Today, this blog is especially for my students and their parents (and anyone else who cares to read it - smile).
I'm sorry this has been so long in coming - I hope you hadn't totally given up on me. I'm just a bit slow in the technology department (as you all know), plus getting ready to go took a lot more of my time than I thought it would. I hope you are all enjoying 7th grade. I'd love to see all of you again and see how much you have grown. I hope you are doing well in school and working hard, especially in math!
I've been thinking a lot about all of you the past few days and wanted to give you a little food for thought... I can't remember if I told you this from my last trip or not, but there are millions of bugs here. In fact, in my first evening here, I got over 90 mosquito bites JUST on one leg below my knee. Last night, I counted 120 plus in the same place! (Luckily, I got vaccinated last year for yellow fever, and I'm taking medication daily for malaria.) There are cockroaches, tiny little ants, all kinds of flying things. Last time I came, I put some goodies I'd gotten en route to here into my dresser drawer and had some candy in my purse. The first morning I went to open my dresser drawer, a cockroach scurried away, and my purse was FILLED with ants. Two days later, the cockroach decided to join me for my shower. Needless to say, I jumped out very quickly! (I have to say, I'm a little smarter this year. I put everything into ziplock bags, and I haven't put anything into my dresser. So far, I haven't seen a single cockroach or ant in my bedroom, at least.)
I'm telling you all of this for a reason. I want you to be VERY THANKFUL that you live in a clean home where you don't have insects crawling around everywhere on your food, dishes, floors, etc. Be thankful for clean running water. Last trip, we were without water for 3 whole days. Already, we've had one day without any water. I had to take a bucket of water from the swimming pool up to my bathroom to flush the toilet. That's another thing - flush toilets. Not everyone here has a flush toilet. That is a real luxury! Most people use what they call pit latrines - basically a hole in the ground that they stand over. Not my idea of a good time. Electricity is something we all take for granted in the USA. If there's a power shortage for even a few hours, we hardly know how to handle it. Last summer, when we didn't have any water, we also didn't have any electricity for three days... and I'm staying in a home that is like a 5-star resort! We are very blessed indeed!
I've been thinking a lot about gratitude and abundance the past couple of days. In spite of all the things that have gone seemingly wrong, there have been many blessings all along the way. If you've read any of my earlier blogs, you'll know what I'm talking about. At any rate, there were people who went out of their way time and again to help me with packing, getting to the airport, finding me a dentist who was willing to literally walk my tooth impression to the lab, people to drive me back and forth 3 hrs. at a time to get to the dentist, people getting me into many shows for free, driving me to and picking me up at airports, taking time out of their lives to take me sightseeing, running me to stores for things I forgot to pack in my haste, and helping me with my very heavy luggage (that was a major concern of mine before I left, especially with my bad back and neck and four heavy bags to lug around), . One guy put my carry-on up on the shelf in the airplane and said, "What have you got in there, rocks?!? I had this laptop, all my electronic devices, and tons of batteries I knew I couldn't get here, among other things.
I could have been stuck in the JFK New York City Airport or Rome for a day when my flights were cancelled because of Hurricane Irene; but instead, I got to spend one more day with Emily's family and had a nice comfortable bed to sleep in rather than a hard airport chair. Because my flights were changed so many times, I could have ended up without a taxi driver to take me home in the middle of the night, but someone here was willing and able to contact the driver ahead of time to notify him of the changes.
I could have come here without any idea where I would even lay my head the first night or several days. I'm grateful to Louis for opening up his home to me. I'm grateful to Kenneth for being willing to leave his job early to take me around to check on housing, banking, and to see the Head Mistress of the school. His reassuring words that "Everything will work out, do not worry, I will make sure of that!" have really helped to calm my anxiety about everything that has seemed to go differently here than planned.
I'm grateful to people back home who have helped me with my inside and outside water, sprinklers, watching over my home, allowing all my mail to be delivered to their home and contacting me on anything important, lawn mowing, etc. They will never know just how much their efforts mean to me!
I woke up this morning to hear chirping, tropical birds outside my window, the ocean lapping at the shoreline, a crystal clear blue day (not like the rainy first day here), and a peaceful home. I walked along the beach with some of Louis' dogs, read a book, took a nap, swam my laps and exercised in the pool. Hard day, huh? I even had my room cleaned and my lunch and dinner prepared for my by the house staff. There are lots and lots of good things here, too!
I guess what I want to leave with you today is to look around you and see all the GOOD things that are there. I know I've complained a lot about everything that has seemingly gone wrong, but there are also some really amazingly great tender mercies that have been shown me all along the way, and I am very grateful to a Father in Heaven who I know is watching over me and protecting me every step of the way. I'm here because of Him, I know it! I hope I can do what He wants me to do while I am here.
Have a very wonderful day!!!
Love you guys,
Mrs. C
(P. S. If any of you have an email address for Aaron T., Austin S., or Caroline H. could you please forward my email to them? Their emails came back to me, and I know they wanted to follow my travels. Thanks so much.)
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