TODAY is MY DAY!!

OoO My Word... I am not even sure were to start with my joys today. Today has been a simply FANTASTIC day and it is ALL because of my host mother. She has such a sweet and giving soul to others. She is always taking care of everyone else and getting things done in the community! I am blessed to be matched with an amazing host mother. I was a little stressing about my birthday and not being with all of my nearest and dearest but it ended up being one of my BEST birthdays! I am getting my roots slightly planted here in Dominica and it feels good. My Host Mom spoiled me today- that is all I have to say!

I will put my joys in order of how they happened so you will also have an ideal of my day!

1. SLEEPING IN JUST A LITTLE
2. Phone Call from my REAL Mother
3. Not having to wait for the bus
4. A BEAUTIFUL SUNSHINE filled day!!
5. A WHOLE lot of facebook love
6. TWO amazing E-Cards that made me SMILE especially the Monkey one!;o)
7. Getting TWO HUGS and Happy Birthdays from Locals I know from my work site
8. A FANTASTIC lunch at a local restaurant- Grilled Chicken Breast (NO Bones), French Fries and Salad
9. Lots of LOVE and DONATIONS for my Birthday Club
10. Rain that cool the air
11. Picking up my Birthday Cake (A COMPLETE Surprise)
12. DELIOUS Banana, Papaya, and Milk Smoothie
13. Talking to my Mom and Dad
14. Having my sister call me late and AUSTIN still being AWAKE!!
15. SURPRISE visitors-- The Woman whose children I bake with and hang out with brought me a PIZZA and it was FANTASTIC!!
16. My BESTEST leaving me a birthday message and knowing they go to Vegas A-OK!

That was my day filled with JOYS!! THANK YOU THANK YOU for ALL the BIRTHDAY Love you have showed me!!

M

Joys 4/7

What a BEAUTIFUL Day both the weather and the days events! I know you guys do not want to hear this because you may be looking at snow at the moment but it was a simply GORGEOUS day. The sun was shinning so bright with a cool breeze while in the shadow. It is starting to get Humid and Sticky but the Sunshine makes my soul very happy inside!! Today was my school attachment day and since the children are heading on Easter Holiday so they had a Sports Day. It reminded me of "Field Day" in Elementary School. The WHOLE school went to the Gardens where we had races, relay races, tug of war a football match, and rounders (which is baseball meets tennis meets dodge ball). There is a batter that has a tennis racket- a pincher those a tennis ball for the batter to hit. Once the batter hits the tennis ball then she will run to the bases and for her to be out someone must throw the ball at her and it hits her. Mostly girls play the game! That was basically the big even of my day!



Here goes the Joys!
1. A Beautiful Day outside all morning/afternoon
2. Giving Souls of individuals in the Community
3. My Everyday View
4. Seeing the frame of a house/shop almost being finished by a ONE Man
5. The Faces of Children when they see their picture on my camera screen
6. Only hours left until I become on year older



Enjoy
M

Joys 4/6

-- Miss those SUMMER days when nothing mattered but each other --

What a FANTASTIC Day!!

1. TWO Packages (Thank you again MOM and DAD and BETH) and A Card from my Grandparents (THANK YOU!!!)
2. Making a cake!
3. Spending some time with one of my favorites girls as she randomly stopped by after school!
4. Seeing Jennifer and Austin (His smile makes me smile) on Skype

Just a few joys but over all an amazing day!! When I have more going on and not just training I will write real blogs but until then you get to see my joys!

MUCH LOVE
M

Joys of 4/5

Just a low key Sunday that included a nap...

1. Today is Palm Sunday and we stopped on the side of the road to collect Palms- Talk about FRESH Palms
2. E-Mails that make me smile and laugh out loud because I can just in vision that person telling me the story and saying the story out loud to the computer
3. Lots of hugs at church today while we were waiting to walk and sing with our palms
4. A YUMMY Smoothie
5. Pizza from my favorite Girls
6. Two GREAT Walks
7. Finally hanging out with my fav. neighbor girls and boys watching the sun set into the sea (I hope that scene ALWAYS brings me joy)
8. I almost forgot- POSTSECRET SUNDAY!! My favorite one from this week is at the top :o)

Much Love
M

Joys of 4/4

This is the WHOLE Group of Peace Corps Trainee that are throughout the Eastern Caribbean Islands

The more I interact with Children the more I realize how much attention they desire and deserve but do not receive. It is always so amazing to me to see how the children faces light up when I walk up to the school or when I walk down to visit my "Baking Friends." There eyes light up like I am one of their nearest and dearest that they have not seen for months. It is such a feeling that touches my soul. As I continue my personal journey through the Peace Corps I know those moments will get me through the struggles and make the success even more sweet. I hope I can always treasure those moments of life.

My JOYS
1. Walking down to meet up with my "Baking Friends" and have the little one see me from around the corner and run at me with open arms as I scope her up into mine
2. Taking the boys down to the playing field to watch our village team play Cricket
3. Having someone so patiently break down the rules of this game called Cricket :o)
4. Have my amazing Uncle send me pictures of my fish because he understands how much I love the fish
5. Window shopping in Town today- Simply walking around with no agenda or time frame
6. Being able to journal- I was WAY behind
7. A new to me bag from the "Free Box" at the Peace Corps office (It is a GREAT bag from Barnes and Nobles that will be used as my grocery bag)
8. I am not sure if I mentioned this but April Birthday Month Party has been Sponsored!! YaY!!
9. The CUTEST puppies in the WORLD (I am tempered to ask the owner if I can buy one- but I am going to stick with my fish)
10. Hearing my name in town and throughout the village (It feels good knowing that people know who I am- it is the first step into integrating into the community)
11. Having my house set for me to move into
12. An amazing sister who updates her BLOG OFTEN and fills it with pictures so I am able to see my Nephew grow and all of his advantages
13. One of the boys I brought to the Cricket Match was suppose to tell me the rules of the game so I was asking a lot of questions. Then after a few minutes I asked him "Am I asking too many questions" and as honest as can be he answers "Yes." OoO the pure honesty of children!

LOTS of Joys today!!

LOVE YOU and MISS YOU!
M

Joys of 4/3

The Moments That Make My Soul Smile

1. Riding up to my home on the bus while looking at an amazing red and orange sky
2. Bakes after a FANASTIC workout (A little counter productive but that is fine :o)
3. A relaxing evening of TV watching and Chic-Chatting
4. MARKET tomorrow
5. Listening to an AMAZING Random "Old Skool" CD while Cleaning up my room
6. Cocoa Tea With FRESH Cocoa in it
7. A better day then previous ones
8. An BESTEST who knows me like the back of her hand and sends me e-mails that put a smile on my face and are straight up honest!
9. NEW PICTURES!!


The FIRST Group Shot in Dominica



The Girls After a Day at the Beach

OoO Mine OoO Mine Apple Pie..

Hey everyone!! I am about to give you my week all summed up in a few pictures and a handful of words! It has NOTHING to do with Apple Pie but maybe about a cake!

Monday
OoO... Man this is dipping back into the early week. I had Peace Corps Training all day with my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers. Then I went off to the gym! Came back to the house for dinner and went to bed WAY early! Kinda a mellow day!

Tuesday
Tuesday is ALWAYS School Attachment day! I went to the school for the day to assist one of the teacher. Usually while I am there I do one on one tutoring and I am in the processing of starting arts and crafts projects. The teacher was not able to make it to school that day and in Dominica they do not have "subs" so the Principal took over the classroom. The Principal had a meeting in the morning so the class and I played some Math BINGO! It was a BLAST! To see the faces of the children when they got a BINGO was PRICELESS!! And they were learning Math all at the same time! The morning went by quickly. The Grand 4,5,6 students read a play to a panal of judges regarding Cocaine. They did an EXCELLENT job naturally! In the after I went into the Kindergarten Class (Dominica schools call it Grade K) and hung out with them into the bell rang! OoO Mine they are CUTE!! I helped one of the little ones write out a paragraph she was cute and thanked me after! :o) Once school got out I ran some errands in Town and Head up to the house. I worked on some Peace Corps homework- watched the sun set into the Caribbean Sea and ate some dinner. I almost forgot I baked a CAKE today!! I have an activity on Thursday and I wanted to bring the kids treat so I baked a CAKE!!


Wednesday
Peace Corps Office Day!! Did training all day with the other Volunteers- ate some cake- got a medical shot- learned some Creole (the local language that I am STRUGGLING with)- and came up with a dream I have. "Connection through Celebration." It is based on the idea I have to have a Birthday once a month for ALL of the children in my village that have a birthday in that Month. The first one will be Easter Sunday for ALL the April Birthdays! Which brings up what I did Wednesday evening! I have to collect all of the birthdays in the village so I put on my Keens and My shorts and I was on my way. OoO Mine was that fun!! I first went down by where the girls I baked with live to catch up with them. They were not home from school yet so I hung out with there Cousin and when they saw me they came RUNNING down the drive to get me with a BIG hug!! It was GREAT to see someone so excited to see you!! Those kids were the GREATEST help! They walked around the village with me collecting birthdays and keeping me companion. The youngest one held my hand the WHOLE way- it was too cute!! And it was April Fool's day- so they were Fooling me left and right and enjoying every moment of it! :o)



Thursday!
Today is Today and it was a BIG day for me! I went and shadowed a delight of a lady that works in town with the Adult Education program. We went to a near by village to meet some people and then drink so fresh coconut water and see showed me where cocoa comes from to make all of our fantastic candy bars. (see picture of yellow fruit below). The seeds you use are inside the fruit. Then I head back to the school and went back into the Grade K classroom. I was picking out books and one of the students asked me to read the book so I started reading the book and before I knew it the WHOLE class was in a tight little circle around me listening and looking at the pictures.
After that was my BIG activity day. For the Peace Corps I had to do a Service Learning Project. Which is a project that a group complete and learns something from it. It is more then Volunteering because information is exchange. In front of the school I work with is a Nursery. I thought let us (the Grade 4 students) read to the Pre-K students- they are about 3 and 4 years old. After the Grade 4 students and myself had some cake and we picked out books and played Go Fish and War it was time to head over to the Nursery. The kids had just finished lunch and were excited. We got into groups of One Grade 4 student and Three Pre-K students. The Grade 4 students read for about 30 minutes and the Pre-K students were FANTASTIC!! It went better then I could of Image. Some of the Peace Corps dictetors stopped by to see how it was going. It all went all. I will taking another group over there in about 2 weeks.



That is a LONG update on my week!!Hope you can follow!! If you have any questions let me know!!

Much Love
M