A Week in Katie's Life: Friday

I am so happy that it is Friday! Today was my second to last Friday before going home. Crazy, eh? I can't believe it! 

We had a pretty relaxed school day this morning. Several subjects have finished up already, so things are starting to loosen up. In fact, Miguel didn't need me anymore by lunchtime, so I went and had lunch with some friends. They're the same one's that I went to the tropical island with a couple weeks ago (post in process), the one's with the kittens in their yard.

Unfortunately, the four little kitties are only two little kitties now, but life is like that for street cats here in Timor. So sad. Of the two left, only one was brave enough to come say hello. The other one hid in the drain pipe.

Mama and Mr. Friendly were hanging out together.

 Then we put out a bowl of milk.

At first, no one was brave enough to come over and drink the milk, but eventually Mr. Friendly's curiosity was stronger than his fear. 

He circled the bowl a bit before settling down.

Then Mama decided a drink of milk was a good idea too.

Mr. Friendly walked right towards me!

 Unfortunately he didn't come close enough to touch though...I think he got distracted by the ants...and then the grass...and then pretending to sharpen his claws...he's a busy little guy!

 Watching little bugs... :)

After we watched the kitties we went inside and baked gf snickerdoodle cookies! I'll have to show you pictures later though, because I don't have any at the moment. Hopefully I get a picture of them before they're all gone! They turned out perfectly! mmmm

Next was piano class!

 After piano, I did the last minute grocery shopping for this weekend, and we headed back home.

To close the Sabbath we normally have a vespers program at home and invite people from Paulo's clinic and from church, but today we went to the final health seminar. Today the topic was finishing up malaria from the night before and reviewing the material taught each day this week. 

There were some incentives to help with the review...

and we all had a lot of fun with the quizzes and songs.

Here are three of the main people who made it all happen.

Pastor Inacio (local pastor and translator for the meetings), Joan (volunteer missionary and the one who demonstrated the natural remedies at the end of each meeting)...

and Dr. Ivonne (the mission president's wife and main speaker for the meetings).

 Praise the Lord, the meetings seemed to go very well. Although there were not very many visitors, there were many church members, even from other districts, and I know that a lot of learning happened as a result of this seminar. 

Please keep praying for the mission here in Timor. It is young and still growing, and due to the heavy influence of Catholicism, it is very difficult for people to become Seventh-day Adventist and to be able to continue to work and go to school once they have become SDA. 

God bless you all, and may you have a peaceful and happy Sabbath!

Bom Sabbado! 

A Week in Katie's Life: Thursday

NO SCHOOL!!!

YAY!

:)

Today is a national holiday in Timor-Leste. It's actually a catholic holiday, Corpus Christi or something like that, and catholic holidays are national holidays here. We don't celebrate catholic holidays, but Paulo does have work off on them, so they make great excuses to take a break and have some fun. 

It's a good thing we had today off because yesterday's party was Latino style and went quite late. I think it must have been close to ten in the morning by the time everyone had eaten breakfast and we had finished family worship. 

After worship I went back to my apartment to write a couple emails and do some research. When I was done, I took a peek outside, and Paulo and Miguel were playing in the pool with Miguel's new inflatable raft (got it for his bday). I just had to join them! We splashed around for a while, and I did some laps too.

When we were done in the pool I talked to my family a while, and then watched part of one of Miguel's new DVDs. He received several Christian DVDs for his birthday, and the one we watched today was Acts. I have it at home too. The movie script comes from the Bible, word for word. Miguel enjoyed it. :)

Next came a seriously needed nap.
Except, I'm not very good at napping. So, it was more like an attempt at a nap.

By the time I was bored of trying to nap, it was time to head off to a going away party that some of my friends threw for me.

Almost every single dish at supper was gluten free and vegan! Anita even found gf bread for me! I was quite amazed. :)

We had a very nice time talking about the past, the future, Timor, home, and just laughing together. Praise the Lord for good friends. Some of these people are the homeschool moms that I normally meet with on Mondays and their families, others have been my brave exercise companions at Christo Rei at 5:30 in the morning (I used to walk the stairs there every morning but haven't this week cause I've been too busy. Going to start again next week though). Each of these people has played a part in supporting me while I've been here. I am so thankful to God for them! :)

The walkers!

Homeschool moms!

It was a lovely evening with lovely friends who I will miss very much and remember always.

I finished the night with a very fitting drive home. The sky was clear, the stars were bright (especially the Southern Cross...going to miss that one), there was a cool sea breeze, and I got to have the Comoro Bridge II all to myself as I drove over it for the very first time.

The Comoro Bridge II has been in construction, I think since about the time that I first came here in August. It was opened today, and I drove over it for the first time on my way home from my goodbye party. I don't know why, but it just seemed like a very fitting way to end today.


Blessings to you all!
Thanks for reading!

:)

P.S. Sorry that there are fewer pictures today. There wasn't very much action... Thankfully! lol

A Week in Katie's Life: Tuesday

I started my day outside this morning, and it was so peaceful. I keep wavering back and forth about where I do my devotions. We have such a pretty compound that I hate to not do them outside, but there are so many bugs that I am often driven back to my room. This morning my only visitors were some cheerful black and white birds (too quick for pictures) and some red ants that I think were too tiny to bite. 

I'm not sure if it's because I'm trying to document everything this week, or what, but things are going really slowly in the school department. My poor student was sleepy again today, and we didn't even finish all the subjects we needed to do, but I gave him a break. I know he worked hard, and besides being tired, I think he was a little distracted. Today is his last day of being ten after all. :)

Even though things were really slow, I didn't get any school pictures...there wasn't much to take pictures of, I guess.

This afternoon, however, there was lots going on. First off, I went grocery shopping for birthday food ingredients while my "little bro" was in tennis class. Here are some random shots of the shelves at the Lita grocery store. 

"Oats, peas, beans, and barely grow,"... does anyone else know that song?

And the search for birthday supplies continues!

I took this picture with several friends in mind. ;)

I finished up most of the shopping pretty quick and then ran over to catch the end of the tennis lesson.

Avô seemed to be having a nice time at the court. 

During the tennis lesson, there were some girls playing nearby. I asked them, "Hau bele photo sa?" (to those of you who actually speak Tetun, please excuse my poor blunders...lol).

They smiled shyly and replied, "Bele, bele."

So here they are!

Aren't they precious? I love their smiles, and the amount of personality I was able to see in them in just a few short minutes. They started getting really excited when I showed them their pictures and told them, "muito bonita," (Portuguese...or something like it...lol).

Meanwhile, someone was having lots of fun on the court. 

After a few pictures I came back to the girlies. I just happened to have three fruit leathers in my purse (thanks mom!). They said, "obrigada," right away, and soon I heard one whisper, "bele han?"

"Bele, bele!" I smiled, and they ripped off the wrappers just like that!

She has hers in her hand. I think she got a bit embarrassed when I started taking a picture of her eating.

But these two weren't embarrassed!

After tennis I dropped Miguel off at the pastor's house to have a final baptismal meeting (Miguel's getting baptized this Sabbath!!! Praise the Lord! I'm so very excited!). Then I ran around and got a few more groceries, and then zipped home to make the icing for his birthday cake (someone's got a special day tomorrow!).

Here is my prep picture. 

My fancy recipe (yes, it did go through the laundry...oops!)...

and my fancy measuring utensils!

 I think the class holds approximately one cup-ish, the bigger spoon could be about a tablespoon, and the small spoon had to suffice as a teaspoon. These are what I use to measure every time I cook. Mostly though, I just eye-ball it.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to take a pic of the finished product, but if I remember, I'll show you tomorrow. I was in such a hurry (had to pick up Miguel from the pastor's house), that I just made it all up, shoved it in the fridge, and ran out the door. I was still licking my fingers and brushing carob off my shirt as I was driving...lol!

So, I picked Miguel up, brought him home, he swallowed his supper, and then we hopped in the car to go to the health meetings. 

There was a tiny but very lovely sunset shortly after we arrived.

 On my way to the tent where the meetings were, I stopped to see the children's meeting. 

 They sure seemed to have a lot of fun singing songs together! We could hear their sweet voices every now and then from the tent. 

Today was day three of the health seminar. On day one Dr. Szamko mostly covered the common cold/flu, day two (which I missed) was about sinusitis, and today was about sore throat. 

Volunteers!

At the end of each meeting there is a demonstration about how to use home remedies to treat the ailment covered in the meeting. Today we demonstrated a hot compress for the throat to help relieve congestion and help that annoying scratchy feeling. 

 We had lots of fun!

Well, that was basically it. I had planned on baking the cake to go with the icing this evening, but I got home from the health seminar to find that we didn't have any flour. Oh, well. I guess I'll just add it to my list of things to do tomorrow. :) 

P.S. Please excuse the poor image quality. I'm using the camera on my phone, and I'm  not the best photographer...

Coming up...

Sorry, but my Tuesday post is going to be a few hours late because I need to fix some details with  the photos...
But it's coming! Promise!

Here's a sneak peak...