Rainy with a chance of christmas lights

It is hard to believe it is already November, mostly because the weather outside is static.  While in Michigan the trees are shedding their summer leaves and preparing for their snowy overcoats, here the flowers still bloom as adamantly as they did when I arrived in July. It almost feels like we are reliving the same month over and over again and each day is different, yet somehow so much the same.

Christmas decorations have already been put up around Jarabacoa, so those who hate seeing giant snowmen before Thanksgiving should never come to the Dominican Republic where the lights are strung before Halloween. Being a Michigander, it's weird seeing lights hung on trees still in full bloom, but at least decorations mark a litte bit of the passing of time and break the normalcy of the seasons.

The onbeat of time has definitely brought on thoughts of the future. As a teacher, I am a constant planner and like to always know what's next or at least pretend that I have all the answers. I have no idea where I'll be next year at this time and that thought definitely terrifies me. Will I stay in the country or will I return to Michigan? I've had a lot of advice about waiting patiently, but not knowing what you're waiting for makes the waiting much more difficult. It's like standing in line at a theme park and not knowing whether you're waiting  for the kiddie train or the world's largest drop...if you knew what was at the end of the line, it would be easier to wait for it. Anyways, I'm definitely learning a lesson on patience whether I like it or not.

Today was our fourth "rain" day of the school year and it was a beautiful surprise to find out late last night, I had one more day of the weekend. Rain had flooded parts in the towns below us, so the entire community had the day off school. It was nice to meet up with friends I hadn't seen in a while and of course make bread, which rose for 5 hours after being forgotten.

One of my highlights of  my day was getting a moto concho driver who actually gave me change back and welcomed me to the country after I announced I had lived here for almost two years.... Also, he shocked me with his vast knowledge of the United States while proudly informing me that he was very much aware that Pennsylvania was very close to Michigan. It's in the right general direction, so I definitely gave it to him.

 School begins again tomorrow,  and I need to figure out how to choreograph a dance to Justin Bieber's Santa Claus is coming to town for our school Christmas show, but I wish everyone a very happy Dominican rain day and as we enter into the Christmas season, may the odds be ever in your favor.  

Life as I know it

If September was a slow moving snail, then October was the flash, I feel like last week we were just starting October and tomorrow is already Halloween. I just realized we have three weeks until Thanksgiving and then three more weeks after that until Christmas break, so for all those people who are burnt out, there is hope.

Life has been good here in the Dominican Republic and I realized I have learned a lot about myself and have grown in my time away from the "comforts of home."  I joined a Bible study this fall with other Americans down here and it has been a huge blessing to have a group of girls to cook dinner with once a week and do life together. Our Beth Moore bible study has inspired me and I enjoy getting up early in the morning and getting the chance to be a student again instead of the teacher.  

For school, my class and I are taking baby steps. This month is definitely improvement on last month. I don't come home every night exhausted and ready to cry, so either my class is getting better or I am more used to the drama, but I think the hardest days are behind me. My favorite story has been a girl who wasn't turning in her homework and getting D's and F's and writing on the board: "I am the worst person in the world." I had a conference with her and her mom and after that talk, her mom and her worked together to complete all her missing work. She now has all As and Bs and during an assignment on writing things we love, she listed more things than all the other students and she even included herself. So there are definitely moments where I feel I get to make a difference.

The biggest change this coming month will be Rovian moving to the capital to start med school. It will be hard not to see him every day, but I've come to realize that this his life's dream, so it's selfish to be sad when someone who has been waiting so long for something, gets the chance to actually do it. He has definitely been a huge comfort after hard days, so I think I'll be investing more in the ice cream industry with these upcoming months without him, so if anyone needs to find me, that's where I'll be.

I recently found out that  a church member has cancer and after the shock at this revelation, I went to type "that is so sad," but I never sent the words because my next thought was: he gets to go home. I don't want to sound callous and I will grieve for his family and for the absence of his presence at church, but after seeing the way he has lived his life over the past 20 years of mine, I cannot be sad for something that has been his life's dream: the chance to see God and be with Him. I love the following quote by C.S. Lewis and I will leave you with it. 

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

I hope you all have a blessed day and as we begin November, we remember to be thankful for the blessings in our lives.

From Snow Days to Hurricane Days

Hurricane Matthew has arrived just in time to ring in October with presents of rain and no school days.  I've had many questions about the weather conditions here in Jarabacoa and I wish I had more to offer. It has been extremely mild, with trickles of rain sprinkled throughout the day but mostly sunny. Jarabacoa is protected by the mountains around it and so receives little of the storms that plague other areas.

We've had school cancelled for the past couple days which has been nice, though after a five day break I know that I will be ready to return. You can only "buttprint" (sit on a couch all day) for so long before you begin going a little stir crazy.

Please continue to pray for areas of Haiti and the Dominican Republic which are being hit by fiercer weather and that strong shelters are provided for everyone there who needs them.

The Children who need the most love often ask for it in the most unloving ways.

This year has definitely challenged me in ways other years haven't. There are only ten of them and yet at the end of each day, I feel more exhausted  than teaching double that amount.

 The students remind me of angry bees, constantly up and buzzing around each other, stinging each other with words I would never dare say out loud. Learning seems to be simply the secondary reason to go to school, the commercial break so to speak between amusing themselves in other ways from ruler fights, to cutting paper to even flipping a water bottle and making it land on its base...over and over and over and over again.  Like Dominican traffic laws, they take directions as a mere suggestion and not until the threat of a "fine" or an "infraction" will they finally find their seat. Sometimes I feel like the teacher in Charlie Brown who talks in a garbled fashion where no one is really listening.

Today started out similarly. and after Spanish class two of my girls were in tears and mad at the world because they had lost a game and my boys being the great gentlemen that they are, had insulted them. During spelling, they seemed to exaggerate their sadness/anger and tried to form a little pity party where they would look at each other and cry and refuse to do any work...throwing anything off their desk. When the other students went to break, I held them back to talk to them about their behavior. That it is okay to be angry and sad and upset, but to keep fueling it, is not healthy.

I talked with them and it actually humbled me.... One girl began "I became bad when my parents started fighting...everyone is fighting at my house." The other one said "I became bad when I lost my mom."   Their responses floored me....that they thought somehow they were bad people and that they had suffered great losses in their early lives that I still haven't experienced. Instead of reprimanding them, I held them while they cried and told them I loved them and that God loved them and that they were beautiful people who made mistakes.

I love how God keeps humbling me. When I get frustrated and angry, he reminds me in quiet ways that the surface issue, isn't always the real issue. That hurting people hurt others and that even though our basic response is to punish and reprimand, the best response is to be vulnerable, to love especially during the times we feel like hating. As Martin Luther said, "Hate cannot drive out hate....only love can do that." So if you feel inclined to pray...please pray for my students and also for me...that I learn to teach with God's wisdom and patience and that I open my arms and my heart more often than I open the discipline chart.

First Week of School

Be firmer, be sterner, be stricter, be meaner! These thoughts were coursing through my mind as my students refused to sit down or do their work.This week has been exhausting as I've tried to corral 10 students who have been stigmatized as one of the worst classes in the school. It has been head butting head, pushing until one will bends to the other and I was determined to come out on top.

Many students had been causing me problems, but one student in particular I was very leery of. He was always chatting with his classmates and getting him to write a single word took constant redirection and supervision. I'd walk away and walk back and he'd still be at the exact spot I'd left him 10 minutes before.  I'd given him infractions and he'd refused to go down to the office until I'd started counting or threatened to write him more infractions. He'd yelled at me and it seemed that the more I pushed, the harder he pulled.

One of the first assignments I asked my students to do was write a letter to me about themselves, at least 10 sentences. This was for me to get a writing sample, but also to know what was important to them. As I walked around to make sure the students were writing or at least redirect them back to the task, I was hesitant to approach him. since writing was definitely not his forte. I was shocked when I approached him to see two sentences written on his paper. That was much less than anyone else, but those sentences floored me.
"I love fourth grade. This is the best grade ever and Miss Nussbaum is the best teacher ever."

I didn't deserve those praises especially not from him.It really gripped me and I realized that I was wrong. I was wrong with trying to add more discipline, more punishment when they weren't behaving. Maybe, instead of figuring out how to fix them, I needed to fix myself first, change my teaching styles to fit their needs instead of change their behaviors to fit my teaching style

Later on, I caught the same boy talking while he should have been writing. I approached him and decided instead of disciplining him to ask him if he'd be less distracted sitting at my desk to do his work. He looked at me strangely, then replied he didn't know. I moved him to the teacher's desk and he got started right away. Part of the problem was the distractions around him and by punishing him for his behavior, I really wasn't looking for the catalyst.

This weekend, my job is not to make my discipline system better, I believe that is fine the way it is. My goal is to revamp my lesson plans, change them in order to fit the needs of my students. No matter how much I love my powerpoints, they don't learn well that way. And the note the boy wrote. I'm going to keep it in my top desk drawer or perhaps frame it as a reminder that the students are the most important part and if they don't learn the way we teach, we need to teach the way they learn.

There's No Place Like Home

Life in another country is scary in theory. You are surrounded by people and a culture that is entirely foreign to what you are accustomed to. The "norms" have changed and the only people and places you've known your entire life can only be reached by plane. It's scary in theory.

The reality of it is much different. As I sit here and write this letter, its hard to put into words what it's like to live abroad, because after a period of time it no longer feels like "living abroad."  Humanity is humanity everywhere. Underneath it all, we are one and the same and its a beautiful thing, that even with language barriers and different family backgrounds, we can grab each other's hand at the end of the day and say "you're just like me."

Jarabacoa is no longer the "place I'm going to be for the next year, it has become the "place that I live." at least for the time being.  I remember at my family reunion this summer, someone asked me where I lived and I without hesitation I responded "the Dominican Republic.' She looked at me strangely before moving on. I realized that my mindset has changed. I'm no longer on the countdown to how many days until I go back home to Michigan, because for me Jarabacoa is already home.

I love this city with its mountain views and palm trees.

I love walking to church on Sundays.

I love worshipping God in a different language and realizing that my God cannot be contained within a language or a culture.

I love early morning runs while watching the sun rise, basking the mountains in purple.

 I love attempting to make new dishes for supper and settling in for a Hallmark movie at the end of a long day.

I love walking to get ice cream (with sprinkles of course)

I love bilingual game nights where Dominicans and Americans come together in a Spanglish fashion and laugh and joke and play Skipbo as the sun goes down,

And most of all I love the fact that I'm no longer living abroad, I'm just living.

Start of Year 2....Jarabacoa look out ;)

A 3:45 alarm is useless...if you are already up at 3:00. My flight from Detroit left at 7:30 in the morning on Saturday and I was ready to go. With two suitcases, weighing 46 and 48 pounds respectively, a backpack filled with cookies, oyster crackers, books and odds and ends that wouldn't fit in either suitcase, a laptop computer, and dear old Glitzy (a stuffed cat or bear, its never been decided either way) I was ready to go. 

In Detroit, I first went through security and getting an OK and not needing any sort of pat down made feel like I had aced some really challenging exam. After security, I found my way to my gate where the airplane had been overbooked and they were offering people travel vouchers in increasing amounts (up to $600) to change to a later flight. I think everyone who wanted one, had a seat at the end and we were on our way to Atlanta.

In Atlanta, I had about 35 minutes before my plane was boarding, so I hurried to the tram station as quick as I could and upon entering the tram, I ran into one of my running buddies from Jarabacoa. Now, to understand the full extent of this coincidence, Atlanta is the biggest airport in the United States and is enormous. The tram has multiple cars and runs every 2 minutes and I had barely missed the previous train. Neal, that's what we will call her since that's her name, isn't coming back to Jarabacoa, but was in Atlanta on her way on a different trip. So, it was so much fun to catch up with her on the 3 minutes 31 seconds trip to concourse E. Also, in Atlanta, I ran into another friend going to Jarabacoa and so were able to chat briefly  boarding.

After landing in Jarabacoa to the applause of the Dominicans, we got out and headed into the airport. (Please note the applause is for the landing, not for our disembarkment, but probably could have been for both) The airport was jam packed with people. The line wound back and forth and instead of a sea of people, it was more like an ocean. Apparently, the Dominicans decided it would be a good idea to have the records of every single traveler who enters country, so they had to fingerprint EVERY SINGLE PASSENGER! The line lasted a good hour and a half and I felt increasingly worse for the Rovian and my taxi driver who were waiting outside to pick me up. 

The ride back to Jarabacoa seemed short, I swear it gets shorter every time, and we were soon back into J-city as Rovian put it so poetically. The city was slightly different than I had remembered from July, there was a few more additions on buildings and my house had been reorganized and rearranged, so it took a while to find everything that I needed. I'm excited that I have a roommate and that she seems nice. We took her on her first moto ride, baptizing her in the culture, to my favorite restaurant for a celebratory welcome back feast.

I'm looking forward to seeing what year 2 will bring. I'm excited to see how God will move in my life. Please keep me in your prayers as I keep you in mine and let's pray not for a year without challenges and frustrations, but for a year where we grow and continue on that winding path that God has set before us.