Life As I Know It

Today's post is about my life...as if you don't already know about my life! No, this post is going to be a detailed text about my average week. I was trying to come up with a creative way to present this topic, to make my life sound more interesting, but Taressa informed me that my life is interesting. Therefore, this post will not be anything too creative.


Let me being with Monday. On Mondays I have all morning to prepare for my classes. At 12pm I teach a 2nd grade class at a school. There are 11 kids in this class and they are always well behaved. This class lasts about an hour. Sometimes after class I head over to my friend Katie's house and hang out there. I read a book or I journal. Katie gets done teaching (she is a Kindergarten teacher) at 3pm and so we have an hour or so to talk. Then we walk to the chapel for Bible Study with the youth group kids. Bible study starts around 5 and lasts about an hour. I come home, eat dinner, and spend the night doing whatever I so desire.


Tuesday is my longest day of teaching. My first class is at 9:30 and I teach the 3rd graders for about an hour. There are 12 kids in this class; these students are very creative. This past week we made a paper heart chain to decorate their classroom. My next class is at 11:30. The kindergarten class consists of 7 kids. These kids are so happy to see me each day when I walk in the room. They greet me with bright, smiling faces. They are thrilled with whatever project I bring for them to do, which makes me happy in turn. 


My first class at the orphanage begins at 1pm. When I arrive at the orphanage some of the kids from the first class are already sitting at the tables waiting for me to begin. Once all the kids are seated and somewhat quiet, I pass out the supplies and they can start working on their projects. They have an hour to work. At 2pm the I have another class and they also get an hour to work. Up until this week, I had all 20+ of the little kids for the first hour and then all 20+ of the older kids for the next hour. Now though, I have the younger kids on Tuesdays and the older kids on Thursdays. This means the class sizes are smaller and much more manageable. Of this I am very thankful!! The younger kids are out of control and need a lot of assistance, but the older kids are calm, disciplined, and capable of doing most projects themselves. When those two classes are finished I go home and rest. I am usually exhausted.


Wednesdays are my favorite days! I have the morning to prepare for my classes and then I teach one class at 12pm. I have the 1st grade class of 12 kids then. They are very well behaved and are really interested in learning new things. If I bring an example of a project to this class they do theirs EXACTLY like mine. However, they are slowly becoming more creative.

The first graders, their teacher, and I.

After class on Wednesday, I walk over to the Lodder's house and babysit Maia, Levi and Chloe while their parents have a work meeting. These meetings are usually around 4 hours. The kids and I always play with play-dough and play outside. Sometimes we play with the play-dough outside...never a good idea! Yesterday Maia decided that the white play-dough blob was a "bar of soap" and she proceeded to wash off the very dirty dog! YUCK!
Wednesday nights I go home and stay up way too late working on whatever I need to get together for the next days class.


Thursday morning I wake up very early so that I can catch a ride back to the Lodder's. I babysit Maia and Levi again in the morning so that their mom can go to the school they work with and get a few things done. Take a guess as to what we do.... Play with play-dough and go outside! To mix it up, sometimes we walk over to the chapel and play on the playground! At 11:30 I have a class at the school. I teach 4 kids in a special class. These kids are about 8 or 9 years old and have never been in school before; that's why they are in a special class. This class is all boys so I change the projects a little bit in order to keep them interested.


Sometimes I have time for lunch on Thursdays; I don't mind though if I don't get a chance to eat. At 1pm I go the orphanage and teach my two classes there. Then, come Thursday at three o'clock my weekend starts! I breathe a sigh of relief after I'm finished with my classes for the week. I usually don't start thinking/planning for the next week until Monday morning. 


When I'm not relaxing on Fridays, I do an assortment of things. Some Fridays I spend the morning grocery shopping with Ruth. A couple weeks ago I watched a soccer game. The boys from the school I teach at had a game against another local school. Last week, I helped the Broersma's move. They used to live in the house right next door. It was nice because I could just stop over anytime and visit them. Thankfully they only moved 2 blocks away so it takes me 4-5 minutes to walk to their house...I still go and visit them all the time.


Friday afternoon I have Bible study with Andrea, our neighbor. She has lived here in Haiti since August with her husband and two children. They are awesome, kind hearted people. Since we are both new to Haiti, Andrea and I have lots of long talks about this country, the people, and how we see God working. I enjoy her company! Right now we are studying the book of Amos.


Friday and Saturday nights I hang out with the Van Dams, my friends, or the neighbors. Sometimes I have sleepovers. For fun, we play games (dice games, card games or Settlers), watch movies or the tv show Psych, bake food...


Saturday mornings are pretty chill. We eat a late breakfast then get a few things done around the house. I try to clean my apartment at least once every two weeks. Saturday's at 2:30pm we have youth group which is held at the church. There are around 40-60 kids at youth group each week. Youth group begins with a game or worship, then there is a message, and then afterwards everyone hangs out or plays basketball, soccer or volleyball until about 5:30.

Playing a game at the start of youth group.

Sunday is church day! I normally attend Quisqueya Chapel. But once in a while I go to Haitian churches. I think I've been to 4 or 5 different Haitian churches now. Normally, when I ride to church with the Van Dams, we leave around 8am. Sunday school is before church and church officially starts at 9:45...sometimes closer to 10. Services at Quisqueya last about an hour; at Haitian churches the services can be anywhere from 1.5-3 hours long. After church we come home, eat lunch, and relax the rest of the day.