Day 64

I pledge allegiance to the flag...

I didn't get to go to Sam's club until 11 this morning. I love going to Sam's because I can stock up on food and its cheaper. It is a long drive though so I haven't been to many times. The storm that was about to run right over Puerto Rico but died is now a category 4 hurricane just east of Bermuda. So right about now they're in a lot of trouble. The hurricane has sustained winds of 135mph. Not good. We had dinner today with a few of Betsy's friends and then watched a movie. Tomorrow I will be going to Betsy's church again. More Spanish, I'm learning though.

Day 63

Its Friday. I spent most of my morning working on one of the computers in the library. It was so awesome because I had air conditioning. I eventually fixed the computer and was forced to return to the real world. I skipped badminton today because someone needed to stay back with Saul and Gabi. It went really well. I told Saul to go to the library and he refused(imaginate), so I put him in time out and he stayed there for like 3 minutes before he was detracted by Leo and he ran half way across the school, but I caught him and he finished his sentence in peace. I can't tell you how groundbreaking that is. I punished this child and he didn't scream and cry for the rest of the day. As a reword for handling his punishment well I let him watch the excavator video. He is making progress. Church again tonight. It was the last of the services celebrating the anniversary. Finally the week is over. All I'm doing tomorrow is going to Sam's to buy food and figuring out what to do with the lower field. I also get to sleep in until 8:30. Which is why I am writing my blog at 1:45 in the morning. That should explain the abrupt ending to today's

Day 62

I had a really good morning today. No problems waking up, that never happens. As a result of the extra energy I took on the field. I'm not talking about the friendly side of the field either. I'm talking about the side with the trees and so many holes you can hardly walk threw it. Well I got stuck, but for like 2 hours. One hole after the other full of slippery mud that makes the tires useless so I basically had to just push this thing threw the mud from one hole to the next. Needless to say, I learned my lesson. Next time I'm just going at the grass with a pair of hip waders and a weed whacker. Anyway, so we went to the court today. It went surprisingly well. It was all very official. When we got there they took us to a conference room where we were taught about court educate. Then we were given a full tour of the entire building and we met all of the people working there at the time. Then finally we were taken to a court room were we got to have a short mock trial. We even got a real judge and two lawyers. We were really taken care of. After the mock trial they had krispy kreme doughnuts and sandwiches waiting for us in the conference room. Very fun. Then tonight I went to Spanish church again, and I will go again tomorrow because of all there extra anniversary services. Words are hard, especially when there not English ones.

Day 61

I had no idea he knew karate
If you can't beat them, catch them

Another day in paradise. One of the girls caught a lizard today and got it to bight onto my ear. There's never a camera around when you need one. We had meatballs for lunch today, so good. Judy gave me the left overs because there wasn't enough for another lunch. Sweet. Betsy's church is approaching its anniversary so there was a service tonight and there will be a few more this week as well. If I paid any attention I would know which days, I'm just along for the ride. Tomorrow we are taking the kids to a court room to teach them about justice. The original plan was to go in the morning and watch an actual court case, but the judge decided that it would be a better idea if we came later. I'm thinking that was a good decision. Playing the bells is difficult and I can actually hear the song and when I mess up. I have no idea how these kids pull it off but everyone but Saul is way better than me. I'm not excited about having to perform in front of people. I guess that's a worry for another day though. I haven't seen or talked to any of my friends in a long time. I guess that's my fault. There's a lot to think about here.

Day 60

I finally fixed the bench in the chapel, I have also managed to trick everyone into thinking that this was actual work. It is not. I got to use a table saw, awesome, I love power tools. So does Saul, he likes tractors so today we watched a video on YouTube about them and Betsy realized for the first time that this video has audio. This video is one of twenty videos about trucks for kids. Well they all have these ridiculous songs that go with them and I really feel like your missing out if you haven't heard these. So funny! Follow this link. This one is good too. Saul likes them but he doesn't have to listen to the ridiculous songs. We also had badminton today and the coach is arranging special practices for some of the kids who are starting to get good. He also said that he doesn't think that I am being challenged enough so he is inviting this guy to one of our practices to play against me. I don't know why though, I'm not a student, and I'm not playing in the tournament. Leo is a good enough challenge anyway. 

Day 59

I feel like kids these days go straight to violence

I mowed the lawns today, and in the process I discovered evidence of cows. When I told everyone Elizabeth said that this morning she saw like 6 cows just hanging out by the shop and so she scared them away. This gave me an idea. Depending on what time of cow this is I am going to try to ride one. I have a few different ideas on how I will go about doing this but one of them is that I will feed them everyday until they learn to trust me. Then one day I will just jump on one of they're backs and see how long I can hold on. Super. So there was a board meeting for the school in the chapel today so I was going to grill up some chicken for everyone for dinner. Well I didn't defrost it in time and it was still frozen by dinner time. So I guess I'm making that tomorrow. Instead I grilled some hot dogs that Leo had and made mac and cheese. Most everyone contributed other things too so it was a very good meal. Jen even brought Pepsi, I love Pepsi. Carlos, Yanina, and the girls are back for the week. So Betsy's class will full again. She took some great pictures today that I will post as soon as I get them.

Day 58

My Attacker 

So, on Saturday Betsy, Leo, Wilfredo, Sonia, and I went to a little island called Vieques. It was a short drive to the ferry and a 20min. ferry ride to the island. The ferry costs 2 dollars to get to the island, if your deaf its 1 dollar, whats that about. No es justo. Anyway we get there and catch a ride on a publico(taxi... ish) and Betsy asked the driver what the best beach on the island was, she said la playa rojo is the best but its kind of in the middle of nowhere. That sounded good to us so we went there. This was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. This beach was ten times better than any post card or desktop wallpaper, and I got to swim in it. Betsy and I basically snorkeled the entire cove. We even swam out to this little island, its not really and island; Maybe 30x10 feet, and it was made up of lime stone that had eroded away from the waves and all that was left were sharp rocks. Not very friendly. Either way I managed to time out my attempts with the waves and got onto the thing. All the crabs came over to my side of the island to see what was going on. The pointy lime stone was very difficult to walk on and it continued just beneath the water level so I was really worried about how I was going to get off of this ridiculous little crab infested island. I basically had Betsy find the deepest piece of water within 5 feet of the island then I waited for a wave to come and I dove into it trying to stay as close to the surface and as far away from the rocks as possible. Long story short I survived. I was later attacked by a basketball sized sea urchin. Leo was stabbing at it with a stick, I guess trying to kill it and when he got it out of its hiding place I caught it with my hands and it tried wiggling its way between my hands and got enough pressure between them to stab me in the finger. Not very nice, I was trying to help it. Despite the unnecessary violence both to and from the urchin it was a really cool break after a long week. Betsy sent me this link to a "focus on the family" thing and I listened to it and it explains very well a lot of problems that the deaf community face. If you can spare a half an hour to listen to this it is an extremely important message. Just follow the link above. So today I went to the Evangelical Church for the Deaf again but this time I brought Betsy so she got to reconnect with a lot of old friends so that was nice. Tonight I went to Spanish church and heard another good sermon. I love Sundays, and not just the dessert. I woke up to a ton of rain this morning! It was great, Betsy was up before everyone and of coarse playing in the rain. I know that rain causes flooding here and all sorts of problems but I can't help but love it. I grew up in Orange County California. It never rains there. I think the last time it rained I was 6. And I still have reason to believe that was just the neighbors sprinklers. Either way if your raised in a desert you learn to enjoy the rain. I don't know what Betsy's excuse is.