thai thai thai

is it really possible to get enough thai food?
(hint: NO.) look at it..
we had a wonderful reason to revisit lax for another go at thai night: amanda was leaving town! amanda is a really good friend of cara's from back home who stayed with us a few weeks.. she pretty much rocks- freakin' hilarious and just full of spontaneity. she is fearless and friendly and a great person to talk to. for her goodbye dinner we put on some normal clothes and wilson took us all to the restaurant in his sweet van.

the ladies.. with all of our bags

me, johan, robin

wilson, amanda, cara, kendall

oh yes, then we went to bon for some goodbye ice cream..

nice, kendall :)

miss you, amanda!

..and now i am hungry.

clase de arte

quick review of the schedule during the school year:
mon- preschool + staff meeting
tues- preschool + personal project
wed- preschool + personal project
thurs- preschool + personal project
fri- Bible classes for older kids

(if that was a useless repeat of information, sorry. i forget how much i have explained..)

the staff has many projects going on (english class, guitar class, Bible study in chichigua, etc). wednesdays, for my personal project, i would go to the homes of my students and spend time with them and their families to build relationships and just hang out. tuesday and thursday afternoons i taught an art class! i was able to hold it at the school for people that live around tamarindo. shallan would stay with me at the school last semester and katy or kendall would stay to hang out and help this semester. our options are a little limited because of the supplies we have and there are no art supply stores or hobby lobbys around here.. we definitely got creative. :)

there were a lot of random things we did- bead necklaces, make paper beads, fold oragami boxes, watercolor, watercolor over white wax, make cards, prime a shelf, paint t-shirts (thanks to a group!), use acrylics on canvas (thank you again, group for the supplies!), paint frames and put them together, "paint" with chalk, decoupage, make leaf rubbings, design and color puzzles..

i ended up having to create a sign-up sheet because it got really crazy with so many people piled in the room and limited what we could do. there ended up being a cool group of teenage kids, a couple younger kids, some mothers of my students, and even some babies (who had to come so their moms or siblings could be there). the age range was difficult sometimes, trying to accommodate different levels and abilities. i'm thankful they loved it so much, though, and would wait outside for me to open the door up.

frame making.

paint and katy.

yamela.

the original thought for art class was for it to be a safe place for people to escape to, a pause from everything else going on. i wanted it to be a place where relationships would begin and continue to form. i wanted it to be a place where minds could expand and experience freedom in creativity. i wanted it to be a place for removing boundaries. for conversation. for expression.

i can't say it is just bliss all the time. i am thankful though for relationships that have begun and deepened because of the time together. excited to see where everything goes..

curry cravings..

ladies night? yes please. well, i guess we get a lot of these because there really aren't a lot of dudes on staff.. anyway, what we DON'T get to do a lot of "going out" type nights (ain't got no money, ain't got no car to take you on a date.. name that song).

we noticed a sign one day at lax that said wednesday nights are... THAI NIGHTS!! that's right. curry. oh how i crave curry.. on a daily basis.

the staff at lax were still figuring out all the logistics of this themed night so the food was a little slow (more time to talk, right?) but oh man.. it was so worth it. i think i inhaled mine..

my two foxy roommates, katy and kendall

jennie, robin and rachel.. lookin' good.

cara, me and amanda.. love.

i guess the point of this blog is that
1. these girls rock.
2. i love curry.
3. i really love curry.

lazy river bums

the saturday before easter we went out to the river with some people from the church. they'd rented a huge safari truck (which jessi drove by the way- cool points) and we left from the church. it was a sweaty, bumpy ride for about an hour into the valley, but we made it.. and this was basically our agenda:

1. carry our all of our cosas across the river.
2. chill out and get situated.
3. eat. (dominican-style comida from el garage.. served with red rock of course)
4. be lazy.
5. lay around more.
6. talk.
7. nap.
8. sit in the river and collect pebbles.
9. put natural clay masks from the river clay all over yourself.
10. hang out some more.
11. (if you are rachel.. :) jump on a horse with the random guy who rides up. (haha don't worry. he brought her back..)
12. cross the river and head back.
13. randomly stop at a camp.
14. home.

27 waterfalls

during semana santa (the week before easter- a week staff had off) we all ventured down the highway past puerto plata to a FUN place.. will was in town, benjamin had the day off, and the chichiguan dudes could go. perfect.

destination: 27 waterfalls.

essentially 27 waterfalls is, well, 27 waterfalls. creative. we walked to the base of the mountain where we started the hike up.. THEN for the best part- jumping/sliding/climbing down all TWENTY-SEVEN waterfalls! it was freezing but after the hike and with all of the adreniline it feels amazing..

on the way to 27 waterfalls..

robin and amanda.. READY!

afterwards with our hilarious guides.. soaked and happy.

sorry there are no pictures of the really cool parts (the whole hike, cliffs, and waterfalls).. i didn't really trust the guide's ziplock bag to adequately protect my camera..

*there was actually a not-so-fun part of the day- we waited on the side of the road for a gua-gua to come by and just kept getting passed up SO i waved a truck over (score!).. we hitchhiked back to puerto plata in the back of a truck which was totally fine UNTIL the police pulled them over, made us get out, and took them away (maybe because we'd been in the back). stink. i hope everything turned out alright..

the hunt.

who doesn't like easter egg hunts? it really has to be one of my favorite parts about easter (i mean, aside from the whole point of it and celebrating that Jesus is risen..) confession: when i am in georgetown for easter my madre still hides individual baskets for us in the house.. and yes, it is glorious.

i'm not too sure the easter egg hunt is something that really anyone here cares much about (or really does at all..) but for our easter party we were absolutely going to do an easter egg hunt, gosh darn it.

we spent like 15 minutes hiding the eggs around the schoolyard, trying to be sneaky and creative with our egg-hiding skills. guess how long it took 30 preschoolers to find them ALL?

maybe 47 seconds.
soooo.. we made them go inside and we re-hid them for round 2.



they defintely run around like little crazy people which, of course, is how a hunt should happen- with extreme intensity. on a mission, people.

happy easter. praise God we can celebrate that Jesus is risen! He lives. :)

road block

welcome to montellano.

to get to our apartment (on one of the main streets in montellano) just turn onto calle silencio and look for the second set of yellow apartments.

oh wait.. not today.

the road has a gigantic hole dug out of it for this cable construction project. lovely.

who would like to join the car-watching party on the porch? we can watch people try to leave and vote on who has the best turn around.. who can conquer the maze the fastest? who will get stuck at the surprise dead end?