Thursday - August 19th

Sorry for the lack of blogs lately......... a few problems here in Casa!!

Two days ago Marcia and I took a few things and moved on campus in an apt. with a couple other gals. After much talking and looking at the spots on our bodies, the HR team decided we had been left with FLEAS from the cute little dog that lived there before us!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I thought, never encountering a problem with fleas in my whole 56 years meant that I maybe never would.....but I would be wrong!! If you have never had the problem.....they are NOT FUN!! I look like I have the chicken pox.....seriously! And they itch like CRAZY!!!!!!!!

SOOOOOOO............last night we were having our "end of the orientation" party at the home right across the street from our house. The HR guy decided we should quickly pack up our things and move it all out. Oh.....I almost forgot one small detail.........we also found out that the house we were in was being illegally rented...... :( So, we threw our belongings together (trying not to let any little "critters" jump on us) and moved them to a storage unit. They bombed the storage unit with some kind of bug spray this am......So...........Marcia and are living with Judy and Lynn for a little while longer with a few of our belongings and waiting for word of a new home!

Please pray that something wonderful comes along and that it is clean and lovely!! Ok, just clean would be terrific!

Other than the housing problems, things are going well. I saw my classroom and it is beautiful! I'll send photos soon. It's big, has a view of the ocean, has windows all along two opposite walls so the ocean breeze is terrific and it has a lot more supplies than I had expected!! Unfortunately they aren't finished cleaning so I can't get in there to do much yet.....hopefully soon!

We are finished with new teacher orientation and have a four day weekend. I'd love to be settling into our home or my classroom, but that will have to wait. We had talked about going into Casa for a nice brunch or dinner, but most places are not open now because of Ramadan.....Our school is located on top of a hill and the staff housing is a little higher up yet, so the view and breeze from the deck is awesome!! I'm sitting here feeling cool and relaxed!

The ladies in the new teacher group went over to one of the HR Staff employees homes yesterday for "tea" and we learned a lot: about the proper way to make the mint tea, serve it and enjoy it at someone else's home, about how women should respond to men in Casa, at the school, as high school students.....it was a lot of fun. A couple of tips....when you walk into someone else's house you would leave your shoes on until you get to the carpet (a rug with a small table in the middle) at the salon (sp?) area (where they have a freshia (sp?) (sofa) along the wall around three sides of the room. There you would take off your shoes and come in. You would greet each woman there with a kiss on each cheek and a hand shake (but looking off to the side, of course) to the men.

The four of us gals that are in this apt are all in our 50's and have a lot in common. We are just amazed at the TOTAL adjustments we are having to make.......language, meeting and living with new people, culture differences, clothing differences, the whole Ramadan thing going on, money, shopping differences, weather, animals, cars/driving............wow......did I mention we are all in our 50's????!!!!!! It's just a lot for us gals to adapt to! But, we are doing it together one step, one day at a time and with a LOT of prayer!!

Thank you all for your prayers and for logging on to see what is new in Casa!!
Sending my love,
Jill