Spring Break and All That JAZZ!!

First official day of spring break!! And isn't it a beauty. After a very long taxing break of trying to argue with my students of why they can't run and slide across the floor or take the entire day off to play games....spring break could not have come at a better time. Of course, the most exciting news is the fact that my parents decided to finally see the beautiful place where I live. It does feel strange though, like my two worlds have collided. It's weird to remember I'm still in the Dominican Republic after seeing their familiar faces.

They arrived safe and sound on Sunday and trust me I was ready to see them. I think I actually introduced myself on several occasions as "Hi I'm Kara...nice to meet you...I'm excited because my parents are coming in ______ days."

Today, we had the opportunity to go to the waterfall! It was a beautiful, sunshiny day, though of course that means us gringos got sun burnt.. We got bread for sandwiches and got to picnic by the water. Only 7 months of living here and I finally realized how to order deli meat from the supermarket! Oh, the small victories! Then of course there was getting to play all the card games I missed and of course all the smack talk with my parents. By the way, if anyone asks...I won a few times ;)

I am excited for the next couple of days of spring break and having the opportunity to show my parents more of my city.

"The heavens declare the glory of the Lord. The skies proclaim the work of his hands." -Psalm 19:1

The whole kitten and caboodle!

This blog is dedicated to a little ugly white ball of fur which we called little Rufus and the brief time our lives intersected. 

On Sunday during a run Rovian and I almost stepped on two newborn baby kittens, no more than a couple of days,  laying on the middle of the sidewalk. I would have walked past them and never looked back, but one of us, being Rovian, had a bigger heart and scooped them up so they wouldn't be stepped on and carried them home. The first thing was trying to figure out how to feed them. We ended up dipping an old sports bra pad in cow's milk and trying to get them to drink off that. Miraculously , despite our lack of experiences, the two kittens survived the night. The new problem was what to do with them with school and other things. Ended up spending my breaks coming home to feed them and after school running to the local pet store to pick up a baby pet feeder and also figure out what they were actually supposed to eat since the cow's milk we were giving them was probably not the greatest idea. After school, one of my students and his family agreed to take one of the little kittens so I was left with one....the ugly one. He received the name Rufus since he resembled the naked mole rat off Kim Possible. 

I lost sleep a lot of sleep, getting up to feed him every couple of hours and of course worrying constantly about my new helpless dependent. 4 a.m. bottle feeding and cuddling my little companion was not how I pictured a day in the D.R.  He kept defeating the odds despite my noviceness and what an experience I got to have caring for something so small. 

Rufus died in the night. I'm not sure when, after not hearing him cry for milk for over 7 hours, I got up to find his limp body huddled in the towel. I'm going to miss the little buddy, but at least I hope that by prolonging his life by a couple of days, he got to see that the world isn't so cruel and heartless as the abandoned kitten on the sidewalk was led to believe. 

Life is precious. I guess that's the lesson for us. To live is an awfully grand adventure. You are alive today....now what are you going to do with that gift?