16 and counting

Oh man folks, sorry for the long delay in posting, the last few days have been crazy, lots happening! This week has been our first full week at school and my class has grown and grown, which has been BLOWING my mind!!! I am now up to 16 students, which compared to many classes in the States is still a small number, but seeing how at open house I had FIVE, 16 is a HUGE jump! But, in reality it is a blessing. We have been praying for more students to register and well God is bringing the students, it's pretty wild.

Monday was rough, and I definitely came near tears at one point talking to my director about it. I had 3 new students come in that day and I felt so overwhelmed about teaching and classroom management and just felt so helpless all day. Teaching is no joke and everyday I grow a newfound respect for all the teachers out there in the world, this is no easy task!

But Tuesday was a new day, and although it brought 3 more new students, it also brought a whole new peace. I rearranged my classroom and turned the desks into group tables and tried my best to mix up the students so that I could manage the chaos and the day as a whole just went a whole lot smoother. Each day since then has been going just a bit smoother, and I think we're finally starting to get into a bit of a rhythm and I'm growing closer to the students each day. I love sitting out and talking/playing with them during recess and lunch. Those are precious moments that really help strengthen my relationship with them. I feel more and more blessed each day that I get to learn and grow with this little kiddies. Our class is still pretty chaotic most days, but overall I think we're starting to get into the flow of things. THANK YOU JESUS! haha!

Here is a picture of my precious little ones,

My kiddies (missing 3)

Yesterday some of them were hula-hooping during lunch and it might have been one of cutest things I've seen, ever.

intense concentration

So precious

sweet girl. 

Love this little guy!! 

On another note, last weekend after our first couple days of school we decided to take a mini-vaca to the west side of the island. We stayed in a cute little hostel out in West End. West End is mainly a touristy area, and is getting a road paved through it. It was all of our first times there and we had a blast hanging out at the beach and with each other. While hanging out at the beach a random man with a monkey on his shoulder came strolling by (no big deal, day in a life on the island haha!) and let us take some pics with it. Love the random things that we encounter here.

Just hanging out. 

The next day we went to church in West Bay at the only gringo church on the island. Some of the girls had went to a bit of it the week before and we had dinner with the pastor and his wife earlier in the week. Then we spent the day at the beach. The weather here on the island has been crazy lately. While at the beach a random, huge storm rolled through, and 30 mins later the sun was right back out as if nothing happened. So strange. We also ran into Pablo, one of the boys we've befriended in French Harbor. Him and his cousin were at the beach and we spent most of the afternoon with them.

Overall, life is sweet folks. I am so blessed to be here it blows my mind!