Hey everyone. I write this post because I just recieved and email from Roger saying that I am lacking on my support end and it has really started to make me nervous and scared and I just dont know what to do. So I send this out asking for financial support!
Even if you can only give $10 a month or if you could give $100 a month I would apprecaite every little bit that you can provide. My monthly budget is $1542 and well I just dont know what to do if the support doesnt come through.
I am going to leave this matter into Gods hands and I know that he will provide! I am here to God and I know that I cant stop having faith now. There was time when I didnt know if I would have enough support to go on my missions trip in May, but everything ended up working out just fine. There was time when I didn't have any faith in God and doubted everything that could even be possible, but I know during those days the doubt that I had didn't do any good for my situation or for me. Now that I am a daughter of God all I can and will do is to have faith in God that he will provide for this situation!
I thank you all for listening to me and to reading my posts and for supporting me whether it is financially or through prayer!
THANK YOU!
~Alisha
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Life
Hey everyone. I am so sorry that I just am finally able to post again. Life has been crazy here and the time has been flying by so quickly!
I have officially completed my first week of teaching and it is amazing! I have 31 gorgeous children and love every minute with them. There are a few of them that well I have issues with them talking but that is slowly getting better. I am trying to find that line of what I discpline what I dont and just how to go about it. It is extremely hard sometimes! But I think it will continue to get better as the school year goes on!
We still havent recieved that boat yet (it is supposed to arrive tomorrow) but.... that means we still wont get our items for another week so I am still living out of just two suitcases which is crazy to be doing. I cant believe it has been a month and I have been suriving on what I have! :P That shows that all this materialistic stuff is just stuff and we dont need it to truly survive! I will be happy though when the boat does come because it has everyones food on it as well. For the last month we have not really had anything at all in our fridge and well I have been eating a lot of eggs for dinner. We have lunch at Roger and Normas which I am so blessed for to be able to eat meat there because when I come home well we dont have any meat at our house and well there isnt any on our order on the boat (my roommates are vegiterians and didnt order any when they did their purchasing) but hey I will survive! :) I cant find chicken, goat and pig all around Haiti! :) I would eat the fish but well they catch the tropical colorful fish and I am not sure about eating it if I dont even know what specific kind of fish that it is. lol
The other teachers and I are starting to become closer and we have started a bible study group for the women on every other saturday that I look forward to. My roommates and I have also decided to do devotion together mon-thursday at 8pm. That makes me smile because I was praying for that after I got here that we would be able to come together as a "family" in this house and do that! :) There are still plenty of moments that I kinda feel lonely and I am not sure why that exactly is. Maybe its because well everyone else knows each other very well here and maybe it is just because I am the new one, I dont know. That or sometimes its just because of the laguage barrier between the local haitians and I. I would love to be able to walk about and have a conversation with my neighbors, but most I can say is Bonswa or Bonjou (Good morning, good evening) and sometimes I can say how are you doing, but then that kinda gets them to say more then just I am good so I cant understand it! :( I am praying that sometime soon I will be able to overcome this new foreign language and atleast carry on a small conversation with the locals!
I know that with God all things are possible and I just continue to have faith in Him and to remember that He can do all things!
I have officially completed my first week of teaching and it is amazing! I have 31 gorgeous children and love every minute with them. There are a few of them that well I have issues with them talking but that is slowly getting better. I am trying to find that line of what I discpline what I dont and just how to go about it. It is extremely hard sometimes! But I think it will continue to get better as the school year goes on!
We still havent recieved that boat yet (it is supposed to arrive tomorrow) but.... that means we still wont get our items for another week so I am still living out of just two suitcases which is crazy to be doing. I cant believe it has been a month and I have been suriving on what I have! :P That shows that all this materialistic stuff is just stuff and we dont need it to truly survive! I will be happy though when the boat does come because it has everyones food on it as well. For the last month we have not really had anything at all in our fridge and well I have been eating a lot of eggs for dinner. We have lunch at Roger and Normas which I am so blessed for to be able to eat meat there because when I come home well we dont have any meat at our house and well there isnt any on our order on the boat (my roommates are vegiterians and didnt order any when they did their purchasing) but hey I will survive! :) I cant find chicken, goat and pig all around Haiti! :) I would eat the fish but well they catch the tropical colorful fish and I am not sure about eating it if I dont even know what specific kind of fish that it is. lol
The other teachers and I are starting to become closer and we have started a bible study group for the women on every other saturday that I look forward to. My roommates and I have also decided to do devotion together mon-thursday at 8pm. That makes me smile because I was praying for that after I got here that we would be able to come together as a "family" in this house and do that! :) There are still plenty of moments that I kinda feel lonely and I am not sure why that exactly is. Maybe its because well everyone else knows each other very well here and maybe it is just because I am the new one, I dont know. That or sometimes its just because of the laguage barrier between the local haitians and I. I would love to be able to walk about and have a conversation with my neighbors, but most I can say is Bonswa or Bonjou (Good morning, good evening) and sometimes I can say how are you doing, but then that kinda gets them to say more then just I am good so I cant understand it! :( I am praying that sometime soon I will be able to overcome this new foreign language and atleast carry on a small conversation with the locals!
I know that with God all things are possible and I just continue to have faith in Him and to remember that He can do all things!
Friday, August 17, 2012
ITS ALREADY BEEN A WEEK!
Hello everyone! I hope that you have been having a wonderful week! I cant believe that today is already Friday!!!!!!!!!! This week has gone by so quickly and I have a feeling that once I get into my routine that it will feel like it is jut flying by for this whole semester!!
LUGGAGE!!!!!!!!!
This week I have been just trying to relax a little bit, get used to the surroundings and to get my classroom in order. On of my bags finally arrived last night, but not the one I was hoping for. My large bag arrived which was full of clothes, but I was really hoping that my smaller bag would of arrived already since that is the one with my contacts and personal items. It is still crazy to think that I will be living out of 2 suitcases for a little while until the boat arrives, which so far is still scheduled for the 20th! :) To be truthful the one item that I desire the most right now is my razor! :P It is in my other bag, so I have not been able to shave my legs at all which is kinda driving me insane! :p lol
HOUSE!!!!!!!!!
This week there has been several moments that our electricity has gone out, but that is something that I just have to get used to. It is usually only off for a few minutes so I am not going to complain! :) I was trying to watch the movie 27 dresses the other night and the electricity went off like 3 times during the movie and I would have to restart it.
FOOD!!!!!!!!!!
We have been blessed with our food all week! Roger and Norma has been providing us all of our meals so far. It has been amazing breakfast buffet that includes bacon, french toast, eggs and fruit. YUM! :) Then we have also had lunch which so far we have had speghetti one day, rice with a chicken sauce one day and of course the fruit and amazing homemade bread they make... YUM! I can def. get used to the food around here. Most of the people living here say that they gain weight when the go to the states and think that I am going to be opposit and gain wait living here. lol Their food is amazing and I can def get used to the beans and rice and chicken!!!! Their sauce that they make is amazing as well. Last night for dinner and so far for lunch we ordered some food. Last night we ordered rice, beans, (chicken for me), vegetables and plantains for dinner which comes with a red sauce. For lunch we have ordered rice and bean sauce with (chicken for me). I am going to have to learn about how to eat smaller meals and just portion my food out instead of eating it all at one meal.
Okay our maid just came home from grocery shopping for us and I had her get some celery. OK celery here is not the same thing as celery in the states. :P It is like the leaves of it and not the stalk of it. So I guess no celery and peanut butter for me lol. I will eventually get it all figured out what things are! LOL
WORKOUT!!!!!!!!
We are also going to start working out and doing the insanity workout so lets see how I am going to go about that one! There is a large group of us teachers who plan to do it so I am thankful that I am not the only one and will have accountability to keep doing it! :)
SCHOOL!!!!!!!!
Yesterday I walked into my classroom for the first time! I was kinda overwhelmed when I walked into my room. In the states all the school desks and everything is already in place and most of the things are already on the wall. Well, not here! At the end of the year they have to pack everything up in boxes and totes and take everything off of the walls and place the desks stacked at one side of the room. So the room when you walk in is a complete blank canvas. I get to look through posters and decide where I want to put things, but first off I have to figure out what these kids are learning the first quarter so I can put up the right posters. There was one for multiplication, but I found out that the kids wont be using that until the 4th semester so I will be waiting on that one. I then also am slowly starting to go through all of the paperwork in the room. I have discovered the biders that break down everyday of the school year for me, which a previous teacher did for 2nd grade. I am sooo thankful to have those binders and I know that it will help me out soo much! Miss Alexa is also typing up her routine of how she went about things which will help a lot too! :) I know that it will take a little bit of time to get used to it all, but I know with God that it will all work out!!! Yesterday, while going through my posters, Riley and Cameron (4th grade) were wanting something to do so I asked them to help me pick out posters and then decide where to put them up in my room. So on the purple cork board in the back of the room we have math and then the purple cork board on the side of the room we have God Is Love with a sun underneath it and at the bottom of the board a verse across it that I will probably switch out every once in a while. There are still several poster to put up, such as, the birthday poster, and the rewards poster, and the everyday note poster, and the reading and spelling posters. Goodness it seems like a lot of posters when you think about it! :P Riley was helping me with things yesterday and it made me smile because she told me that I was going to be a fun teacher! :) :) It actually melted my heart to hear that!!!!!!!!! Then she got into the subject of asking me questions about my life... did I grow up knowing God, am I happy to know God now, What I did in the states, Do I want children :p the list went on, but it was extremely cute! :) I am excited to be here and to start this school year and I know that when I am starting to stress out there is sevearl adults here to help me and children as well and of course God is always with me!
I also got a little overwhelmed yesterday because I found out my roster of my children. Carmen printed it out and gave it to me and even she said that is a lot of children. I have 32 kids in my class which when you think about it, its like woah that is 32 2nd grade kids... that is A LOT! :P But I know that it will be okay. I was organizig my desks yesterday and I only have 25 so we have to discover 7 more desks for my room. Trying to fit them in there might be the hard part! :P
MONEY!!!!!!!!!
Okay so I am starting to figure out this money system! :P I take whatever number is on the bill (which are gourdes or pronounced goods) and divide that by 5 to get the haitian dollar amount. So a bill that says 50 on it is $10 haitian... which if you would like to know is $1.25 american. So lunch today cost me $1.25 americn for a giant bowl of food. Goodness I didn't even think about how much that was until I just broke that down on here, THAT IS CHEAP! :p
so the system is:
# on bill (divide by 10) = haitian dollar
haitian dollar (divide by 8) = american dollar
so another idea on that is the other day I had them break a $100 american bill for me which ended up becoming 800 haitian dollars and 8000 gourdes. WOW that seams like a lot of money!!!!!!!!!!
LANGUAGE!!!!!!!!
Okay so earlier this week I was started to get overwhelmed with the language barrier here, but I know that God will provide me the ability to understand with time. The second night we were here some of the neighbor boys were over saying hi. These kids are out front of the house all of the time because they live across the street. Sometimes they are out playing soccer or other things, but you tend to see them a lot though. They were over though saying Hi and they were having such a hard time saying Miss Alisha. They say A li sha in 3 syllabols. Yesterdy though they say me walking home from working on my classroom and they said my name with no problem so I am excited that they are able to get my name down so quickly! :)
I have thought about it and I am thinking about getting a tutor, but I am wondering if I should try to do it on my own first to atleast get some of the words down and then get a tutor to actually get sentances put together right and the correct pronounciation. Thankfully Megan and Tara had note cards of various words and are able to give those to me to help me get started which will help alot! :)
With that said..... Alo, koman ou ye jodi a? which in english means: Hello, how are you today? :)
Well everyone I am going to hope off of here or the moment... It is noon and I am going to go over to my classroom and start going through some more items in there and then at 4pm I guess we are going to start our insanity workout. Pray that I actually am able to do this! :P I need my food totes to arrive so I can start drinking my protein shakes! (yes Adam I am stealing this from you!) :) heh.... Well everyone I will talk with you later! :) Have a wonderful day!!!!!!!
~Miss Alisha :)
LUGGAGE!!!!!!!!!
This week I have been just trying to relax a little bit, get used to the surroundings and to get my classroom in order. On of my bags finally arrived last night, but not the one I was hoping for. My large bag arrived which was full of clothes, but I was really hoping that my smaller bag would of arrived already since that is the one with my contacts and personal items. It is still crazy to think that I will be living out of 2 suitcases for a little while until the boat arrives, which so far is still scheduled for the 20th! :) To be truthful the one item that I desire the most right now is my razor! :P It is in my other bag, so I have not been able to shave my legs at all which is kinda driving me insane! :p lol
HOUSE!!!!!!!!!
This week there has been several moments that our electricity has gone out, but that is something that I just have to get used to. It is usually only off for a few minutes so I am not going to complain! :) I was trying to watch the movie 27 dresses the other night and the electricity went off like 3 times during the movie and I would have to restart it.
FOOD!!!!!!!!!!
We have been blessed with our food all week! Roger and Norma has been providing us all of our meals so far. It has been amazing breakfast buffet that includes bacon, french toast, eggs and fruit. YUM! :) Then we have also had lunch which so far we have had speghetti one day, rice with a chicken sauce one day and of course the fruit and amazing homemade bread they make... YUM! I can def. get used to the food around here. Most of the people living here say that they gain weight when the go to the states and think that I am going to be opposit and gain wait living here. lol Their food is amazing and I can def get used to the beans and rice and chicken!!!! Their sauce that they make is amazing as well. Last night for dinner and so far for lunch we ordered some food. Last night we ordered rice, beans, (chicken for me), vegetables and plantains for dinner which comes with a red sauce. For lunch we have ordered rice and bean sauce with (chicken for me). I am going to have to learn about how to eat smaller meals and just portion my food out instead of eating it all at one meal.
Okay our maid just came home from grocery shopping for us and I had her get some celery. OK celery here is not the same thing as celery in the states. :P It is like the leaves of it and not the stalk of it. So I guess no celery and peanut butter for me lol. I will eventually get it all figured out what things are! LOL
WORKOUT!!!!!!!!
We are also going to start working out and doing the insanity workout so lets see how I am going to go about that one! There is a large group of us teachers who plan to do it so I am thankful that I am not the only one and will have accountability to keep doing it! :)
SCHOOL!!!!!!!!
Yesterday I walked into my classroom for the first time! I was kinda overwhelmed when I walked into my room. In the states all the school desks and everything is already in place and most of the things are already on the wall. Well, not here! At the end of the year they have to pack everything up in boxes and totes and take everything off of the walls and place the desks stacked at one side of the room. So the room when you walk in is a complete blank canvas. I get to look through posters and decide where I want to put things, but first off I have to figure out what these kids are learning the first quarter so I can put up the right posters. There was one for multiplication, but I found out that the kids wont be using that until the 4th semester so I will be waiting on that one. I then also am slowly starting to go through all of the paperwork in the room. I have discovered the biders that break down everyday of the school year for me, which a previous teacher did for 2nd grade. I am sooo thankful to have those binders and I know that it will help me out soo much! Miss Alexa is also typing up her routine of how she went about things which will help a lot too! :) I know that it will take a little bit of time to get used to it all, but I know with God that it will all work out!!! Yesterday, while going through my posters, Riley and Cameron (4th grade) were wanting something to do so I asked them to help me pick out posters and then decide where to put them up in my room. So on the purple cork board in the back of the room we have math and then the purple cork board on the side of the room we have God Is Love with a sun underneath it and at the bottom of the board a verse across it that I will probably switch out every once in a while. There are still several poster to put up, such as, the birthday poster, and the rewards poster, and the everyday note poster, and the reading and spelling posters. Goodness it seems like a lot of posters when you think about it! :P Riley was helping me with things yesterday and it made me smile because she told me that I was going to be a fun teacher! :) :) It actually melted my heart to hear that!!!!!!!!! Then she got into the subject of asking me questions about my life... did I grow up knowing God, am I happy to know God now, What I did in the states, Do I want children :p the list went on, but it was extremely cute! :) I am excited to be here and to start this school year and I know that when I am starting to stress out there is sevearl adults here to help me and children as well and of course God is always with me!
I also got a little overwhelmed yesterday because I found out my roster of my children. Carmen printed it out and gave it to me and even she said that is a lot of children. I have 32 kids in my class which when you think about it, its like woah that is 32 2nd grade kids... that is A LOT! :P But I know that it will be okay. I was organizig my desks yesterday and I only have 25 so we have to discover 7 more desks for my room. Trying to fit them in there might be the hard part! :P
MONEY!!!!!!!!!
Okay so I am starting to figure out this money system! :P I take whatever number is on the bill (which are gourdes or pronounced goods) and divide that by 5 to get the haitian dollar amount. So a bill that says 50 on it is $10 haitian... which if you would like to know is $1.25 american. So lunch today cost me $1.25 americn for a giant bowl of food. Goodness I didn't even think about how much that was until I just broke that down on here, THAT IS CHEAP! :p
so the system is:
# on bill (divide by 10) = haitian dollar
haitian dollar (divide by 8) = american dollar
so another idea on that is the other day I had them break a $100 american bill for me which ended up becoming 800 haitian dollars and 8000 gourdes. WOW that seams like a lot of money!!!!!!!!!!
LANGUAGE!!!!!!!!
Okay so earlier this week I was started to get overwhelmed with the language barrier here, but I know that God will provide me the ability to understand with time. The second night we were here some of the neighbor boys were over saying hi. These kids are out front of the house all of the time because they live across the street. Sometimes they are out playing soccer or other things, but you tend to see them a lot though. They were over though saying Hi and they were having such a hard time saying Miss Alisha. They say A li sha in 3 syllabols. Yesterdy though they say me walking home from working on my classroom and they said my name with no problem so I am excited that they are able to get my name down so quickly! :)
I have thought about it and I am thinking about getting a tutor, but I am wondering if I should try to do it on my own first to atleast get some of the words down and then get a tutor to actually get sentances put together right and the correct pronounciation. Thankfully Megan and Tara had note cards of various words and are able to give those to me to help me get started which will help alot! :)
With that said..... Alo, koman ou ye jodi a? which in english means: Hello, how are you today? :)
Well everyone I am going to hope off of here or the moment... It is noon and I am going to go over to my classroom and start going through some more items in there and then at 4pm I guess we are going to start our insanity workout. Pray that I actually am able to do this! :P I need my food totes to arrive so I can start drinking my protein shakes! (yes Adam I am stealing this from you!) :) heh.... Well everyone I will talk with you later! :) Have a wonderful day!!!!!!!
~Miss Alisha :)
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
I have arrived in HAITI! :)
Hello everyone!!! :) I have officially arrived in haiti!!! :) I have internet at my house so I will be able to get online to keep everyone updated!!!
I flew out from indianapolis, IN at 6:15pm eastern time to Miami, FL on monday. I arrived there at 9:00pm and met up with Megan, 1 of my new roommates, as soon as we both landed! :) We then went and caught a shuttle bus to our Sheraton Hotel that was right by the airport. That hotel was amazing and the bed was just oh so comfortable! :P But with an amazing hotel comes with very high price for the restaurant food (cost me $7 just for a small bowl of french onion soup!)
We flew out of Miami at 6:15am which means we had to wake up at 4:30am to get ready and to the airport for our flight. We arrived in Port-au-prince, Haiti at 9:00am but it took about 45 minutes to get through customs, get our bags and get to our shuttle van to go over to tortug. Tortug is the small airport that the small planes fly in and out of to get to other parts of the country.
When we walked out of the large airport my Haitian friend Jackson was there to greet me! :) I was all sweaty, but he stll smiled and was happy to see me! :) He drove his motorbike over to tortug to chat with me while we waited on our next flight out. We officially arrived at Tortug at 10am and we found out they were down to 1 flight a day and it wasnt going until 2pm, so it was a waiting game! Jackson stayed with me the whole time (he also had 2 of his friends there). They stayed for a total of 5 hours chatting with me before my next flight left!!!!!!!!! Thank you soo much Jackson for being there with me! :)
After we arrived at Tortug though we also found out that there were only 10 tickets, but we had 11 people!!! So the question was who doesnt have a ticket to fly on the Tortug to Port-de-Paix!?!?!? Well of course! it was me!!!!!!!!!!!! :P Since I was just told a few weeks ago that I would be going to Haiti, a plane ticket wasnt ever paid for on the small plane. Well, there wasnt going to be enough room on the small plane so someone was going to have to stay behind in Port-au-Prince! We all discussed it and Mr. Scott said no way am I staying behind since I am the new one and didn't speak creole and he had a credit card for Sonlight so he could get a cab and get a hotel room for the night. So they let me get a plane ticket and let him use his the next day. :)
I wasnt looking forward to this plane ride at all! In May when I visited this plane gave me a severed migraine while landing the plane but it was also a 9 seater as well. The plane that we were getting ready to take was a 16 seater so I figured well its a little bigger so maybe it would be that bad! Nope it wasnt but minutes after the plane started up in the air that my stomach started getting a little weak and my head started hurting! Tara thankfully gave me some altoids to chew on (noone had any gum) and then I fell asleep, so my stomach settled back down. It wasnt only me though everyone said that ride was pretty rough though!
We finally arrived in Port-de-Paix and had a truck there ready to pick us up and take us home! :) We all loaded up in the back of the truck with a few of our bags (most of them all had to stay behind at Tortug and are to be transported here today sometime), but we rode through town and arrived at Sonlight ready to be officially "Home"!
Megan, Tara and I walked up to our house and I was shocked! This house is huge!!!!! It is even bigger then my house in USA. The house is called "The White House", of course because it is white :P but it makes me feel like I am in the presidents house! :P We unlock our gate and walk into our "front yard" its a patio kinda and then we open our next gate that is to the front porch and then we unlock our actual front door. Upon entering the is a laundry room and the stairs to upstairs to your right and a large kitchen to your left. Straight on, there is a small hallway area that has my large bedroom to the right, my bathroom straight on and the spare bedroom to the left. My bedroom has a full size bed in it, a dresser, armoire, bookshelf, lounge chair, closet and a lot of space! :P So I am very gratefull to have this room... there is two large windows in my room, one looks onto the neighbor who is extremely close next door and the other on looks out onto our back patio space. To continue the downstairs if you go back into the kitchen there is a door to the left and that leads into the dining room which then leads into the living room. If you go upstairs you have a large common seating area and then to the right is a corridor. In that corridor there is the bathroom straight ahead and to the left is Taras room and to the right our storage room that also was changed into the upstairs kitchen kinda when they had it as two seperate apartments. Back out in the corridor if you went left then that is the master suite which is Tara's room this year. The house has a upstairs outdoor patio as well which will be great to hang out on! :) I will post some pictures in a minute if I can get the photo adder thing to work...
Today we woke up and had some breakfast over at Roger and Norma's and then Tara and Steven went downtown to Natcom to get both of our homes hooked up to the internet. Then Beth, Megan and I decided we wanted to go get our phones so us 3 went downtown on taxis to get our natcom cell phones! :P It is still kinda crazy getting on the back of a scooter as my TAXI! :) But I truly do enjoy it! The roads are dusty and covered in rocks and large holes and there is no system to the driving over here so it always feels like a game of chicken while riding out in the streets for me! :P lol Everyone just honks their horns constantly to let people walking know they are coming around the corner on their scooter or a mack truck blares their horn to say get out of my way! :P Sometimes the trucks get really close to the scooter that I could reach out and touch the truck, but instead I just tell myself I know the taxi driver doesnt want to hurt his bike and that he is a good driver and just kinda grip onto his waist a little bit! :P lol The taxi ride to town cost 25 gourdes which in american term was $0.50. That is extremely cheap when you really think about it, but not being used to the money system that much yet it kinda felt weird handing over a bill that said 25 on it. It felt like I was giving him $25 american dollars, but I have to remember it isnt that at all. :P
We arrived at Natcom, purchased everything we needed and then made it back home safe! :) I tried out the phone and yes it does work!!!!!! :) I was able to chat with my friend here in Haiti and also talk to my parents in USA (hopefully it doesnt charge their phones that much!)
We then had lunch at 1pm, which was amazing homemade spaghetti and toast and a salad... YUM!! I dont know if I will be able to lose weight here if we continue to have this amazing food cooked for us! :P We then have dinner at 6pm, but is a lighter meal then lunch.
Right now I am just laying in my bed, typing this and enjoying the fan blowing on me! :P The house has AC, but that is in the main rooms such as the upstairs common room and the kitchen. So I have my ceiling fan and then another fan that is plugged in that produces a great breeze in here! I have another 2 hours of relaxing before dinner! :) For the rest of the night I will probably be back on here and just enjoying my free time, because tomorrow after breakfast I will be going over to my classroom and getting everything set up and ready for next week when we have registration and start to meet the children! :) Hopefully Cara is willing to do some Creole tuturing, but if she is too busy and isnt able to then hopefully I will get a Haitian tutor here and be able to be speaking Crole very soon! :)
Well for now, I am going to get off of here and I will continue to update everyone later! :) Have a blessed evening nd I am so glad to have you all in my life! :)
I flew out from indianapolis, IN at 6:15pm eastern time to Miami, FL on monday. I arrived there at 9:00pm and met up with Megan, 1 of my new roommates, as soon as we both landed! :) We then went and caught a shuttle bus to our Sheraton Hotel that was right by the airport. That hotel was amazing and the bed was just oh so comfortable! :P But with an amazing hotel comes with very high price for the restaurant food (cost me $7 just for a small bowl of french onion soup!)
We flew out of Miami at 6:15am which means we had to wake up at 4:30am to get ready and to the airport for our flight. We arrived in Port-au-prince, Haiti at 9:00am but it took about 45 minutes to get through customs, get our bags and get to our shuttle van to go over to tortug. Tortug is the small airport that the small planes fly in and out of to get to other parts of the country.
When we walked out of the large airport my Haitian friend Jackson was there to greet me! :) I was all sweaty, but he stll smiled and was happy to see me! :) He drove his motorbike over to tortug to chat with me while we waited on our next flight out. We officially arrived at Tortug at 10am and we found out they were down to 1 flight a day and it wasnt going until 2pm, so it was a waiting game! Jackson stayed with me the whole time (he also had 2 of his friends there). They stayed for a total of 5 hours chatting with me before my next flight left!!!!!!!!! Thank you soo much Jackson for being there with me! :)
After we arrived at Tortug though we also found out that there were only 10 tickets, but we had 11 people!!! So the question was who doesnt have a ticket to fly on the Tortug to Port-de-Paix!?!?!? Well of course! it was me!!!!!!!!!!!! :P Since I was just told a few weeks ago that I would be going to Haiti, a plane ticket wasnt ever paid for on the small plane. Well, there wasnt going to be enough room on the small plane so someone was going to have to stay behind in Port-au-Prince! We all discussed it and Mr. Scott said no way am I staying behind since I am the new one and didn't speak creole and he had a credit card for Sonlight so he could get a cab and get a hotel room for the night. So they let me get a plane ticket and let him use his the next day. :)
I wasnt looking forward to this plane ride at all! In May when I visited this plane gave me a severed migraine while landing the plane but it was also a 9 seater as well. The plane that we were getting ready to take was a 16 seater so I figured well its a little bigger so maybe it would be that bad! Nope it wasnt but minutes after the plane started up in the air that my stomach started getting a little weak and my head started hurting! Tara thankfully gave me some altoids to chew on (noone had any gum) and then I fell asleep, so my stomach settled back down. It wasnt only me though everyone said that ride was pretty rough though!
We finally arrived in Port-de-Paix and had a truck there ready to pick us up and take us home! :) We all loaded up in the back of the truck with a few of our bags (most of them all had to stay behind at Tortug and are to be transported here today sometime), but we rode through town and arrived at Sonlight ready to be officially "Home"!
Megan, Tara and I walked up to our house and I was shocked! This house is huge!!!!! It is even bigger then my house in USA. The house is called "The White House", of course because it is white :P but it makes me feel like I am in the presidents house! :P We unlock our gate and walk into our "front yard" its a patio kinda and then we open our next gate that is to the front porch and then we unlock our actual front door. Upon entering the is a laundry room and the stairs to upstairs to your right and a large kitchen to your left. Straight on, there is a small hallway area that has my large bedroom to the right, my bathroom straight on and the spare bedroom to the left. My bedroom has a full size bed in it, a dresser, armoire, bookshelf, lounge chair, closet and a lot of space! :P So I am very gratefull to have this room... there is two large windows in my room, one looks onto the neighbor who is extremely close next door and the other on looks out onto our back patio space. To continue the downstairs if you go back into the kitchen there is a door to the left and that leads into the dining room which then leads into the living room. If you go upstairs you have a large common seating area and then to the right is a corridor. In that corridor there is the bathroom straight ahead and to the left is Taras room and to the right our storage room that also was changed into the upstairs kitchen kinda when they had it as two seperate apartments. Back out in the corridor if you went left then that is the master suite which is Tara's room this year. The house has a upstairs outdoor patio as well which will be great to hang out on! :) I will post some pictures in a minute if I can get the photo adder thing to work...
Today we woke up and had some breakfast over at Roger and Norma's and then Tara and Steven went downtown to Natcom to get both of our homes hooked up to the internet. Then Beth, Megan and I decided we wanted to go get our phones so us 3 went downtown on taxis to get our natcom cell phones! :P It is still kinda crazy getting on the back of a scooter as my TAXI! :) But I truly do enjoy it! The roads are dusty and covered in rocks and large holes and there is no system to the driving over here so it always feels like a game of chicken while riding out in the streets for me! :P lol Everyone just honks their horns constantly to let people walking know they are coming around the corner on their scooter or a mack truck blares their horn to say get out of my way! :P Sometimes the trucks get really close to the scooter that I could reach out and touch the truck, but instead I just tell myself I know the taxi driver doesnt want to hurt his bike and that he is a good driver and just kinda grip onto his waist a little bit! :P lol The taxi ride to town cost 25 gourdes which in american term was $0.50. That is extremely cheap when you really think about it, but not being used to the money system that much yet it kinda felt weird handing over a bill that said 25 on it. It felt like I was giving him $25 american dollars, but I have to remember it isnt that at all. :P
We arrived at Natcom, purchased everything we needed and then made it back home safe! :) I tried out the phone and yes it does work!!!!!! :) I was able to chat with my friend here in Haiti and also talk to my parents in USA (hopefully it doesnt charge their phones that much!)
We then had lunch at 1pm, which was amazing homemade spaghetti and toast and a salad... YUM!! I dont know if I will be able to lose weight here if we continue to have this amazing food cooked for us! :P We then have dinner at 6pm, but is a lighter meal then lunch.
Right now I am just laying in my bed, typing this and enjoying the fan blowing on me! :P The house has AC, but that is in the main rooms such as the upstairs common room and the kitchen. So I have my ceiling fan and then another fan that is plugged in that produces a great breeze in here! I have another 2 hours of relaxing before dinner! :) For the rest of the night I will probably be back on here and just enjoying my free time, because tomorrow after breakfast I will be going over to my classroom and getting everything set up and ready for next week when we have registration and start to meet the children! :) Hopefully Cara is willing to do some Creole tuturing, but if she is too busy and isnt able to then hopefully I will get a Haitian tutor here and be able to be speaking Crole very soon! :)
Well for now, I am going to get off of here and I will continue to update everyone later! :) Have a blessed evening nd I am so glad to have you all in my life! :)
Thursday, August 9, 2012
THIS ISNT FAKE... THIS IS REAL FLOATING STAGE IN AUSTRIA
The Marvelous Floating Stage of the Bregenz Festival In Austria
who would not be interested in going to Austria to see this! This is just down right amazing and I am extremely impressed by how they do this and how long they have been doing this... Look at the images below then you can read about the details of it underneath! AMAZING :)
See those human-shaped figures up there? Those are people, standing on a massive book, dwarfed by a huge crown, performing in the shadow of a gigantic skeleton.
This is just one of the floating theatrical stages from the annual Bregenz Festival in Austria, and the crazy is only getting started.
The Bregenz Festival started all the way back in 1946, and in a grand fashion: the troupe put on a performance of Bastien et Bastienne (the last image below) on Austria's Lake Constance. The stage, just like the others you'll see in the gallery below, was floated out atop a barge, and there was another barge used as the orchestra pit.
The waterside spectacle continues to this day, and the stages constructed — for the likes of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca (below, first) and Giuseppe Verdi's A Masked Ball (above) — have only gotten more elaborate.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
ITS ALREADY 8/8/12
Goodness! I can't believe that it is alright August 8th! I am extremely excited about moving to Haiti and I cant believe that it is in just a few days! A lot of people are asking me if I am starting to get scared or nervous or anything and yes maybe a few nerves are coming up here and there, but honestly I am more excited than anything!!! :) So I def. know that is God working in me, because if I didn't have him in my life I was being going crazy right now! lol
I am still sitting here praying that God has a plan for my car, because it hasn't sold yet. I am not sure what I am going to do at all if it doesn't get sold by this Sunday! Pilsons has given me an offer, but I would have to pay in $3000 just to get the loan paid off and I don't have that sitting in my bank account so I am upside down on that right now! But hey I am still having faith and knowing that something is going to come along and work out!!!!!
It was actually quite funny. Earlier this week I was sitting here typing an email response to a person and said naw, I am not really busy this week at all, then reality hit! :P lol... I was thinking yes I have already shipped everything to Haiti except my two suitcases that I am taking with me, but I still have to move all the items out of Glenda's house and over to my parents for a rummage sale on Saturday. Also I guess there are a few items still that I need to purchase and take with me, LIKE BUG SPRAY! :P but I am pretty sure everything else is done and taken care of. I am planning to go ahead and purchase my Christmas flight before I leave so I am praying that I don't have to pay in all my savings to get rid of this car so I can purchase me that flight.
I just continue to ask for the prayers and just thank you all for everything that you have done for me! :)
I love you all and will update you all again soon!
Love,
Alisha
I am still sitting here praying that God has a plan for my car, because it hasn't sold yet. I am not sure what I am going to do at all if it doesn't get sold by this Sunday! Pilsons has given me an offer, but I would have to pay in $3000 just to get the loan paid off and I don't have that sitting in my bank account so I am upside down on that right now! But hey I am still having faith and knowing that something is going to come along and work out!!!!!
It was actually quite funny. Earlier this week I was sitting here typing an email response to a person and said naw, I am not really busy this week at all, then reality hit! :P lol... I was thinking yes I have already shipped everything to Haiti except my two suitcases that I am taking with me, but I still have to move all the items out of Glenda's house and over to my parents for a rummage sale on Saturday. Also I guess there are a few items still that I need to purchase and take with me, LIKE BUG SPRAY! :P but I am pretty sure everything else is done and taken care of. I am planning to go ahead and purchase my Christmas flight before I leave so I am praying that I don't have to pay in all my savings to get rid of this car so I can purchase me that flight.
I just continue to ask for the prayers and just thank you all for everything that you have done for me! :)
I love you all and will update you all again soon!
Love,
Alisha
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Update about Haiti
Hello there everyone. I am just wanting to update everyone about my soon move to Haiti. It is officially 11 days away from my departure and I am soo excited but soo freaking out at the same time. Reality actually kicked in last night when I was over at my parents house and my 3 year old niece (4 in 8 days) was getting ready to go to bed. I gave her a hug and a kiss and told her I love her. My mom pointed out that my neice was actually getting ready to leave this weekend to go down to Texas with her mother and wouldnt be heading back to Illinois until the 13th, which means that was the last night I would see my niece until I returned for christmas!!! It brought tears to my eyes just knowing that, but then I had to remind myself there is always skype (thank goodness for technology!!!) so yes this is the last time I will see my niece in person for the next 4 months but atleast I will see her over a computer!
Its hard realizing that I am atually moving, I am actually going to another country and my main source of contact with my family and friends will be through a computer! I dont know if I have ever gone a week (besides the 2 week missions trip I took in May) that I haven't had my phone basically attached to my hand. This is going to be a completely new experience in several different aspects of my life. The one thing I do know though is that God will be doing amazing things in my life while I am away overseas though! He will be working so much in my life I just cant even fathom.
So far my car hasn't sold and well thats my main thing that is scaring me. I thankfully have a few people looking at it so I am praying that it sells within the next 10 days! Its weird to think about it but for some reason I am like hmm i wonder if I am going to miss driving while I am over there.. When I want to run to the store and pick up some food I dont go outside jump in my car and at the market in a few minutes...... instead I will flag down a taxi (scooter in haiti), ride down to the market and then carry my goods back with me on the scooter as well. I guess that means not a large amount of groceries at one time! :P I am positive that everything will work out with the car that needs to work out... I just have to remember to keep positive about it and trust in God on this one!
For my belongings! :P It was pretty crazy last tuesday I found out I was going and by saturday I had to have my items at Evansville, IN. to get them on the first ship to Haiti. Yes I said SHIP! :P They had to crate all of the items and then haul them down to Maimi and put them on a cargo ship and take them over to Haiti. It sounds like by this friday or this upcoming week our items should be arriving at their destination! Fingers crossed on that I really am hoping that my items are already at Sonlight before I get there so I am not wondering if the items got lost or whatever. Its still so crazy to think about hwo my items have to be shipped over there.. I have moved so many times in my past (well since 2006) :P due to college but I just loaded down a uhaul and took it to the next location, so imagining it all being on a ship going through the atlantic ocean is crazy to think about!
To see a video about how the shipping process really works check this out!!!
http://youtu.be/O40swsYItJ8
Its actually pretty awesome and I cant believe how big the ship is!
Well everyone.. I am goign to get off of here for now but I will continue to post later! :)
God Bless!
Its hard realizing that I am atually moving, I am actually going to another country and my main source of contact with my family and friends will be through a computer! I dont know if I have ever gone a week (besides the 2 week missions trip I took in May) that I haven't had my phone basically attached to my hand. This is going to be a completely new experience in several different aspects of my life. The one thing I do know though is that God will be doing amazing things in my life while I am away overseas though! He will be working so much in my life I just cant even fathom.
So far my car hasn't sold and well thats my main thing that is scaring me. I thankfully have a few people looking at it so I am praying that it sells within the next 10 days! Its weird to think about it but for some reason I am like hmm i wonder if I am going to miss driving while I am over there.. When I want to run to the store and pick up some food I dont go outside jump in my car and at the market in a few minutes...... instead I will flag down a taxi (scooter in haiti), ride down to the market and then carry my goods back with me on the scooter as well. I guess that means not a large amount of groceries at one time! :P I am positive that everything will work out with the car that needs to work out... I just have to remember to keep positive about it and trust in God on this one!
For my belongings! :P It was pretty crazy last tuesday I found out I was going and by saturday I had to have my items at Evansville, IN. to get them on the first ship to Haiti. Yes I said SHIP! :P They had to crate all of the items and then haul them down to Maimi and put them on a cargo ship and take them over to Haiti. It sounds like by this friday or this upcoming week our items should be arriving at their destination! Fingers crossed on that I really am hoping that my items are already at Sonlight before I get there so I am not wondering if the items got lost or whatever. Its still so crazy to think about hwo my items have to be shipped over there.. I have moved so many times in my past (well since 2006) :P due to college but I just loaded down a uhaul and took it to the next location, so imagining it all being on a ship going through the atlantic ocean is crazy to think about!
To see a video about how the shipping process really works check this out!!!
http://youtu.be/O40swsYItJ8
Its actually pretty awesome and I cant believe how big the ship is!
Well everyone.. I am goign to get off of here for now but I will continue to post later! :)
God Bless!
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