Rook, Races, and Randomness...

March flew by so fast and April tiptoed in so silently, I scarcely noticed it's arrival. Of course, it makes a difference that I'm not counting down the days till springtime, green grass, and bare feet!...like most of you have probably been doing!:) The days and weeks and seasons just kinda all blend into the next one. We do have seasons...wet and dry. Technically, we are in dry season right now, but thanks to quite a few sporadic rain showers, it's still looking pretty green. They didn't even start turning off the water yet, which is a plus! We'll see how long it lasts.
There was not a whole lot of big events this month, but it flew by with alot of little happenings. There were quite a few school events, which made it busier. Have a peek inside the High family album for the month of March. If it gets too boring, just close it. This will eventually get printed for our personal scrapbook, hence a lot of pictures of mundane day to day happenings.
 

                     Lillian was so thrilled and pleased with her freshly painted house that she
                     invited some of us from church up for a prayer of dedication for their home.
                      It is a brilliant shade of blue. Every last room that was painted. But that's
                     what she wanted, so that's what we did!:)
                     This is the house that several groups of our visitors helped to paint.

                              Lillian made a pot of oil down for the whole group. They sure don't
                                have an abundance of food, but they share the little they do have!

  They wanted a table for their club house...so they fixed up a rickety one that was flying around here.

            Building, sanding and painting...it means alot more if it's built with their own two hands!

   This is what happens when you ramp with your bike, crash, and land up in broken glass. Blood was  everywhere, but thanks to butterfly bandages we managed to pull the puncture wounds together.

                                                           Rook players in training.....

         Cross Country Race...this is a competition Limes and LaBorie School hold every year. The
        older ones run 3 miles and the younger ones go about a mile. Right when they were ready to
      leave it started down pouring...and it didn't quit right away either. That didn't stop them though!

                                     Mr. Moses, school teacher at Laborie, and Keron Mohon

                                                    Yes, many of them run in just socks....

                                                              Carter pounding the pavement

               And my job for the race was the high and mighty position of.....crossing guard. Which
                gave me time to snap random pictures...this guy was across from me selling coconuts

                                         Kaylah and Nicki recuperating after the cross country race

                                                                      Christi and Teja

                              Collin and Christi ever so proud of their snail farm...which didn't
                                 last too long because mom got tired of the decaying snail odor

                                                              Overseer of the snail farm

                             This girl shocked Kaylah speechless! Kaylah's friend, Lauren Fox,
                             hitched a ride along to Grenada with her grandparents, Glenn and Mary
                             Kay Fox. We had no clue she was coming either, so she surprised us all!

              The promise of free time in the afternoon was a good motivator to get school work done!

      How sweet, the smell of frying chicken feet!...if only their nails were trimmed. Oh well, all the
      more collagen for the diet. I don't make a habit of buying chicken feet, but this is what happens
       when I can't drive and hubby picks up chicken at the local grocery store for me. We dined on        chicken feet, necks, breast, back, wings, thighs and legs. Almost everything but the feathers!

        It made it all the more fun to fry up these grotesque pieces of the bird knowing we're having
        these folks from home for supper!;) I must admit, they were the ONLY brave ones of the
        bunch, gnawing on the chicken feet like it was the finest piece of meat you've ever tasted!

These fine folks are part of our ministry team at our home congregation, New Haven Church. We  had a good evening together, even with all the chaotic chasing of the chicken feet. And some even mysteriously showing up on the girls' bed pillows. I don't think they ever even solved that mystery!

                 For one of our evening services we had a song service at Quarantine Point. It is
                  so wonderful to be out in God's beautiful creation singing praises to the Creator!

                                   Collin and Caleb trying to teach Matthew how to ride bike.
                                  His IQ level is that of a young child's but he is always smiling!

                            She misses her daughter who lives in the States. I miss my mom who
                               lives in the States. We've sorta adopted each other. (Chivon Frank)

                                        This is how we do Sunday afternoons. And naps.

                        Getting set up for Sport's Day. The children were very excited for this day!

Both Limes and LaBorie School competed. When Laura School was a part of this day, the 3 schools competed against each other. This year, they combined the two schools and divided up in 'houses',   red, green and yellow. I think that was a much better idea than competing against other schools.

                                          Collin getting ready to compete in the ball kick

                                                      Carter and his classmate, Josiah

                            Ryan, Kaylah and Chris measuring how far balls were thrown in 'ball toss'

                                                  We have some good high jumpers!

                               Chris and Austin trying to get the hyper kiddos in a straight line

              Thank you, Austin, for entertaining these boys for hours!! He gave them a soda can
            cut apart and fashioned into some sort of burner. The bottom is filled with cooking gas.
Above: I happened to snap this pic just as Carter got a big burst of flame from dropping a match in it!

                             They spend ALL afternoon trying to get this flame going so they
                              could boil an egg. (Not that I'm complaining. Kept them entertained)

         Yes, they wasted a ton of matches. And the egg came back into the house as cold as it went out.

            This poor shed has probably given up on ever finding it's permanent resting place. It
             was moved from Laura to our property but our landlord didn't like where it was placed,
             so it had to moved toward the back of the property. This was a good time to move it
            since there was extra man power available with James' 2 brothers and friend being here.

                            They used pipes and boards to roll the shed to it's final destination.

                            I think Chris could start a business fixing bikes and filling bike tires.

This girl needed something to do one Saturday morning. I was happy to fill that need:) 

She did a wonderful job helping me clean with not one word of complaining!

            There are some families you meet that you just wish would stay in Grenada a whole
            lot longer than just one week! This was one of them. Weldon and Anna Headings 
            and their family from Kansas lived in Grenada from 2002-2004 and came back for
             a visit.They are such a nice family and we really enjoyed getting to know them!

 

                              They jumped right in and helped with all kinds of work....
                        preaching, teaching Sunday School, school chapel and handyman work.

                  Our church sang at Grand Anse nursing home one Sunday afternoon. I met one
                  of the cutest old ladies ever! I wish I could have taken her along home with me!

                     You may use extra toilet paper. Even extra, extra. But NOT extra, extra, extra!!

                  After our afternoon service at the retirement home, we went to Hallelujah Point.
                   Kaylah and Celina-with the St. George's University pictured in the background.

                                  And just because Keondra wanted his picture taken too.

               Frisky whispering sweet little nothings in Chris's ear:)) lol...I just randomly snapped this
               picture and Frisky happened to do this just as I snapped:) (btw, Chris was reaching down
               to get something and Frisky was trying to lick his face and which he didn't appreciate;)

                          School Kite Day, otherwise known as...'Untangling the Kite String Day',
                          for the teachers and chaperones. We are as happy to have the day over 
                          as the students are to have it start....ok, maybe it's not quite THAT bad...

                                                            Yeah! Carter got his kite flying!

                                                                    Collin and Caleb Lane

                   Carter and Kade trying to get their kites up while Miss Natalie looks on enviously...

                      They spend a long time trying to get Collin's kite up. They finally managed to get
                       it up, but as soon as they did, his string tore and it got lost in the deep blue sea

                                                 The kite flying scene at St. David's Point

                                                                     Christi and Selena

                                 She likes to inform everyone that she is the oldest in her class...
                                  never mind the fact that her brother is only 20 minutes younger:)

                         Miss Eberly and her brood...Carter, Jamon, Kade, Kalie and Shenik...
                                           all of Carter's classmates except for one student

                                                           Just some Grenadian beauty....

          It's a close tie between what I enjoy most working at the hospital...dabbling in the medical 

          field or meeting new friends. There are people from so many countries and cultures that walk 

          through these doors...Pakistan, China, England, Germany, Switzerland, France, Jamaica, US, 

           Iraq, Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, Kenya and Venezuela. The religious beliefs are as        
 diverse as the people... Evangelical, Judaism, Muslim, Anglican, Latter Day Saints, 

          Seventh Day Adventist, Catholic, Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostal and Rastafarian. I get           many questions on our beliefs and it provides many opportunities to share with people.
  Volunteering at the hospital has fanned the flame of my life long dream of going back to
 nursing school someday....maybe when I'm suffering from empty nest syndrome..:)

      I love "Did you Know?" facts, so here's one for you..... Did you know if you keep lizard in

       your refrigerator the meat will taste much fresher? Jk....This lizard met it's untimely 

       demise after succumbing to hypothermia following a fatal entrapment in the fridge. 

A long-awaited, eagerly anticipated day...Kaylah's 13th birthday! Seriously! A teenager? I thought moms of teenagers were old! I'm glad to have found out differently! (I know, denial in its finest form)

I don't know what we'd do without her cheerful presence and creativity! Sometimes her wild imagination is at the expense of her dear little sis though. The other day she was washing dishes and  was getting annoyed at Christi's pokiness drying them. In an attempt to hurry her up, she challenged her with, "If you beat me, I'll finish drying for you!" That put Christi in high gear and dishes started flying and cupboard doors began banging! Only after she proudly announced that she's done, did she realize that she'd been tricked, since there was no dishes left for Kaylah to dry. Guess Christi didn't think through that one!
Kaylah started helping out at school a few afternoons a week. She loves going down and helping grade papers, listening to the first graders read their stories, and even doing some light cleaning after school hours, like the bathrooms and sweeping the classrooms.  She always had an interest in school teaching and I told her she is lucky she didn't have to wait till her high school years to be a teacher's apprentice!:) Having this to look forward to in the afternoon has been a wonderful motivator for her to get her school work done in the morning! I was so thankful for one of the teacher's suggestions to do this as a way for her to have more of a purpose and feel fulfilled. She loves hanging out with the teachers, especially since there are hardly any girls her age in this area.

                 We had a great evening reconnecting with these people! Darren and Sonya Nolt
                 were in the youth group back in the day when we were youth leaders. Sonya and
                 Jana Mapson are sisters, so they came down to visit them for a week. Of course,
                   we had to nab them for one evening! Was so good to see them again!

                               And Chris sure didn't mind having some Rook partners..;)

It is always so special and so much fun to see 'new' faces in Grenada. (Not that we don't enjoy the 'old' ones!!:)) Faith Senior class is here this week and we are enjoying getting to know many new people! They are helping with Vacation Bible School and I'm sure I'll post more on that later..but for now I need to get this one finished since I started it over 2 weeks ago.

Prayer request:
Good attendance and behavior for students at VBS
Wisdom and patience for the teachers
Safety for the staff and class
The need for school teachers for next term
Health----there is a nasty stomach flu circulating through the staff and seniors

Thank you for your prayers and support...it means so much! I know I say it every time, but I mean it every time!!:)  Our 'work' is no more important than your 'work' in faithfully standing behind us in prayer support!