From Kasey

Hello all! :)

It’s been a pretty nice couple of weeks. Jon and I are used to the swing of things this time around, I think, so it doesn’t feel as hectic this year.

Until Ramadan ends, my school day only goes until 1 o’clock. I’ve been consistently staying at least 2 hours after school to grade and prep for the next day. I even got locked inside the school one day because I stayed so late! Lol. It’s hard work being a teacher. Most of the students assume that teachers hang out during our free periods and do the same at the end of school when they leave. Little do they know that teachers arrive at the school long before they do, work hurriedly during “free periods” to prep, get copies, and grade (oh, and sometimes eat, unless we’ve run out of money/food), we leave long after the students go home, and we bring work home with us. I think this year, I’ll designate Sunday as a full day off, with no school work/work allowed.

Of course, I tried that last weekend and it really didn’t go as planned. I edit documents/emails/letters/etc. for a woman at the UN, and usually she emails them to me during the week. She went on vacation through the month of August, however, and arrived back on the 30th to find that someone had requested she send an official report to the Secretary General (of whatever) on September 1st. She received the necessary extension, but that caused a quick scuffle to compile all the necessary information. I got sent the report early on Sunday afternoon with a note to edit it immediately because the new deadline was Monday.

The thing was 27 single-spaced pages of straight reporting! It took me almost 4 hours to complete. By Sunday evening I was worn out and had a headache, and I woke up on Monday with a migraine, which is just fantastic in a school building with artificial light and screaming children, let me tell you. Still, SHEKELS!!

My migraines usually dissipate in about 2-3 hours, which helped on Monday because I’m also tutoring a student once a week in math (Good deeds! Shekels!), and I don’t think I would have been much help slumped over my desk. :) (BTW Laurel, I’m saving the pills for days when my migraines are too much to deal with, because pretty much every morning I have some level of migraine.)

Jon’s excited to go back to school. He just got one of his final papers back last week and found out that he got a 100%. He’s got it in his mind that he’s just an average student, but he’s really not. He just didn’t apply himself to school before. I hope he realizes soon how smart he is – he’s worked so hard over the past few years and as much as I tease him, he’s actually pretty brilliant :) Makes me proud that I’m his wife. (Don’t tell him I told you.)

We found out today that I get 5 days off for the Eid (the end-of-Ramadan holiday), which is AWESOME!! I’m going to JUC with Jon one day so that I can get some writing done, and then on one day, I plan on working ahead on schoolwork. I want to be ahead on my lesson plans and worksheets so that I won’t have to come up with everything last minute. It helps that I’m already familiar with the material this year. This looks promising.

<3 Kasey


Prayer Request
o We made the pretty daunting decision to survive on my school income this year. After paying our rent, it leaves us with $400. We budgeted it carefully, and most of our food will wind up being pita, hummus, and veggies. All the money I’m earning from editing and tutoring is being saved for tuition, but it really won’t amount to that much by the time our last tuition payment is due. The point is: we need money. Desperately. Soon. Please pray. (And donate, if you feel led to! ;) )

Praise Report
o God is generous!! People keep feeding us for random reasons. Even our landlady keeps accosting us with food. It’s good to know that God’s aware of how empty our cupboards are.
o Polly has been living comfortably (and energetically) in San Diego with my family for over 2 months now. Even though we miss our cute little kitty terribly (and I have nothing to practice my “mommy instincts” on), we’re so grateful that she adjusted well and that she doesn’t seem to have lost her craziness. She still goes “mum” before she attacks people J We love hearing the stories of her antics :D

Sickness

(Kasey here)

The past couple of days have been AWFUL. Thursday night Jon came home from class early because I emailed him about the ringworm, and then we watched a movie and had something to eat. We didn't wind up getting to bed until after one, and we woke up the next day at about 5:30 to take showers.

We went to JUC and on the walk, my chest started seizing up and I wasn't able to take anything more than a couple of shallow breaths a minute. We sat down a while until my chest relaxed, and then we went slowly the rest of the way. After Jon went to class, it took almost a full 2 1/2 hours for my breathing to become normal again. I spent a bunch of the time with my arm resting on a styrofoam cup filled with ice -- I have a HUGE spider bite on the same arm where I have the ringworm; ice was the only thing keeping me from going insane. Because of our lack of sleep I was completely exhausted. I had an ugly headache and my eyes hurt from how much I'd cried the night before. When Jon was done with class he had planned to take me to the Wailing Wall, but it was SO hot and I already wasn't feeling well, so we wandered through the 'upper room' that symbolizes where the Last Supper was held, went past David's tomb, and then went home.

We got home a little after noon and called Mrs. Eula (an older volunteer lady who works at the school and who is our designated driver) and asked if she could take us to the pharmacy. She was just getting out of the shower and needed to do her hair, so we had to wait about an hour and a half. Jon got on the computer to check facebook and talk to his dad, and I fell asleep sitting on the couch next to him.

Mrs. Eula brought us to the pharmacy, and the women working there gave me a cream to apply to the ringworm and an antibacterial soap that's good for skin infections. When we got home I applied it, and Jon gave Polly a bath with the soap. Poor kitten was all traumatized again. I kept her wrapped in a towel on my lap, head covered and all, while Jon made dinner -- chicken and mashed potatoes. om nom nom.

We watched Zombieland and ate until we were WAY too full. We'd been invited to a movie night at the Robert's (volunteer) place with him and Julie (english teacher) and Jeff (her husband) and a few other people (all volunteers), so we headed over... Julie and Jeff brought us a full Shabbat dinner -- shepherd's pie, potato salad, hulas bread and grape juice for a communion, and butter cookies and m&m cookies. Jon and I were kind of disappointed that we didn't know there was going to be food. Why feed yourself when you're going to be fed for free?!

We all ate and hung out and it was nice to just be relaxing with everyone. Most people left before the movie started. We let Jeff and Julie pick, because they were the only ones who hadn't seen our collection before. Julie saw Bewitched in our folder and said was "So raunchy!" which... isn't true whatsoever. But she picked Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, so that was acceptable.

I was coughing a lot during the movie. About a half hour from the end, all of a sudden the muscles in my chest and back, around my lungs, seized and I couldn't breathe at all. Every attempt was extremely painful. I asked Jon to rub my back and showed him where. After he'd been massaging the muscles for a couple of minutes, they relaxed, but my chest was still tight. I was glad that the movie was over -- we packed up, thanked Julie and Jeff for the food, and Robert for having us over, and left right away.

We were in bed by 10. Jon rubbed my back until I fell to sleep and then made sure I laid flat on my back most of the night. We figured that the combination of the ringworm and all the insect bites, my immune system had been weakened and I'd gotten a cold, so my body was just a big disaster and that's why I felt so awful.

Today I was supposed to go into school to supervise the PSAT, but I felt SO gross when I woke up that Jon called Shane and asked if I could stay home. I felt sick to my stomach and dizzy and had a headache. I kept alternating between being way too hot and shivering I was so cold. Jon said I felt the same as last night, when my skin had been burning up.

I feel a lot better now that I've gotten some sleep, but I still feel under the weather. A little while ago I lost my voice and I sound exactly like that guy on 30 Rock who's speaking to Jack Donaghy and says, "You have to leave GE."

"What?"

"Visiting hours--were over--some time ago. You have to leave GE. Geriatric Extended Care."

"... what's wrong with your voice?"

"I was struck by lightning--as a child. They made a movie--about me. You have to leave GE."

Ugh. The older ringworms seem to be clearing up. The one on my hand seems to be drying out, which is how Marian said they have to go. And my spider bite isn't swollen anymore. By tomorrow I hope to be okay, and definitely completely fine by Monday. But I REALLY hope that breathing issue is gone forever. I don't know how asthma feels, but I'd guess it's something like that.

Tonight is church and there's going to be pizza afterward. Kind of sucks that I won't be up to eating much because I was REALLY looking forward to chowing down on pizza. At least at this point is looks like I'll be able to make it there.

Prayer requests:

• My health -- that I'd feel all better soon and that the ringworm would go away with a reappearance.
• Polly's ringworm -- it's a big deal for us to be able to get someone to drive us to the store, let alone the pet clinic on the other side of the Old City. Hopefully this soap we're bathing her in works. She had another bath today.
• Jon's health -- hopefully he doesn't get any infection or anything from all of this.