C'est la vie!...oops

Sometimes I forget I live in a foreign country...and then a man on a horse rides by on our street every day, and it clicks. The sound reminds me of the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which both of my roomies have not seen, just not okay, along with The Labyrinth. So this was the second week with the roomies, and it has been pretty great. They are so easy to get along with, and we have become close very fast, which is such a blessing. When you have exhausting days and come home, it is nice to have friends who listen and encourage you, and Ashley and Katy are the perfect pair for that.

Monday and Tuesday I stayed home with los tweems and played all day. We walked around the neighborhood, played with playdough (of course I joined in), and did all the little kid things you can think of. It has been interesting learning all the individual characteristics of Jakob and Isaak and how you work with that. Sharla has been in the Sudan all week so Katy and I have been moms. I look like a mess all day and am continually saying "yay good job" or "do not touch that." I have been learning sign language little by little so it is a bit easier to communicate with Isaak and actually pretty fun to do.
Wed/Thursday I helped at the school. Wednesday was my first day to walk/ride a gua gua home by myself. I walked through the neighborhood of the school to the main road to catch a gua gua and got a couple of offers from randoms on motorcycles. You would think this would be creepy, but it actually is quite humorous. I just ignore them and keep on walking. A majority of the time I walk around Puerto Plata, I have my ring on my left hand finger and carry around los tweems so I have not had too many marriage offers yet :). Anyways, I stood by the main road for 10 minutes waiting for a gua gua, which is probably a funny site to the people who live here, random gringa on the side of the road just chillin. I then packed myself into the gua gua, said aqui! when I got to the neighb, and walked through my neighborhood to the house, which is always a wonderful walk since I am walking toward the view of the LOST mountain (ps I found a site where I can watch the new eps...amazing). Thursday at school the kids got to have about 30 minutes of play time, and I took this time to observe the difference between girls and boys. The girls went straight for the dolls and play backpacks while the boys ran around the room wrestling each other and attacking me with an alligator stuffed animal. Naturally I favored the boys after I tried to braid a doll's hair and failed, grabbed the alligator, and made my own attack. Next, the boys got to "read" books while the girls colored. I sat on the ground and tried to read some of the books to them, which was a huge failure. The boys looked at me funny because I pronounced almost every word wrong, awesome! I am sure Cristina thinks I am the worst since I act like a little kid and can barely read Spanish. I am learning though!
Friday, I went with Ashley to the two Bible classes we hold for various ages of kids at 9 and then 2. We feed them, teach a new Bible story, and have them do some form of art to take home. At the end of the day, Ashley and I headed for the main road to catch a gua gua, only for one to arrive that had at least 20 people inside. Here is a picture of a gua gua: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/340035427_521186369b.jpg?v=0. Now imagine me and Ashley sitting right by the sliding door face to face super crunched in, and if i reached my foot out just a little bit, I could touch the ground. The cobrador, guy who opens the sliding door and takes your money/hangs out the door if there are too many people, decided that he wanted to shut the door and position his body against mine...awkward...I am thinking at this point, there is no way they will stop, yet the DR continues to surprise me. The driver stops for three more girls, who somehow squish on my row, so you can imagine how close I am to the cobrador and Ashley. The rest of the way my face and Ashley's face were a few inches apart, and meanwhile the cobrador pops his face in by ours to say, "Where you from? Estas beautiful" (which led to my nervous chuckle because of the inappropriate sitch of how close he was and then him saying to Ashley "Estas happy?" referring to me). If only he knew why I was really laughing...

Prayer requests: continual prayer for me to pick up the language (both Spanish and learn sign), for me to be fully here and focused, for patience in everything
Love and miss everyone, no joke! I would love individual emails from you guys letting me know how your life is going and how I can also pray for you :)