The Joy of Easter!

I know- it's not Easter yet, but you'll see where I'm going with this as you read on.

My parents came for a splendid week of Dominican sunshine. They arrived last week Thursday and checked into their hotel, the same really nice one that Steve's grandma and sister stayed in. Then we went out for dinner at the nearby Italian restaurant and stayed up late since Friday was the last day of school before break! Friday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed and went to school, while they slept in and then went to a museum. Centro Leon, which may have been mentioned in some other posts, contains an art museum and a cigar factory/museum. It also has beautiful grounds with a duck pond. My parents enjoyed the cigar factory and some of the art (the really modern stuff we just won't mention- ha!) before coming to school for lunch. We had delicious rice, beans, and fish. Yum!

They got to see my classroom in a very normal state. By normal I mean the wild child was rather wound up and on the verge of an explosion all day (thankfully it never happened), another boy was having screaming tantrums off and on ALL day, a few boys threw stones on the playground, the others were just their usual chatty, energetic selves. I was fairly well in control since I did no real teaching beyond giving a spelling test and I had the beautiful threat of taking away the upcoming egghunt:)

One thing I did get to do was tell the Holy Week/Good Friday/ Easter stories from my Bible History book. It was GREAT! The kids have been getting nervous for a while now, hearing Jesus predict his death. I got a glimpse of how Jesus felt. I would tell them over and over that he will live again but they didn't understand and would flip ahead with concerned faces to show me the picture of Jesus on the cross. On Friday as I told the story they were destroyed over Jesus' suffering and shocked that he chose to let it happen. When the exultation of Easter came they rejoiced to hear once again that now we can go to heaven to live with him forever. I pray that they understand enough and I know that God is working in their hearts. I can see it in their faces. Mom brought me some sheets of beautiful Good Friday and Easter stickers so the kids made the scenes on paper and received a few to put on shirts, lunchboxes, and foreheads. Mom also brought each one a cross sucker.

After the egg hunt and various games school was finally over. We showed my parent's our apartments and then took the concho (little public car) downtown to the mercado (market). We found some fun souvenirs and then went out for pollo con wasacaca (chicken with garlic sauce)! Then we hung out a bit at the hotel before heading home. We would need our sleep for the next day- in Santo Domingo!

Sadly, no pictures this time. My dad got ALL the pictures but I'm afraid I did not get them off his camera before they left... Maybe they can email me some and then I can update this post.