Day 36

I was reminded that I did not say whether or not Leo will be staying at ESD till May. Well he is. So there is less man work for me. This is very good because there is still a lot of chainsawing to do. I'm glad I got the lawns done because on Monday Betsy's church is going to come to the school for a BBQ type gathering, I really don't know what to call it, but they are coming because its a holiday and there is no school. It should be fun, there are like two English speakers in that group so I will have the exciting opportunity to work on my Spanish. Today I had my first kiosk experience, kiosk number 36. They have American food and the owner is from Ohio, I think its Ohio, anyway she's from America. I had a Mega-Grilled Cheese Sandwich, and while you might think that this would be a really well done grilled cheese sandwich it is actually just a really big grilled cheese sandwich. I got it because it wasn't spicy, I can't handle spicy food. It was so good! I also got onion rings which were actually too spicy, I know I have a problem, but they were still good.  For those of you who don't know, I am referring to the famous Luquillo kiosks, they're just a line of like 60 restaurants all in a row.  I can't wait to show my visitors in October. I also slept in today, weird. Its over! Fun fact: It takes the interaction of 72 different muscles to produce human speech. Just in case you didn't like the post at least you learned something.

Day 35

I hate board games. Sitting down and challenging someone one on one. I'm bad at all of them. The only time I like to compete is in sports where I have somewhere to put my energy. If I'm loosing at a game of basketball I can try harder and I will do better, if I'm loosing at a board game I can't think harder and do better, it doesn't matter how hard I want to win. I fact it seems to work the other way most of the time. So I become frustrated. At ESD people play board games during free time, I can't help but join. I need an intervention. Today we had our first "pet of the day". I'm starting to do a "pet of the day"s once a week so that I don't have to take care of the animal. I just show it to the kids and let it go. Well the pet of the day today was actually five pets. Three baby toads, a coqui, and an adult toad. The kids enjoyed them and then we let them go. No care required. Another day without badminton, nice. Today was Friday, and yesterday was Thursday, and in two days it will be Sunday but tomorrow is Saturday. I'm 95% sure, I don't know I have to listen to that song about the weekend again.

Day 34

My parents and my girlfriend are coming to visit me in October! I'm very excited. October is still hurricane season so I kind of want them to enjoy a hurricane with me. I think that would inconvenience them though. Planes and hurricanes don't really mix. Great day in school today, no badminton which is nice. Jen, Gaby and I spent some time in the lower field today cleaning up trees, whether that was chopping them up and throwing them in the forest or trying to stand them back up so they could live. One of the trees that fell over was huge so I cut off all the branches with a chainsaw till it was just light enough for three people to stand it back up for the most part. It still leans and so I propped it up with one of its branches, poor tree. Sad news, last night in the dark of night, and it was probably raining, Trinidad and Ichabod  escaped there terrarium. Or they eat each other but I can't really figure out how that would work so for now, they escaped. I don't know how, either. The thing was completely sealed. Frogs are sneaky. Betsy hoke has decided that the title of her biography will be "Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Cemetery", Awesome. She said that if I die first I can use it for mine. Now I just need someone to write my biography. Any takers? Still no snake, but the search continues. Ever since we started looking for a pet snake it seems like every kid has a story about a snake. Well I don't, but I will. It will be like "My Side of the Mountain" except with a snake instead of a falcon. I loved that book. End of post. Ok almost, if you haven't seen "The Princess Bride" your missing out, such a funny movie.

Day 33

Well, Hurricane Katia is headed north of us. At this point its not even looking like we will be getting good waves from it. Oh well, its for the better. Long range predictions have her heading north over Bermuda and towards Canada, oye. The kids are doing so well at badminton! The second day and I'm already seeing real improvement with a lot of the younger kids. Saul still requires extra effort, hes very good if you work with him one on one but when he gets with a group problems usually occur. I have found though that if he is asked to teach or help the other kids he behaves very well. Maybe he will be a teacher some day. As of today the school has two new pets. The first is a baby toad and his name is Ichabod. The second is a coqui, which is the famous Puerto Rican frog that is very loud at night, his name is Trinidad. I found them this morning when I was mowing the back field. Just before I ran them over I noticed them hopping and I stopped. Which makes me wonder how many frogs I have run over that were sitting in the grass, I usually don't look. Its going to be hard to feed them, they eat very small bugs like ants that are not very easy to catch. I think I might just catch a snake and feed it frogs, they're easier to catch. Church was good tonight. The sermon is in Spanish and I have given up trying to keep up with the spanish so I just watch Betsy who is translating spanish to sign language for Kevin and I am starting to really improve in Sign Language so I understood a lot of it. Good stuff, I'm going to sleep. "Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few." Ecclesiastes 5:2

Day 32

We got to practice badminton today! I was really surprised, some of our kids are pretty good. And I guess Leo used to play and he was really good. I played him for a while today and he had me running back and forth across the court. It is a fun sport though, and the kids love it. Some of the younger kids are having trouble, hopefully they improve before they get too frustrated. I've been keeping an eye on a tropical storm the last few days. It's getting pretty strong and expected to become a major hurricane before it passes above Puerto Rico on Sunday afternoon. There is a small possibility though that it could remain on its path for PR. Everyone is saying it will turn north by then. Either way its pretty exciting. I'm stocking up on water no matter where that thing goes. I almost died of thirst after the last hurricane and the water was only off for 16 hours. Who knows how long we will be out of power and water if we are hit by a category 3 hurricane.  I mostly don't want it to hit because it is more time that the kids are out of school, they already missed all of last week. But its whatever. I'm just kicking the last of my cold. Whoever thought to put lotion in tissues is a genius. Thank You to everyone for your prayers, they are always needed. Follow this hyperlink, Reasons why you should watch Star Wars. 

Day 31

31 is a big number. Today is Monday, and the kids were back in school! Special thanks to Hector for coming over this morning and cutting the grass! It gave me an opportunity to dig up a pipe by the chapel that is broken. It should be an easy fix, famous last words. With plumbing I never let my guard down. Well I didn't get far on that project before Saul needed help with math. There is nothing harder than getting that child to do math, even plumbing. Also today was the first day of badminton training! I'm so excited. We basically get two weeks to teach our kids to play this sport and then they will either play in a tournament or a single game but at some point we are playing a team of visually impaired kids. As you can tell I'm not so clear on all the details. Either way today we went to the gym where we had planned to meet with a guy who is going to teach our kids this obscure sport. Well, he didn't show up. I'm not worried though. It seems like a pretty straight forward game and the fewer days that our kids are swinging around metal rackets the lower the chances of Saul hurting someone. Come on, that kid is dangerous enough with his bare hands and now we're providing him weapons. It should be interesting though, I'll have my first aid kit ready. Today was also significant because it is Wade's last day(Tess' brother). So after school we went to subway and had a picnic on the beach. Where he is from, Neverland, they don't have beaches so he was very upset with the salt content of the ocean.  I think he was trying to drink it I don't know. Anyway, pretty busy day, lots of fun. The kids were very excited to be back and did very well for the most part, focusing on there work. Juan Jose was on it today! He has made amazing progress, he's a good kid. Well, quote, my Mom sent me this one. "Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge." -Philip Yancey  I like it.

Day 30

At the expense of yesterday's post, I learned an important lesson about the order in which I should end my day. Blog THEN Nyquil not the other way around. I read last night's post today and, anyway that explains that. Today was Sunday, and me and Jen drove through the craziest storm on the way to church. When we left it was bright and sunny then out of nowhere this crazy storm with thunder and lightning and so much rain that we could hardly see hit us and everyone was driving all slow with their hazard lights on and then as quickly as it started it was gone, bright and sunny. Never a dull drive in Puerto Rico.  The sermon was really good today. There is a lady at my church who responded to one of my posts about some of the students not getting breakfast, by donating food to the school and thanks to her I will be making egg omelets for a few of the kids this week! She also included coffee cake. It will be much appreciated.  After church I finally had the opportunity to restock my perishable food items, so I just finished a bowl of cereal. It's the little things in life. After I got home from shopping this after noon I took a nap on my couch but did not set an alarm. I slept for about four hours, here in Luquillo we take that day of rest thing seriously. Maybe all the sleep will help me get over this cold so I can help in school tomorrow, after I mow the lawns of course. Something interesting, Gallaudet University estimates that there are as many as 40,000 deaf individuals and that there are indications that even that number is an underestimate.