Chirp Chirp Chirp

So we've had fleas, problem solved. Then we had mice, problem solved (we think). Now, we have baby chickens. This time we WANT the little animals. We had a chicken coop already made in our yard when we moved in so we knew we needed to get chickens so we can have fresh eggs everyday. They're only 3 weeks old so they still chirp. They're so adorable. Some let me pet them but others run around in circles to get away. We bought 8 and we decided we're going to name them all "Chicken" only in 8 different languages. We've got English, Spanish, Quechua, Pennsylvania Dutch, Albanian, and German so far. At this age, it's probable that some could die so we make sure to put them in a little box with holes at night so that they can cuddle and stay warm. You'll be getting updates when they're all grown. I don't know how long that will take. I'm learning many things here. We also started a tiny vegetable garden that's right outside of the coop so sometimes the chickens get loose and have a field day eating veggies.

Buying the chickens was fun. We were a little confused how to find the market and then we we did, it started pouring rain. One of the tarps was full of water and when I walked in, it dumped right on my head. Then the rain got harder and the wind grew stronger and everyone frantically covered their animals with tarps or stuck them in crates. My pants got soaked as well as my head previously been dumped on. It got quite cold. It was total opposite of the morning though because we had gone shopping and it was sunny and hot out. Then the clouds rolled in and changed the rest of the day. That's what the rainy season's all about I guess. Check out the video of the storm in the little animal market. Reminder, double click on the play button. The chirping you can hear is the same chirp in my backyard. Quite cute.

Language classes ended yesterday. I'ts 9:00am and I'm in my pajamas still. First time since I got here. I'm now able to focus on planning for the school year but I have to discipline myself to study Spanish as well. My teacher is going to tutor me once a week in the evening and I hope to find a college student at the University down the street and we can help each other learn our native tongues. Yesterday after lunch I was talking to Bethany and made a completely correct sentence in Spanish and Marga says to me in Spanish, "You're Spanish is getting better." and I'm all excited and thankful and then she goes "I can actually understand you." It was really funny. A compliment and insult in one. I'm still laughing about that. God has helped my ears open and I can understand more of Spanish now which has been my prayer for the last week. Almost every night, Bethany, Carrie, and I pray together and if you can believe it, which I hope you can, God has answered EVERY prayer we have prayed. Not only has He answered them, but things turn out better than we could have imagined. Prayer is so powerful and it's really building our faith seeing how things turn out better than we expected and we know it has to be God.

Tomorrow begins me being an official teacher. We're going to be meeting all of the Peruvian teachers, I know 3 of them already, and we'll just have a day to get to know each other. Monday we start in-service stuff and we'll be having Peruvian speakers come to teach us how to be better teachers. Prayer is definitely needed that I won't be overwhelmed since this will all be in Spanish. The other part of our morning we'll be planning for the school year.

Random side note. Last Friday I used my credit card (from EMM that has my budget's money on it) and Monday when I went to look for it in my bag, all my cash was there, but no credit card. I figured it's ok because I still have my personal credit card so I can use that until the other one comes in. So, I use the personal credit card on Wednesday morning and I went to look for it Thursday night and again, cash was there, but no credit card. Two credit cards in one week but whoever is taking them, isn't stealing my money which makes me think I'm going crazy and just misplacing the credit cards. But I was very aware of this last one and I know I didn't misplace it. So, we cancelled both credit cards and I'll be borrowing from my roommates for a month it seems. Other than that, things are going well and I'm excited for school to start. My friend Steve from Millersville is coming for two weeks in the end of March to help with construction and any ministry stuff he can get himself into so I'm excited to have my first visitor!