Day 78

While I had Saul all to myself I taught him to cross his sevens like I do. This upset Betsy. I did convince her to let him continue to write them that way though. So in ten years I'm going to Skype him and inform him that I am the reason he writes his sevens that way. I had an effect on a child! Maybe not the most constructive way of doing that. My parents and my girlfriend are coming to visit on Saturday. I'm very excited. My dad is going to work on all the computers and help me build things. I have so many cool things to show them. I am waking up tomorrow at 5 to go to the beach and watch the sunrise in the water. Great way to start your day. Then I think I'll go back to sleep till church. So if I go to sleep now I will get... four hours of sleep. Oh, I need to get to that.

Day 77

7 is my favorite number. This morning we took Saul to the beach! It was so much fun. He is pretty much terrified of anything that wasn't white sand in the water but he was also so curious. It was great to watch. After he got tired of looking at fish we just sat in the shallow water and played in the sand. It was a lot of fun. I tried out another kiosk tonight that was very nice. I might bring my parents there. It was the first time that I had tried octopus. It really wasn't bad. Not my favorite though. The week is over. We got almost all of the mowing done today, I can finish that pretty quickly tomorrow.

Day 76

Today really felt like Monday. Holidays always throw me off. So today after play time I was really tired because I'm running around chasing children and they have way more energy than me. So I went into Betsy's class and laid down across the desks to take a quick nap. That last about four seconds before Saul came in and slammed a soccer ball on my stomach. That kid is violent. At least he's doing good in school. So since he was good the whole time Betsy was gone we are taking him to the beach tomorrow to snorkel with us. Saul doesn't really snorkel like other people. He is pretty afraid of everything in the ocean so he hides on your back and peeks over your shoulder at the fish. Funny kid. We might just take him to the pool instead who knows. The waves have been a bit big for snorkeling anyway. Either way it will be fun. I also need to remember to feed my snake...

Day 75

Holiday! I still don't know why. Well I woke up this morning at 5am worked out for a half an our on the basketball court then I put my trunks on and went to the beach for a swim to cool off. It was nice. I watched the moon set behind me and the sun rise over the water in front of me. I played in the waves for 45 minutes then went home. I played a game of Othello and had french toast that Elizabeth made. Then we prayed together until noon. After that we went to a nearby hospital to donate blood. We raced to see who could fill up their bag first. Betsy won, it was rigged though. They gave me a t-shirt, sweet. Then we didn't really do a whole lot because we gave blood and your not supposed to do anything strenuous. Betsy was all dizzy, not good. I planned to read a book while I was making new blood but I fell asleep. That's the worst. Luckily I get to hang out with a really cool little boy tomorrow who at the moment doesn't seem to hate me. I think that's a good sign.

Day 74

Betsy is back! Things may now return to normal. School went very well today. Saul behaved pretty well, he did hit me in the head with a bible though. He almost did two days worth of work today. I think we should up his work load. Well after school we all went to the airport and got Betsy then we went to Old San Juan. We started by going to this really nice pizza place. I love pizza. Then we went to one of the forts and watched some traditional Puerto Rican dances. Very interesting. I think my family might like to see that. Tomorrow is another holiday, so many holidays here. So no school, someone is making french toast in the morning and I think that will be the highlight of my week. Its been really fun teaching Saul though, he needs a good male role model. I'm doing my best to fill that position. Good kid.

Day 73

Saul didn't even come to school today. Well it worked out because Judy was sick so I took her class. It was pretty cool teaching kids with language skills. Today was not only Columbus day, it is also Canadian Thanks Giving! Since we have a Canadian working here(Leo) we had a big meal and we hung up a Canadian towel and we had Canadian shirts and Canadian stickers on or hands. Leo was probably thinking 'man Americans will do anything to eat more' which is fine because that's why I was there. Either tonight or tomorrow night is the full moon and we usually go to the beach at night on the full moon because it is really bright and it looks cool with the clouds and everything. So we went tonight and just walked around. I'm sure we will go again tomorrow with Betsy because its her favorite time to go to the beach and she has been away for almost a week. That's a long time for a Puerto Rican to go without the beach. I really hope Saul comes to school tomorrow. I only get one more day with him then I'm back to the fields. Speaking of fields today during play time we saw a huge snake in the grass but it slipped into a hole and we couldn't find it again. Sad day. I wouldn't have kept it anyway. Betsy lands tomorrow at 3:30 so we are all going to pick her up after school. I'm excited to hear all her stories from Pennsylvania.

Day 72

I figured out what holiday it is tomorrow. It's Columbus day! So everyone go to someone else's house and tell them "You need to leave, I live here now". Such a good holiday. Despite all the traditions we will all be busy with tomorrow we still have school, and Saul is mine again! I love that kid. I don't see how I can ever leave, not until he is an adult, maybe then. I went to Spanish church today, it was a pretty short sermon because we had to discuss who would be making the lunches for the next year it seemed like. So many volunteers, and the food sounded great. After church and lunch, Elizabeth and I decided to hike to the top of a nearby hill because you can see the city and the ocean from there. It was a pretty good little hike. First we fought our way through a spider infested forest only to find ourselves in a field of spiky bushes. It was very slow going, I was in front with a machete trying to cut a path threw the thorny vines. Finally we made it to the base of the hill. The hill was covered in trees that almost reminded me of the forests in California when we were in them. That is until a big bull showed up in front of us all mad about something. Why are they always upset, anyway so it stopped and looked at us so I whistled really loud at it and it trotted off, it was pretty easy from there. It was a really cool view from the top with the ocean and the city. I think I will do a lot better with directions now that I have the overhead view in mind. On the way back I tried to follow the same way we went up so that when we got the the field we could take the path I had already made. Well I lost our trail before we got to the bottom, I did pretty good considering how hard it is to remember where you went when everything looks the same. I was just trying to track myself. So I couldn't find were we had gone through the field before so I had to chop a new trail. Eventually we made it through and I found the trail I made threw the jungle pretty quickly. Its so much easier to track threw thick jungle than it is threw open trees. There are just so few markers. Either way we made it and we're both still alive which is a plus. I missed hiking, I'm glad I got to do that.