since we've gotten here, and I'm still not used to the idea of early to bed, early to rise. Works well here, because of our schedule, but I think i will be slipping back into my old ways once we leave.
2) One significant difference between working here and working in Austria is the number of people we work with. In Austria, we worked with a very small group of people who we saw and interacted with nearly every day - people who liked us so much that they called us by the endearing name of "Brats" and gave us the pleasant tasks they reserved for us because "you're the interns" (you know who you are).
Here in Costa Rica there are dozens of people connected to IT and the Multiplication Center - we've met most of them, but we really only see a certain few regularly. We spend most of our time planning our English lessons, and then teaching our English lessons. I'm glad we're being kept busy, but i am looking forward to some free time.
3) I think the ARC and the Oasis have ruined me - I now find it very difficult to drink black tea.
From left to right: Marcia, Luis, me, and Donald. My English students! :) They're eager to learn, and that makes all the difference in the world.
this past weekend was "vista previa" - "preview weekend". this was a weekend retreat for 30+ ticos (costa ricans) who are interested in being a part of missions to gain a perspective on missions and the different opportunities out there. one of the things that we were a part of was the Greece booth. we set up a little stations where we spoke greek, prepared tzatziki for them to try, told them a little bit about the country and then we also told them about Helping Hands.it was a really great opportunity to spend time with some more ticos. there is even a man who is interested in spending time working at Helping Hands. he really feels God is calling him to missions and has been praying about it for a long time and then he heard about helping hands (from us!!) and..well, that's it! he says he wants to spend a year there. i think that's pretty cool though! i hope it works out. now along with people from the united states, canadians, irish, english, aussies, albanians, iranians, filipinas, now there might be a tico at the ARC. it would be a first!aside from that there have been classes. slowly getting more comfortable being a teacher, but i honestly wouldn't make it a profession. i just hope i am helping them.sandi asked a good question in a comment on my last blog. she asked "what do you miss?"i miss familiarity. i love new places and new things, and new people, and new foods, and have not regretted even for a minute the decision kendra and i made in leaving home. but..i do miss being able to know what's where and how to get there (yes, even on my own!). i miss knowing the people around me, and not always being a stranger or the new kid. i miss being able to see the sea. i know i'm in costa rica, but i haven't seen any signs of water yet. (yet!) my parents told me they were going for a picnic on the beach and it made me jealous. i do kinda miss home!! i miss my mom and her cooking (she's a a good ma), and i miss my dad and going to the ARC with him. always making him late haha (hey dad, i'm getting better!). i miss maggie. i miss my room!little things come to my mind so often, and i almost hate to think about it because i don't want to dwell on what i'm missing out on. someone told me "if you're here, be here 100%". i understood exactly her meaning, and i did need to hear it. i am the queen of discontentedness. i've spent half of my life being in one place, wishing i were somewhere else. however, though i do miss a few things, i have not regretted for a minute being on this trip. i am so thankful for my time in austria and the people i met there, and i love being in costa rica.wow it is 8:45 and i am totally ready for bed. so i will finish up.time to sleep.-beckyPS - please pray for my back. it has been hurting me.
and so i'm an english teacher. HA! hardly.we are here in costa rica and my new endeavor is to teach three "ticos" (costa ricans) english.kendra teaches three of the beginners, and i teach the advanced three. they all need to learn english because they are going to be going to africa and the middle east as missionaries. three of them actually need to learn english so that they can take arabic lessons - i do NOT envy the next few years for them!! they are some really great people and i really like them a lot. i just feel horrible that i am responsible for them and their knowledge of the english language. sigh...poor them. i was never all that great of a student, and never have had to teach before in my life, so this is a bit of an overwhelming task at the moment.. but i am determined to get better, and they are very forgiving of my awkwardness so far. it also helps that they are very eager students.so, we do apologize for not updating. we have been spending our time on lesson plans and getting over jet lag. i think this is the first time since we were maybe ten that either of us have gone to bed before midnight, but now we are dead tired by 8:30. we usually extend it to 9:30 and then sleep til around 6. tho i would NEVER make a habit of this sleeping style, being a late nighter, this is not such a bad thing for costa rica. we have a LOVELY breakfast ready and waiting by 7:30. this is the first time in my life that i've actually enjoyed a fully balanced breakfast too. oatmeal, or french toast, or ceareal, with toast, and coffee, and topped with the most delicious, freshly made mango papaya smoothie. top all that healthiness off with a few vitamins - aahh...i love breakfast!!! coffee is so delicious here, and so are the fruits. aaahh..so nice to be eating healthy after a month in austria of having to feed ourselves and having a not so balanced diet. costa rica = deliciously.haha ok, enough about food. i really like the culture here. people are warm and inviting and fun-loving. very laid back. i was told by my english students that the tico way is pura vida. the answer to everything is "pure life."i am also enjoying the beauty around me. seeing as i am waking up before the sunrises everyday, (on my own, too, not with an alarm clock or anything - ?!) i am able to enjoy the sun rising outside my window over the view of luscious garden, the city in the valley below, and the not so distance volcano. it is interesting to compare the different beauties of austria and costa rica. in one it is so cultured, and the beauty is by the man's God given eye for design and architecture. the beauty here is uncultivated, completely natural. i feel like i have all the perks of camping, but am able to live in a lovely home, at the same time. it's a win-win.i love costa rica
Our third day in Costa Rica (or “Woodyland”, as some like to call it) draws to a close. Actually, my new word of the day is “cockshut”. This lovely sounding word means “the ending of a day”. So there you go. I write this blog at the cockshut of February 17.Our arrival to Costa Rica managed to coincide directly with the team retreat, so right off the bat we met the whole team, and then some. It wasn’t a retreat in the sense that the team went away together, like the team retreats most of us have been on. It was simply a weekend here at the Multiplication Center, where there was a speaker who taught on the teaching style of Jesus, and how these youth leaders could engage and develop relationships with students the same way Jesus did with his disciples and friends. Hm, long sentence there, I hope it made sense.Anyway, being thrust into a large group of people we didn’t know was a little awkward at first, but thankfully that didn’t last too long. The people here are incredibly nice, and Spanish is just really cool sounding ☺ It’s a fun group, I can already tell I’m really going to enjoy getting to know them better.So, for those of you who don’t know already, the main thing that Becky and I will be doing while we’re here is teaching English to some Costa Ricans on the team. These particular team members are preparing to become missionaries in certain countries where English will be a better asset than Spanish, so there you go – for six weeks, it is our job to teach them grammar, increase their vocabulary, and most importantly, have conversations with them!! The fact that we don’t speak a lick of Spanish actually works in our favour in this situation – they’ll have no choice but to speak English ☺High points:1) I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to walk outside and NOT have to cover every inch of skin! No coat, no gloves, no scarf – just beautiful, wonderful warmth!2) I must now join the multitude that sings the praises of Woody and Sue Roland. God bless these wonderful, wonderful people who are letting us stay in their home, eat their candy, officially whoop me in games of Quiddler, and read us the poetry of Taylor Mali. I’m sure these are just the start of many enjoyable things to come.3) Yesterday I introduced myself to a Costa Rican guy named Norman who did some translating for the speaker over the weekend. We briefly chatted. As you can well imagine, the name “Kendra” is not a common one, and I’ve had to repeat it to people more times than I can count, especially to those who don’t speak English as a first language. Well, today I saw him again, and he said: “Hello, Kendra. Kendra, right?” Astonished, I replied: “Yes! I can’t believe you remembered, no one ever remembers my name!” To which he shrugs and says: “Yeah, it’s an easy name.”Go ahead and laugh at me, that was music to my ears!Interesting fact: Did you know that 30% of Spanish originates from Arabic? I never would have made the connection. Of course, being neither a Spanish or an Arabic speaker, that’s not saying much.I think it’s safe to say that we are off to a pretty good start ☺
-Kendra
i have never, ever EVER been so relieved to be out of an airport. i am so exhausted physically and emotionally. we both are. i'm starting this at 8 o'clock tonight, and tho i took a four hour "nap" not too long ago, i don't think i will last through the whole thing what i don't finish tonight, i will certainly finish tomorrowugh..so where do i begin...4 o'clock in the morning. i finished my blog soon before this and i did not sleep at all. poor tom had to throw rocks at our window to get us to come unlock the door haha. i just think that's hilarious. so good ol' tom woke up super early and drove us, we got there in fine timing, no waits or anything, we get on the plane, no waits, all was good. a smooth start, and we hoped that was a sign for the rest of the trip as well. no such luck...we get our luggage just fine, and we have 5 hours in paris before our 11 hour flight to LA. we figured we would go check our luggage in, get our boarding passes, and then just walk around this ENORMOUS airport. we are pretty exhausted as we set out walking with our suitcases, giant backpacks and our stuffed purses, so that didn't make our attempt to find out where the heck we were going any easier or more pleasant. after walking for forever, catching shuttle buses, all over this stupid airport, we finally get to the right terminal but then there is no air tahiti flight to LA anywhere on the boards. kendra stays with the luggage so that we can both unburden ourselves and i go to an information booth. she tells me the flight was canceled. how or why? no explanation. it was just canceled. she directs me to the air tahiti nui desk at the other end of the terminal. i waited a good half hour waiting for the people in front of me, a family who was also supposed to be on that flight. finally it's my turn. he's type type typing away, of course never stopping to update me at all. after like 20 minutes of that, i tell him i have a friend who is travelling with me, and that i was gonna go get her. so i left him working on it, go get kendra and the bags and we race back to this guy. still takes half an hour for him to finish and he finally told us that he booked us on the next flight to LA on airfrance. it would get us there 2 hours than we were supposed to originally, but we had a 10 hour layover, so no worries there. yetso yay, we're booked on a flight, we feel better. we take another shuttle to another terminal at the airport and go to get our luggage checked in (at last). but was that it? no, of course not, silly us thinking all we well. if anything on this trip could happen to make us wait as long as possible, it did. so we go to this desk and we are the only ones there as it's still like 3 hours before our flight. this normally means quick and easy check in, getting the good seats. not this time, not for us. he says to kendra that she was reserved on the flight, but it seemed that i was not. he asks if i have another last name that i go under "um, no.." well it seems that the guys from air tahiti nui forgot to book you. i say how is that possible, i was the one standing at his desk for the whole hour. he's trying to call the desk, no answer. it is always busy. half an hour goes by and he is still typing away, on the phone, trying to figure out what the deal is. now this guy was very nice and doing the best he could to figure out why i wasn't on the flight, so i can't blame him. but after half an hour when a line starts building up with no movement he says miss, i will keep trying, but i also need to keep the line moving. so..more waiting. we watch from the side as all these people are getting on the flight with no problem. between customers he is on the phone still attempting to get the air tahiti guy. what's another 30 minutes of waiting, right? i don't know if he ever did get a hold of that guy, but finally he calls me over and says "i've found you. you are booked on the flight." and you know what the whole issue was? when he booked my flight, the air tahiti guy spelled my name wrong. the stupid frenchie spelled sirinides with a C. cirinides?? no. greeks don't even have a character 'c'. we finally get our luggage checked. back on another shuttle, we head to our gate. but did i already mention that thing about waiting? because here comes another wait. for unexplained reasons they were not allowing anyone to come upstairs into security check. we wait and wait. there is probably a good 100+ other people waiting on this platform. we sit down and i fall asleep on the floor. at LONG last they let the crowds up. but then of course it was a mob. i don't even knoe where all the other people came from but we were all crowded, not in any sort of line, not really moving anywhere, just waiting, shoulder to shoulder, to get through security. after a good 15 minutes of this i was starting to feel more than just a little claustrophobic. as i was praying a desperate prayer for escape when they called the airfrance flight to LA to all come forward. our flight was to take off in half an hour, and most, if not everybody was still in line for security check. we finally all get through, last call for boarding our flght and we wanted to quickly sign in on the internet to call kendra's mom, not only because we knew they were probably worried seeing that our flight was canceled, but not knowing what was to happen to us, but also because we were supposed to be picked up from LA by a close friend of ms vicki's to go back to her house and shower and relax for our 10 hour layover there. we needed to let her know that we were going to arrive 2 hours later than expected. no such luck. we had to immediately board our plane, and i we were among the very last to do so. we were not able to be seated together, as the flight was so full, which is not the end of the world. but we are seated and on a flight to LA - at last!! 7:30 to 1 oclock -6 hours in paris airport and not one moment wasn't spend waiting, or rushing, or stressed. we were exhausted. i will admit, though every other event was horrendous, airfrance is a rather nice airline. maybe we just had a good plane, but nice seats, individual tvs with tons of movies and music and shows, decent food (impressive for airplane food), good service. had i been any less miserable, i would have almost enjoyed the flight. however the lack of sleep, lack of food, the stress of it all had it's affect on my health and the slight cold that i had felt creeping up from the day before came full throttle with a fever. i would fall asleep with two blankets over me, still shiver, and then wake up sweating. headache, stiff neck,... you get the picture. misery.after the almost 11 hour flight we arrive in LA. our luggage takes forever to come, but we get it, we go out, not having any idea if there would be anyone waiting. there wasn't. we wandered away to look for a pay phone, which we found. it was really and truly by the grace of God alone, that 2 and a half hours later, at a completely different terminal than we were supposed to be at, as kendra is putting change into the phone, she finds lori. lori was searching the different terminals, not really having much hope that she was going to find us, but doing so just to try, for ms vick's sake, i believe. she was just about to leave when kendra spotted her. i'll say it again, an act of God's mercy. kendra is able to call her mom to tell at least that we are ok and that lori found us. we sould save the explanations for later. and so, by the time we were finally out of the airport and in the car with greg and lori and their two daughters, it was too late to be going back to their house because traffic was horrific and we would risk not getting back to the airport in time to catch our 10:45 flight to costa rica. that was NOT something we were about to risk. so instead of a nice shower and a rest, we drive around looking for a place to eat. i really have to give greg and lori credit, because they spent practically their whole day waiting for us, and then taking us out to dinner where i know we were hardly good company. with our lack of sleep, and feeling like it was 4 in the morning (because it was to our body clocks), and me feeling sick we were not much for conversation. and i'm sure their daughters were bored senseless and just wanted to go back home. i don't blame them. so after that it was back to the airport with still 3 and a half hours to kill before our flight. kendra sprawled out on the floor and slept for 3 hours, and i just kinda walked around. there weren't really any stores, but..i just walked up and down the terminal. nothing, thankfully, to say about the next flight. no problems. packed like sardines in a tin can, not sitting together, and horrible food, but after the events of the previous 24 hours, i cannot complain. altho, i hope i don't have to ever fly american airlines again. crappy plane, crappy food, crappy service. so the moral of the story is: avoid paris, avoid air tahiti, avoid american airlines. we got to san juan airport two very spent girls, but never were their two people more relieved to be out of an airport. and that is a fairly thorough telling of what happened in those 34 hours of transit. for those who only knew that we were MIA, know you know the story. and i'm very proud of how we handled it all. it wasn't until we were here in costa rica and i was on the phone with my mom that i broke down crying :( maybe it doesn't sound so bad to some of you but i wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.-becky
PS - sorry for the disgustingly long blog. i promise it won't happen again.
PPS - i love costa rica :)
Well, we made it. We finally made it to beautiful, sunny Costa Rica. We traveled from 4:00 am Thursday to 6:00 am Friday. I don’t know how many hours that adds up to once you figure out all the time changes, but I frankly don’t care right now. I’m just relieved to be a lovely house and clean out of the shower.
Our trip was a long, frustrating one, to put it VERY mildly, but we’ll save that story for another entry. I realize we didn’t do too great at updating the blog this past week, so I’ll give you a brief synopsis in pictures.
From left to right: David, John, me, and Angelina.
The Schlossberg clock tower that we hiked up to.
This is Lichtenstein castle that Becky and I hiked up to on Sunday. The turret in this picture is the one where my parents became engaged. So if you think about it, if not for this turret, I wouldn't even be here. Scary, huh?
This is how Becky and I felt after walking all over Gummy Bear Mountain and finally finding the castle.
Becky and Eileen on our last night.
Eileen and I. Check out my shirt! (and my shower hair)
And finally, last but certainly not least, I want to give a great big shout-out to the Oasis team. You guys made our month in Austria awesome, and while we’re really excited to be here in Costa Rica, it was no fun saying goodbye. So here’s to you Miriam, Eileen, David, Tom, Joann, Vera, Carol, Julie, Dan, Regan, Dan, and Marie (and your adorable kids too!). The Beautiful One and the Sweet One will miss you all. Outside of Athens, you guys are the BEST RefMin team! Doesn’t that sound so much better than “second place”?? :D
sorry, dear readers, for keeping you waiting. these last days have been busy, busy, busy! saturday there was a road trip to gratz with david (pictures will be posted at a later date); sunday kendra and i hiked to the castle lichtenstein, on the mountain we dubbed "gummy bear mountain" (can you guess what we were eating? - pics coming soon); monday clothing room, tuesday we led team worship and revolutionized it with ipods and games. there was also hair cutting program, dinner with miriam, and then a nightcap with eileen; wednesday was a day for goodbyes. a team lunch, debrief, then wednesday night program. i know this is the cheapest overview of some truly great last few days, but you must give me a break. it's a 3:15 AM.it seems that all last days are, no matter where you're leaving from. right now it is 3 in the morning on thursday, february 14. in three hours our plane will be taking off, in one hour we will be leaving for the airport. though we left all of our packing to the very last minute (of course, when it's becky and kendra it can't be done any other way but last minute), it is now all packed and i am ready to go. problem is, i am afraid to let myself sleep for fear i won't wake up when i need to wake up.so up i am, doing anything to keep myself awake. this is not going to be a fun journey. we're flying from here to paris, we stay in paris for 5 hours, and then fly the 10+ hours to LA, where we have a 10 hour layover. THEN we finally get to fly to san jose, costa rica. yay..!i will try to blog from one of the airports.uh-oh, time to leave!! please pray for our luggage to get through each connecting flight, and for us to get through this LOONG journey to costa rica.
Yeah, so I'm six days off, but tonight was the monthly womens program at the Oasis, and keeping in spirit with the upcoming holiday, tonight's theme was love, complete with heart-shaped cookies and cards.
Many, if not all of the women that came tonight heard for the first time in their lives that they were made in the image of God, and that loving Him is not something forced - it is a choice only they can make. It's strange to think that this is an entirely new concept to them. To hear of a God who loves them simply because they are precious to Him...I guess only God knows how much the message sank in. Lovely women, though. It was fun to just sit and make cards with them and laugh about nothing in particular.
I can't believe we have less than a week left. Time has flown by at a very fast pace. A month sounds like a lot longer than it actually is.
I've decided, after much mulling over the subject (but not really that much), that the Austria RefMin team draws a very close second to the Athens team. Doesn't quite make the top spot, but it's up there. Congratulations, guys!
-Kendra
i'm more convinced of this than ever!so there is this man ken who volunteers at the oasis for wednesday night programs who is from - get this - montclair, new jersey!! when i told him that i'm from hawthorne he's like "no way, i went to top of the hill every summer when i was a kid, i loved it!" (TOTH is a summer camp that hawthorne gospel church - my home church - puts on ever summer). not only that, but he has been here two years working with a calvary chapel here, he goes to a calvary chapel back in montclair new jersey, and he knows of pastor tim gentle, who is the pastor of the calvary chapel in passaic new jersey, which is the one that i go to (when i'm there).un-freakin-believable.i guess you're right david: "new jersey's where it's at!"
i'm sorry, is that title gonna get the song stuck in your head? if it does, that is just unfortunate for you, because i have come to realize how (obnoxious, but) true that song is. for having been in this country for just barely 3 weeks, kendra and i do manage to bump into a lot of people we know. several times people from train or the street recognize us from the oasis. or we just run into random people in two different places at two different times, and we just recognize each other from these occurrences. but ok, maybe austria just isn't as big as we thought it was. but what if i told you that i met up with people from greece here? i recently met a guy at naschmarkt (outdoor market) who was from porto rafti (a place frequented back home in greece), but that is still nothing. what about meeting people here who recognized me from the ARC??! last week i was leaving the oasis and i pass julie standing outside with a young afghan couple and their 7 month old son, and i stop to say hi and have julie introduce me. the husband looks at me starts saying something to his wife, who speaks english fairly well. when he stops, she says to me "you are from yunan?" (yunan is the farsi and arabic word for greece) and i tell them, yes i am. and then the husband goes "helping hands. susie. canada." (yes, susie, they really did mention you. i think they may even had mentioned your red hair too haha) aah i was so excited!! people who had been to my home country and passed through the arc!! people who had recognized me sitting at the computer next to kate, handing out hundreds of meal tickets. this would be exciting enough having just happened once, but yesterday at the womens clothing giveaway there was an older-looking woman sitting all by herself who caught my eye, mainly because she was staring right at me. in the back of my mind i recognized her, but i didn't dwell on it, because i figured i knew her from around the oasis. not so. she walks over to me and is smiling and talking to me in farsi. the only words i could pick out of her chattering were "yunan" "athens" "helping hands". i excitedly start talking to her in english "you were in yunan? you were at helping hands??" it was then her turn to go into the clothing room, but before she left she did give me a hug and we parted smiling. my day was made. it may be a bit silly, but i guess running into people who i had previously come into contact with in a completely different country just makes me feel close to home. was this an accident? i don't think so. i just hope they come back around the oasis so i might get a chance to talk to them more. it's a small, small world..that's one bit of excitement from the past few days. not to mention our dear, dear friend bekah was able to come visit us from germany. EXCELLENT TIME!!! we celebrated her 18th birthday and really just enjoyed each others company, laughed a lot, and had fun pretending to be more mature than we actually are even with our newfound "independence".:)this is getting long, so i will end this soon, but i just want to bring up this iraqi girl that i am becoming friends with. she has been coming around the oasis with her mom and her sister, but she is the one who speaks english. we have kinda become what might be called "fast friends", the only problem being the slight difficulty with communicating with her limited english, and my non-existent arabic. (i know one word - la. it means "no". oh, and i can count to three and i can say "thursday" and "shower"). but she is a great girl. i guess i will wait and say more about her next time. i will see her tomorrow and on friday. she wants us to take a picture, so i will post a pic too. making new friends :) OH and there is this austrian girl who is volunteering this week and get this: we are both named rebecca, but both called becky (as apposed to bekah), we have the same converse shoe size, we are the same height, we like a lot of the same bands, we both like art, and we are both planning on studying art therapy in university. uncanny.small, small world
Becky and I love your comments, everyone, but we've received several anonymous comments from people who won't leave their names at the end. Usually we're pretty good guessers, but sometimes we're stumped, and then we spend the whole day suffering with burning curiosity. Now we can't have that, can we?So keep the comments coming, but please, let's see a name!-Kendra
We walked all around Traiskirchen today, and went into eight separate grocery stores. David the Birthday Boy accompanied us. It was....an unusual way to spend the afternoon.
In PennyMarkt, we saw a cashier who looked like Avril Lavigne.
Hofer, EuroSpar, Billa, Zielpunkt, and Lidl weren't nearly as interesting.
At the end of the day, we had a sudden craving for potato wedges, so we went into our third Billa and got them on our way home....
.....and we're going back tomorrow.
i love altenmarkt!!!
yesterday was our third visit to the pension in altenmarkt and they just get better and better. i am more comfortable, the kids are more comfortable with me because they get to know you, you recognize more faces, make friends... i won't say too much, but i brought my camera yesterday, so i will post some pictures. i don't have any of the group as a whole, because any time i took my camera out to take a picture, it would distract from everything else. so during song time, and the story i put it away, which is unfortunate because i would have liked to post a picture of the group activities so that you could get a feel of what it is like but... you'll just have to settle for what i've got.this is just a place, about 5 minutes away from the pensions, where we stop to pray for the day ahead of us: 
here is our lovely irish friend eileen with three sisters: 
working on the craft: 
it was david's birthday yesterday, so we celebrated by having cake with the kids. this is a sweet, sweet 11 year old girl carrying in the cake: 
this is her little brother who is just a goof and LOVED getting his picture taken (followed me around all night!) : 
here is david with some young friends (notice all the flags represented on the cake - and that's not even half of the countries represtented in the room. it's a diverse group of kids) : 
here are a few mothers who hung around for a while, waiting for the clothing giveaway after the kids time: 
isn't he a cutie!!! 
now we're gonna get to my favorites. when i make my calendar, this photo is going on it - who couldn't love this face: 
haha, just having fun with the camera: 
visiting these sisters and their mother are the highlight of thursdays for me:
me with my favorite girls: 
does this satisfy the demand for more pictures?? if you were wondering, i did not add names or countries for the protection of those in the pictures. (it was just something i was told not to do.)
i am a bit sad that i only have one more visit to the pensions. next week is the last and i will try to get more pictures next week (plus one of kendra - i didn't get any of her!)
hope you all enjoyed.
From left to right: Marcia, Luis, me, and Donald. My English students! :) They're eager to learn, and that makes all the difference in the world.
