Christmas Program

In preparation for Christmas my class helped put up decorations in the chapel since that's my classroom during the week. It was a group effort to put up the tree last week and decorate it with 8 different opinions flying. :O) My class was also put in charge of building the stable for the Christmas program. We were able to use some branches that someone in the neighborhood had put out for the trash pick up. The stable came together nicely and added a great visual. We hung a green cloth behind the branches to cover up the piano - it was a nice finishing touch.

Friday night the Christmas program went well. There was a large crowd and the kids were excited. One student almost fainted toward the end of the performance. Another student had an upset stomach and threw up during the reception afterwords. Overall, the program went well and seemed to be well received by the parents. The teachers were pleased with the night and glad for the opportunity to have the gospel clearly presented.

Sickness continues to spread through the school. I had another 2 students out sick today. I think I've had almost every student out sick in the last 2 weeks. I'm very thankful that I continue to be healthy. Just 3 and half more days to go! Can't wait to be home with family and friends to celebrate Christmas!

Circus - Lisbon - Boca do Inferno

The past 3 days have been filled with lots of exciting outings. First of all Sunday night I was invited to go to the circus. My friends got free tickets and had an extra. The Victor Hugo Circus was in Lisbon. It didn't include lions, tigers and bears but I did see lions, elephants, and horses along with multiple acrobats, a trapeze artist, clowns, and motorcycle daredevils. My favorite act was one of the acrobat groups that did some amazing stunts!

Monday morning I got a phone call telling me that school was canceled because half of our teachers (4 out of 7 full time staff) were sick with the flu. I had to make phone calls to the students on my phone tree list to notify them that school was canceled. My roommate and I decided to do some exploring in downtown Lisbon. We rode the train in and spent a few hours window shopping and taking in the scenery.

Today was a National Holiday and another day off of school. Gina, my roommate took me to see Boca do Inferno which translates to "The Mouth of Hell". It's about a 3 mile walk from our apartment past downtown Cascais along the coast. The water crashes inland and has carved out some caves leaving a cliff of rocks. The water is a beautiful greenish blue color.

Tomorrow is back to school - it was nice to have an extra long weekend. So far I've managed to stay healthy - hoping that continues with all the sickness going around! Pray for the kids and teachers to be healthy for the Christmas program this Friday night!

Thankful Thoughts...

I had a nice Thanksgiving even though it didn't work out quite the way I had planned. I really enjoyed having the time off from school to rest my leg and be away from the normal day routine. It was quiet around the apartment, but I know that's what God had planned for me. I enjoyed spending my time reading, watching TV, eating, and of course sleeping!

I am thankful for many things even being in a different place away from family this year. I'm thankful for God, for my family, for friends (new and old), for how God provides, the gift of laughter, encouragement that comes in different ways, enjoying the beautiful sunshine, the gift of music, and for my health. Having to use crutches for the last 10 days made me realize just how much the ability to walk is something that I take for granted. Even though I've experienced so many new things in the last 5 months I know that God has been the one thing that hasn't changed and that gives me stability, confidence, and a rock to depend on.

I'm looking forward to celebrating Christmas with family and friends in Rochester. Two weeks from today I'll be flying home. There's a lot going on at school in the next 2 weeks. Our Christmas program is this coming Friday. The Christmas program is a great opportunity for us to share the Christmas story with unsaved parents. You could be praying for that to impact hearts and lives. There are other end of the year events the following week including the teachers vs. students soccer game. The kids still want me to play in the soccer game on Dec. 15th, I said I'd wait and see how my leg is doing. I've been off crutches for the last 2 days and trying to take it easy. So far so good - my leg is quite the rainbow of colors though (I decided not to put a picture of it up on my blog so I don't gross anyone out). :o) Happy December to everyone!

An Alarming Day!

Hello - it's been a while since I've blogged and wanted to fill you all in on a few new developments. Last Thursday was a big day. I was the first teacher to arrive at school and let myself in and prepared to punch in the alarm code. I've done this before without problems but last Thursday was a different story! The key pad is a little worn out (especially for some of the numbers in the code) and I couldn't tell if the first number I punched in was recognized so I pressed it again and continued with the rest of the code. I wasn't successfull and was soon greeted by the alarm going off - sirens and beeping! AHHH - I thought to myself what do I do? I tried to call the school secretary but there was no answer and the phone at school began to ring. Trying to listen to the voice speaking in Portuguese on the other end (over the alarm going off) I launched into why the alarm was going off and that I was a teacher. I could tell the person didn't know English and they told me to wait a moment. I felt helpless. Seconds later Pedro stepped through the door and I felt a huge relief that he could take over and explain what had happened. The alarm stopped going off and the day continued. I haven't had to deal with turning off the alarm since (I've been to chicken to arrive early!).

The day started with excitement and also ended the same way. Each year the high school and junior high students play the teachers in soccer, basketball and some other sports. The students vs. teachers soccer game is on December 15th. I agreed to play in the game and thought it would be a good idea to practice up a bit by joining my students and the high school in their PE class. The high school teacher often joins the PE class each week and the PE teacher encourages it. I thought it would be a good chance to get to know my kids better so last Thursday I brought my PE clothes and headed over to the soccer field about a 5 min. walk away. Not 10 minutes into our game I was kicked by one of the students when we were both going after the ball. My leg instantly started swelling and I sat out for the rest of PE class. I was able to walk back to school but felt some discomfort. I used ice and kept my foot elevated as much as possible. Over the weekend my leg/ankle didn't improve.

Long story short, yesterday I decided to go get some x-rays after getting some advice from friends. I had my first Urgent Care clinic experience! A friend was able to take me there and help. Thankfully we did not have to wait very long to be seen by a doctor. I wish I had a video camera to record people's reactions to my foot - it's not pretty! He sent me off for x-rays. That was another experience! He insisted that I not put any pressure on my foot and brought a wheelchair for me to ride it (another first!). Good news is that there are no broken bones or fractures but there was a lot of "trauma" - that's what the dr. kept repeating. He wanted to imobilize my foot and told me to stay off it for 10 days. He said it needs TIME and REST. I now have a permanent ace wrap on it and am to use crutches for the next 10 days!

I was supposed to go to Ireland with my roommate during our Thanksgiving break but decided that it wasn't very practical for me to try to do that on crutches so I'll be staying in Cascais for Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to the peace and quiet and time away from school. I'll certainly miss the adventure of exploring Ireland but know there must be a reason for me to have this extra time. Hoping that's the last of my adventures for a while!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! :o)

Success!

Well -- whew! It's been a long week I think I had an appointment somewhere each day this week - but I'm happy to report that I have an extension to my tourist visa. Thanks for your prayers! God has certainly been at work this week! I'm thankful for the people that helped get me to different offices and spoke on my behalf to get all the right paperwork in order. It was stressful standing by and hearing conversations back and forth in Portuguese and not understanding, but knowing by the tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language that things weren't quite in order. Yesterday afternoon (after paying some fees of course!) I received a sticker in my passport that gives me permission to stay until mid December when my flight leaves for Rochester! The next thing to pray for is that I'll be able to enter again in Januaary without any problems since I've technically already spent my 90 days.

The other exciting news is that my roommate Gina and I decided to go to Ireland for our Thanksgiving break. Gina found some cheap airplane tickets on a direct flight from Lisbon to Dublin - so we'll be there for about 4 days! I'm excited to have the chance to travel there and we're both glad that the language will be English! If anyone has any travel tips for places to go/see in Dublin I'm all ears!

Visa Challenges!

My 90 day tourist visa ends on Friday. We've been scrambling this week to get that solved. Yesterday afternoon I left school early to go to the SEF office (Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteirae) in Cascais. We waited for a little while before speaking to 3 different people to get information before leaving. Basically I need to apply for an extension on my tourist visa - another 90 days. After that, the next step is to re-apply for a long term visa since my first attempt in the states was rejected. To get the extended tourist visa I needed to make a trip to Lisbon to have a criminal background check.

This morning when I arrived at school I was warned that the trip to Lisbon might be today and I should be prepared to leave my class (and make sure they had work to do)! Sure enough, about 10am the pastor came in and asked if we could leave in the next 20min to head into Lisbon to get my criminal background checked. I wrote a list of work on the board and explained why I was leaving. I said I should be back sometime before the end of the day. I had to chuckle when one of my Greek students leaned to her neighbor to clarify why I was going to have my criminal record checked! Some of them were afraid that I wouldn't be back!

After waiting in line about two and a half hours our number flashed up! They were helping #80 when we arrived and our number was #139. I did a lot of "people watching" during that time. Even thought I don't understand Portuguese you can still pick up a lot of things from people's body language and facial expressions. Once we were helped, it only took about 2 minutes to get the needed documents and be back on our way. It's funny how a change from the normal classroom environment can drain me more than a typical day at school.

The pieces seem to be falling into place. Wed. and Thurs. I have two more appointments to finish getting the missing pieces. I'm so thankful for the help from the school in getting me where I need to go and speaking for me at each of of these places. You can pray that all goes well and by Friday I'll have an extended tourist visa that will get me through to early next year. I've had to be patient the past few days and am sure I'll be tested some more. But in the midst of all this I know (and have already seen) that God is going to work this out. I'd appreciate your prayers though! That's all for now - I'll have an update in a few days...

Budapest Trip

The full time teachers at ICSC were able to go to a conference in Budapest, Hungary at the ASCI headquarters. We flew out of Lisbon very early Thursday morning. The school bus came to pick Gina and I up at 3:45am. We landed in Hungary early afternoon and headed to the ACSI house on the southeast edge of the city. The had prepared a Hungarian stew for lunch which was delicious. The ACSI house is in a beautiful neighborhood that reminded me a lot of home. The leaves were turning colors and it was fun to get a taste of fall - including the early morning frosts! :O) I went on some walks through the neighborhood and enjoyed the smell of fall. Here are some pictures of the neighborhood.

During our stay there we had about 8 different sessions. Some were whole group and for others we broke up into smaller groups based on our age levels or challenges in our classrooms. It was good to be reminded of some things and get some new ideas. One of my favorite things about the trip was getting to know my fellow teachers better. It was fun to be in a relaxed environment and get to know more about them. Saturday afternoon and evening was our time to go sightseeing. We got 2 taxis to take us into town and started out at a Hungarian market. Here's a picture of the outside and then one inside to show just how big it is. The first level had all kinds of food and the second level was mostly souvenirs.

From there my roommate Gina and I went with Robb and Anna to the Castle District. We navigated our way on the metro (which brought back memories of my trip with my sisters in 2006) and enjoyed walking down streets and seeing some of the history around us. My roommate Gina loves coffee and saw a sign in one of the shops for Bubble Tea - something she hadn't had for years. I took a picture of her jumping outside the shop. I knew we wouldn't be able to see much in the short amount of time but was thankful for what I did get to see. The sun goes down very early - about 4-4:30 so it was neat to see the city all lit up at night. Robb, Anna, Gina, and I crossed the Danube River walking across the Chain Bridge.We ended up at a small pizza place for dinner. Budapest is a beautiful city with many beautiful sights. It'd be fun to go back and visit again. Here are some pictures from the trip! I'll close with a video of a man playing in one of the open areas. I love coming across live musicians in Europe. Earlier in the night we heard a man playing violin too.