Day 15

We had plans today to go to Old San Juan and look at the forts and the shops so I woke up an hour early to cut some grass but we were out off gas. So I went and got some. It took surprisingly long. By the time I got back it was time to go. Old San Juan was pretty fun. We went inside this huge maize of a fort and when we got on top it was pouring rain, and we got completely soaked. During the height of the storm we were in one of the corners of the fort on top in a small room with the panoramic slit that they used to shoot cannons out of, and lightning struck like right next to us! Like no delay between lightning and thunder. It was so loud it hurt my ears and I think it even scared Leo a little and he's deaf. It was pretty cool. An hour later it had stopped raining and was hot again. It was a fun trip. After Old San Juan we went swimming at an even bigger pool than we normally swim at. That was pretty fun. I beat Leo and Wade in a race in the pool and I was swimming breaststroke and they were swimming regular. It was fun. And then after dinner we went to the beach in the dark, that was cool. I got bit or stung by something, probably a really small jelly fish. Also right as we were leaving I was something glow in the water so I stopped to look and it. It was floating in the water and would flash green for a second and then wait about twenty seconds then flash again. There is an algae here that glows so that's our best guess. Fun day, unproductive, but fun.

"I don't talk to people like me" - Laurie Teal 

Day 14

Today was the last day of VBS and the last school day with the group from New Jersey, so we secretly made them these certificates that say thank you so much for your help and we had all the kids sign them and Betsy put the kid's pictures on them. She also made one for me for helping out this semester, and its laminated, very nice of her. We acted out another parable today, and I was again the bad example. I have to find out what that's all about. In chapel today Saul was having trouble paying attention so I sat next to him to keep him in line, and at the end of the lesson he looks over at me and pokes me in the adam's apple and asked "whats that?". Surprised that he didn't know I told him that the other day I swallowed a rock and it got stuck! He gave me the funniest look ever, he signed "really!?" and ran over to tell Jen,  funny kid. After that one of the New Jersey volunteers painted the kids faces. Saul and Gaby got there faces painted like Leopards and of coarse had to spend the rest of the day pretending to be leopards and chasing the girls around. I noticed today that Gaby has a bunch of bites on his foot that he keeps scratching. Fire ant colonies pop up daily at the school and since I've had the most problems with them I am responsible for walking the grounds for new mounds and killing them with this sweet ant poison that works really well. These ants will probably kill me, I have so many bites! The number grows by the day, my entire right foot is covered in them. I feel like I'm going to pull a spider man except I'll turn into Antman... not nearly as cool. My super power will be working really hard till I die, kids will love it. As a reward for the two of you that read the entire post I'll end with a joke/quote. "I used to play sports. Then I realized you can buy trophies. Now I'm good at everything." -Demetri Martin

Day 13

I got to be in a few of the VBS dramas this morning, which was fun, but for some reason all of the roles that I played were Bad people. I was a thief who stole money, cooking supplies, and recipes. Then I played the prodigal son. I'm hoping this has nothing to do with how staff view me here. Or it could just be that I'm the only guy. These children are really tiring me out, I'm running around all day trying to communicate with small children in a language that I have trouble using with adults, but at the end of the day when the kids go home I'm still thinking about them and I'm excited for tomorrow. Today was another fun one. After VBS and lunch we went to the beach, and not the beach we normally go to, we went to the beach that Betsy so lovingly refers to as "the old lady beach" she calls it that for I'm guessing two reasons. One, there were old ladies there, and two there are no waves. This beach is in a cove type area so it is protected from the ocean. Surprisingly not that bad. The sand was very clean and so was the water. I got pared with Gabi so we hung out all day and had a lot off fun. We found two starfish that would slowly try to crawl off your hand. Gabi learned how to swim under water and sneak up on people. But since he is four years old and can't really swim it was more like he would go under water and try to move more than a foot then the person he was trying to scare would swim over to him and act surprised when he popped out of the water. He loved it, everyone else, not so much. Saul didn't seem too upset that we left him at the school with Betsy instead of going to the beach, which is good. All together it was a pretty well run school day. We also went to Spanish church tonight that was translated in English because we had visitors with us from New Jersey. I get a lot more out of sermons when they're in English, Weird right.  Quote of the day, "Being a missionary is the hardest job you'll ever love" -I don't remember where I first heard it.  

Day 12

I really like it here at ESD. Its an extremely valuable ministry. Without ESD many students would be put into the horrible public schools here. In Puerto Rico, deaf kids are put into special education classes with autistic kids, kids with Down's syndrome, and mentally handicapped kids so there isn't a lot the teacher can do for them. Also in our public schools there are no substitute teachers. If a teacher is sick, the students don't go to class. Even if the teacher has a baby and needs months off! I've heard stories about kids just not going to school in the middle of the year for months at a time. So the only way to get an education in PR is through private schools. It really sucks. On a lighter note Saul had kind of a temper tantrum and bit one of the volunteers in the van on the way back from our rain forest trip today. As his punishment he will not be aloud to go to the beach tomorrow and he isn't aloud to play with me... he can play with everyone else, just not me. So now we're both being punished.  I just hope he understands why he is being punished. The trip was pretty fun before that happened. We drove up a mountain deep into the rain forest where there was a really cool river that we played in and hiked up. I think everyone had a great time, I did.  Saul's little brother goes to the school, and although he is a hearing child he almost never acts like it. He will almost always ignore you when you call his name and he is very hard to understand. Very cute kid though. Ok I'm going to sleep now. But before I do I would like to end this post with an obscure quote. "Everything changes but change" -Israel Zangwill

Day 11

The forecast for today was 80 degrees 80% humidity and thunderstorms, surprise, surprise.  Today it was 80 degrees and 80% humidity and not a drop of rain. Surprise, surprise, I think the weather guys have just given up trying. They're only right when there are thunder storms. I have an announcement. I will be leaving the Evangelical school for the deaf early to become a weather man for Puerto Rico. I will then train a monkey to throw darts at a list of possible weather conditions. I'll be famous. Any who, Betsy, Kristen, Leo and Myself drove to the mountains today to attempt to enroll three girls into the school. These people live 30 miles outside of east nowheresville. Well when we finally got there they were glad to let us into their house and they were very nice. The whole family is deaf except for one lady who spoke Puerto Rican Spanish, and they new a sign language but it was definitely not American Sign Language. They had a strange blend of ASL and strange home signs we didn't know. So we eventually got a phone number of a social worker and some other important details regarding a custody battle, its all pretty sad, but we are hoping and praying that they will get to keep their kids and that we will be aloud to educate them and offer them a better future than poverty.  It was, however, a really interesting experience being in their house and trying to talk to people that really had no nationally recognized language. I guess I got a taste of how it might be working in a really remote country and experiencing such a huge language barrier. It's cool though, God can communicate without words, and with that I would like to end this post with a quote from my slightly overweight cousin.    
"Words are hard" -Trent Harms

Day 10

First day of school! Woke up early, had some prayer time with the team and waited for the kids to show up. Betsy left the school at 5am to go get the girls from the mountains. She stopped for breakfast on the way there but when she got back in her car it wouldn't start! After hours of looking for a mechanic she finally found one and he fixed the car. So she continued on the horribly long drive. when she finally got there, the girls were not at their house. Their parents were there and they said that the school bus came earlier and made them go to school with them. Bad. So tomorrow at like noon Betsy and I are driving back out there to try and figure out what is going on and if we will be aloud to teach the girls so please pray for that. So during school today I was talking to Leo about doing a back-flip and I told him that since he could do one into a pool off of the side that he would be able to do one on the ground. So without hesitation he says that he wanted to try it so we got a soft mat and he landed it on the first try! He has no fear. Other than the three mountain girls everything went very well today. Also I got to meet all the students that I've been reading about online. Saul and Gabi are my favorite of the younger kids... I probably shouldn't have favorites. Anyway that was my day in Puerto Rico, thanks for reading.

Day 9

Today I woke up (good start) and went to church. Then we eat Mexican food, which I guess is different than Puerto Rican food, I don't really see the difference. After lunch Betsy had an important meeting about two of the girls that will be dorming with us this year. During the meeting I took the gigantic 14 person van, loaded it with people and went to the beach. The water is still a little dirty from our last storm, we had fun though. Me and Leo spent a lot of our beach time trying to teach a couple of volunteers how to finger spell and sign a few basic signs. At the beach Leo told me that his Dad is going somewhere to work for a week and that he is going to be staying at the school. I told him that we wouldn't make him work, I lied. When we got back from the beach we spent some time with the two deaf girls that arrived today, the younger one is actually fairly well behaved and likes to sign. But the older on the other hand kicked me in the shin to get my attention, I think a tap on the arm is sufficient. Although the younger one did lick a marker... non-toxic I checked. Later I showed the girls the toad, they screamed and ran. Don't worry the toad was surprisingly understanding... I checked. Still no sign of the infamous hole people. But don't worry I'll catch them. Good Night Never Land.