it's raining... again

so, along with entering into the 4-daily-showers season (another post on this "seasoning" to come), we've also entered into tropical storm season. earlier than usual.

it rained for, no lie, 8 minutes yesterday. 8 minutes that flooded every street in the city, overflew the river... and entered in our barely open windows to soak samil's bed, isaias' bed and our entire kitchen.

we hoped for sun today to dry everything out, but despite a sunny morning, the clouds have rolled in and we're expecting another 8 minutes of rain today.

lions and tigers and bears...

oh my.

the dominican is small. there are no amusement parks. there are few water parks. museums: not airconditioned... or interesting. the zoo has 10 animals. okay, that's an exaggeration... but what's a zoo with no elephants or penguins?

so, we jump at the chance to do interesting things when the opportunity presents itself. for our second date, amalio and i went to a circus that happened its way through the island. amalio had never been, so it was fun to watch his reactions to everything. awe at the trapeze, fear of the animals out of their cages, surprise at the clowns.

well, the circus was back. and amalio swears himself an expert. it took a little convincing, though, because it was a little out of our budget - but i picked up a lucrative tutoring deal for this month - and, mostly, because amalio wondered what would happen if a tiger escaped. why put samil in danger if its not necessary?

samil loved it. he yelled at the man selling blinky-light-sabers. he wanted one. unfortunately the salesman realized it and walked by every three minutes trying to sway us. it didn't work. samil stared at the trapeze walkers - i'm sure it was just the spotlights, but he was captivated. and seeing as how he is crazy about dogs, he loved the tigers. we were close enough where he could hear them and he just kept talking to them. grunting and yelling.

in the course of the evening however, i've decided the following:
**mullets are not attractive. especially not on 6'3" russian women.
or 5'3" wimpy men.
**big bangs. you know the ones that start in the middle of your head, are also not attractive. especially when worn with long, long hair. a mullet is more attractive than this.
**if a man is balding, he should not have long hair. it doesn't work for michael bolton, and it definitely doesn't work for circus stars.
**men should not wear leotards. i don't care if you're a trapeze artist. it's just not cool.

going to the chapel...

today marks our two year wedding anniversary.

you say you want a revolution...

you know you live in latinamerica when "protests" include:

... knocking down trees and burning them in the street
... blocking the highway with old tires... and setting them on fire
... throwing rocks at public transportation... and often, setting buses on fire
... cutting off politicians electricity, water and cable ... and sometimes setting their cars on fire

tomorrow is supposed to be a "general strike" against the high cost of living in the country, the incredible taxes that the president has implemented in his 4 years as president (16% sales tax and more) and... well, for the strike organizers to make some money.

ironically, nobody can afford to strike... because if they do, it gets taken out of their paycheck and then can even less afford the high cost of living.

i propose that instead of a stupid strike against a stupid president, people just vote for someone else on may 16. c'mon, guys, elections are right around the corner.

day late, dollar short

samil's got two new teeth... for a total of four

sometimes i'm like - wow, samil, you're so big. but then he falls asleep in his little swing and it's like he was just born yesterday.

apparently i'm on the list.
let's remember the following points, people:
a: i live in a developing country. electricity is in high demand. mostly because there's not a lot of it.
b: my internet is "stolen" and by stolen i mean generously given to us by our neighbors. sometimes they take their router to their relatives... why? no clue. but they do.
c: pictures of samil aren't really that cute.
well, okay. c. is a lie.
without further ado. sunday for samil. a day late.
and i better get some comments. because i already got an email.

samil's newest trick consists of standing.
and pulling himself into that standing position.

so far, he's done it in the crib, and by pulling on my laptop screen to see what's on the other side.

hosting the homeless.

i received an email from my home church in philadelphia yesterday. honestly, if the title of the email doesn't look relevant, i usually delete. i get the important details from my parents. and, frankly, i've gotten some bad news through church emails that i'd prefer not to receive that way.

i am episcopal. eventhough we don't attend an episcopal church here i still tell people, when they ask, that i'm episcopalian.

the only problem is that here... well, the episcopal church is not what i know. or what i like. or seek. and while the larger episcopal church in the states is, for me, a justice seeking, peace-loving, historical, ritualistic, sacramental organization i always kind of worried about my home parish.

the people, i love. its cliche to talk about church families, but st. tim's really is family. in church and beyond. this church nourished me and helped me grow into a jesus-loving adult. i was allowed to preach, teach sunday school, help with the youth group... and for a brief 4 months, i worked on the church webpage and some other things before i got married.

the church has been growing. and with growth comes growing pains.
when an old church... old... starts to grow, it needs to make decisions. to change or to stay the same. to open their doors or keep them shut.

when i first heard that the vestry was considering hosting a "mobile shelter" program for homeless families, i feared that some members of the church would tremble... say no, even leave the church.

so, when i received the email that told me that they approved it... and that the first dates are already set, i welled up with pride. yah, silly, maybe. but i see mychurch growing and changing and opening their doors to the "least of these"... and not just opening their doors, but - since the program requires church members to cook for, care for and fellowship with the homeless - they are also opening their hearts.

challenges.

at the beginning of the year i decided that this year i would read the bible. i've read it, and i read it on a fairly regular basis, but i thought maybe i should make a conscious decision to do the whole thing. not straight through - i think that would bore me - but the whole thing. inayear.

in spanish.

there's something incredible about reading the bible in a different language. amazing. especially when you know dialectic spanish and not really formal spanish. latin american spanish is like american english. everywhere you go the accent is different, some words have different meanings, and intonation can make or take it.

and on top of all that, i'm not really thatgood at reading comprehension in spanish. part of my -dare i call it a resolution? - was based on that. i've been here three years and i can write spanish well. and i can read it quite nicely, but the understanding that comes so easily in my mothertongue is just lost sometimes. in the last few months, amalio has been helping me with that. almost as patiently as i help him with english. needless to say, amalio still struggles with english and i was still struggling with comprehension.

i had some setbacks. the first spanish biblia i got my hands on was the equivalent to the king james version. it was easier to understand than king james, but i needed something more up to date. then, someone lent me the equivalent of the message which i couldn't ever get into in english, either. old white people writing in slang never appealed to me. and finally, after some investigation i decided i wanted the latinamerican bible -- the one that was banned for a really long time. apparently, eventhough it's legal now, it's still sold on the downlow.

but i got it. and i'm proud to say, i just finished the gospel of john.
amazing. glorious and eye-opening. i've read it a thousand times in english, it was getting old and boring. but in spanish... wow. things i never noticed before. word choice, sentence structure.
i mean it's the same, but different.

i imagine its akin to reading the bible in greek or latin.
maybe seminary will know our family one day.