Crafts, Emails, Bed Time, OH MY!

It was some national holiday here on the island so all the ninos were home from school, which for us means we don't get up till 7:30ish but I guess the kids had a different idea for a wake up time. 7 a.m. loud knocking on the door begins. "GOOD MORNING! GOOD MORNING! HELLO?!? ARE YOU THERE?!" I think a small child is in the house. Seconds later..they're now outside our bedroom window. "WAKE UP! WAKE UP! TEACHER!!! HELLO!! WHY AREN'T YOU AWAKE? I'M GOING TO SCREAM LOUDER IF YOU DON'T GET UP!" Oh geez..we're coming! I stumble to the window where Kerry, Shenice, and Gabriel are mischievously looking through the screen. "Teacher, can we do crafts?" asks Kerry innocently. Is this some joke? I have yet to have an art class without persistent whining and resistance to the idea of structured arts and crafts time and now I'm being woken up by yelling children to come partake in this?! Fine. So the morning consisted of drawing on construction paper, paper parrots, kites, ripping up things, making a huge mess, and pouring glue in Alison's hair..good times, eh?

After the craft filled morning we escaped to our room for a moment where the electricity, that had been off for the entirety of the morning, had come back on and we checked our emails quickly before it went out again. I was startled to find an email that the girls coming in May were told they may not be coming. I quickly became unsettled and frazzled for many reasons. We walked back in the living room to talk to Tonya and found the kids occupied watching this awful Christian sing along full of Little House on the Prairie children decked out in big hats with large flowers. We slipped away thankfully because I already had the I Am a Christian lyrics in my head from the last viewing of the video on Saturday. The situation with the girls not coming turned out to just be a mere misunderstanding but I had gotten very flustered over it all. Why? Because what I had pictured, counted on, planned on was perhaps falling apart and I felt like I had no control. Control. It kills me. Why do I waste precious moments of my life being distracted with the idea of controlling whats happening tomorrow or even a week from now? Or why do I become so distraught when what I picture as what's supposed to be turns out to be something so different? I even had myself worked up earlier about something I had written someone and the possible miscommunication of my intent in what I sent. But why? When I knew my intentions were good and honorable. Why am I sitting and worrying about what someone is thinking of me or how I need to map out my next move so the puzzle fits together the way I see fit? The point is it's not my job to control, worry, etc. about things. I'm a tool being used for the work of God's kingdom not the one mapping out the story. This verse doesn't necessarily fit, but I have always loved it.."Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you" (Isaiah 54:10).

Anyhow, enough of my rambling..now that we've been here for almost three weeks we are being integrated into morning duty, quiet times, and bed time. Amongst the staff and volunteer we have split up the responsibilities of these tasks and various others and devised a very thorough schedule of our daily duties, which I'm a huge fan of. Tonight we had night duty and it was about as smooth the bumps on my disgusting, peeling back (I look like I have a disease on my upper back but that's not important). Shenice and then Jefferie decided to have huge meltdowns while the other boys decided to test us on whether we were serious about bed time. The older kids can stay up a little longer and all took care of themselves fine..thankfully no meltdowns there. I'm hoping things go smoother the more times we do it but it's still not smooth for the staff that has been here 5 weeks but hey one can always hope! Are day off was supposed to be tomorrow but has been switched to Saturday so school can remain uninterrupted throughout the week. We still get the afternoon off after school is done tomorrow so we aren't going 10 days without anytime off-that would be harsh..I'll leave you with this..Tonight we caught Jeffrie stomping around with one leg in a jenga can singing "Do Lord" and it was the funniest thing ever..it was even funny enough to over look his screaming meltdown at bed time..

Peace & Love,
Naseem

p.s. we decided we are members of the babysitters club-see our club photo above.."Say hello to your friends"