un visitante inoportuno

So a funny thing happened late last night…

I woke up to the sound of rain—that’s not the funny part.  Then I felt something cool and wet drop on my leg.  I was in that state of consciousness halfway between awake and asleep, so I merely thought it strange, closed my eyes and continued sleeping. 

I don’t know how much time later, I was awakened again by a cool, wet spot on me.  Since it was still raining, I thought it possible that my ceiling had developed a leak.  I was awake enough to notice, but too asleep to do anything about it.  So I closed my eyes to resume unconsciousness. 

The next time I awoke to the newly familiar cool, wet sensation, it was about 5:45am.  I was more alert since it was almost time to get up.  I felt the wet spot on my leg, so I reached down and felt for it.  I picked up something strange and unidentifiable by touch alone.  I brought it closer to my face. It was dark, and I did not have my glasses so I could only see a vague outline.  It looked and felt like a wet, shriveled up flower or something.  Not satisfied with this guess, I reached for my cell phone and shined its light on the subject.  Still not good enough.  Finally, I sat up, put on my glasses, and turned on my light.  The uncertainty was killing me.  I looked down at my bed and saw an eye.  This was definitely not a flower!

It was, in fact, a mangled coquí frog!—slimy, cool, and with something like guts protruding from its mouth!  I immediately jumped out of bed, grabbed a tissue to pick it up with, and threw it in the garbage.  After a minute of pondering how a dead coquí wound up in bed with me, I concluded that it must have hopped on the box fan at the foot of my bed, gotten sucked through (probably killed or fatally wounded in the process), and landed—SPLAT!—on me.  Gross!  I took a deep breath, collected myself, and managed to sleep for the few minutes I had left before my alarm.

(Now for those of you who are not familiar with the famous Puerto Rican coquí…it is the national symbol of the island.  It is a tiny frog that chirps all night long.  Some people find this charming and say that it lulls them to sleep, but I beg to differ.  It is one of the most annoying sounds I know.  If there is one chirping outside my window or on my porch, it will drive me crazy and steal precious hours of my sleep.)

I’ve tried to warn the coquís to stay off my porch…and especially out of my apartment, but some of them just don’t want to listen. 

Let this be a lesson to you tiny frogs:  If you come into my home, you will not live to regret it!

Cabo Rojo

The first item on Jen's Mississippi list (all the things that she wants to do in Puerto Rico before she gets married and moves to Mississippi) was to visit Cabo Rojo.  This is the furthest you can get from Luquillo. On an island that is 100 miles wide by 30 miles deep, you would think the furthest point would be reachable in less than 3 hours.  NEWS FLASH!  It's impossible in PR to do this. 

Part of the reason we took this getaway was because we needed to drop off two of our students and their mother (who spend every other week with us) in the town of Hormigueros.  The little girls were so excited to see their father. It was so precious to see them run up and hug him, grinning ear to ear.  It made me wish (once again) that all of our students could have the same relationship with their fathers.

We got to the hotel in Cabo Rojo after dark.  It was so beautiful, there were pools and hammocks and a beach and docks.  Some people may wonder why we would take a vacation to another beach in Puerto Rico when we live so close to one here.  Our idea of a vacation is an air-conditioned room and a TV!  We also did other things--like see a light house and hang off precariously high and jagged cliffs (see photos below).

The view at the cliffs was spectacular!  It was worth the four-hour drive each way just to see and climb on the rocks.  I was a bit frightened by the fact that one wrong step could result in me plummeting to my death, but when I saw Chris jumping and playing on the rocks, and I was convinced I had to try.  So slowly and carefully--and with some helping hands--I crept out on the rocks.  The view was indescribable and the pictures do not do it justice--and I could not help but stare at the beauty in awe of our Creator. 

mi equivocación

Okay, I was wrong about Maria.  Apparently she didn't miss us; she just slowed down and postponed her arrival.  I was awakened at 2am by sounds of strong wind, rain, and thunder.  When my alarm went off later, I wondered if we were going to have school.  (There is a river that runs by our road, and it floods often.)

"hurricane"

A river ran through our courtyard today!

We all came downstairs for morning prayer, and waited for children to arrive.  We had a total of three today (neither of mine). 

As I was sitting in my classroom getting ahead on some planning, every teacher's dream came true.  Leo came to my classroom with his laptop.  Kevin (my oldest student) had called his webcam in hopes that he could be "in school" today.  So I put him on the table, and taught him vocabulary!

Imagine that!  A student who wants to learn so badly, that even when he is flooded in, he requests school by webcam!  I am truly blessed and have the best job in the world! 

Kevin and me in school

nada

No rain...no wind...no Maria.  What a letdown.

tormenta inminente

Here's a great photo Betsy took at beach recently.  I've never seen anything like it...you can actually see a rainstorm approaching.  Notice the blue sky on the right, too. (It was actually a rather nice beach day.)  It makes me wonder how people don't believe in God when we see this kind of manifestation of His power, creativity, and beauty.  

I am posting this photo from last weekend because it doesn't seem that we'll have anything exciting this weekend from Hurricane Maria--I mean Tropical Storm Maria--okay, I really mean rain.  

Everyone had been building this storm up to be bigger than Irene, and I couldn't decide if I wanted another storm this soon after the last one.  It's certainly exciting, and it's a change of pace from our ordinary routine, but I really didn't want the power to go out again.  I love my fans and cold beverages!  

There's still a chance of some rain and flooding, though.  We'll see...

¡gracias!

On Thursday, I had art class with the three oldest kids: Kevin, Kristian, and Larimar.  We were having a great time drawing and laughing.  In the middle of it, I had them stop what they were doing so I could make an announcement.  I said something like, “Thank you all for being so wonderful.  Thank you for paying attention to me!  Thank you for understanding me and doing what I ask.”  They all kind of looked at me like I was crazy.  You see…this week, I’ve had a few opportunities to work with our two newest little girls who have trouble maintaining eye contact for more than two seconds, never mind obeying instructions.  God bless their teacher this year!

I would like to thank God for my boys: Kevin and Kristian.  (I hope I can still say this a month from now!)  We had such a good week in school together.  We worked hard every day and almost accomplished everything I had planned.  It is not often that I can say this, so I’m posting it here as a reminder to myself for the future.  I love the dynamic I have right now in my classroom.  Every day, I am appreciating teenagers a little bit more. 

So in the classroom, it was a great week.  And in the afternoons, we took the kids to badminton practice.  A retired gym teacher in Luquillo has made it his hobby to teach kids the sport.  So, for two hours every afternoon for three weeks, we ride down the street to la cancha and sweat and run and play and try to focus little children’s attention.  This was our first week doing this, and we were exhausted by the end!  But the kids seemed to enjoy it.  In two weeks, our students will participate in some kind of tournament.  By the looks of the practices, we could have some contenders.