rough week

makayla started school this week. little did i know that it would stress me out to no end. i posted that i was afraid of what would break me - well here it is - driving in narrow roads. i always hated driving. hated. i always told my friends that if i had all the money in the world, i would hire a chauffer and a florist.

what was i thinking for not signing up for a school bus service for makayla? the drive there takes about 40 minutes (15min if no traffic and no construction). the school is located in the boonies - outside of the city where the last 5 minutes of the drive consist of a winding road where it's suppose to be one way but insisted on being a two way. so if there's a car on the other side, one of you has to veer toward the grass or who knows what.

first day, as i was swerving to avoid an oncoming car, i hit a ditch and totally scraped underneath the car. the second day, joe was driving and he hit a pot hole so deep i hit my elbow and knee hard that i couldn't speak for a minute out of anger and frustration - ofcourse not at joe but at the road.... the third day, it was pouring rain and as i entered the small road, i see a gold VW in a ditch, tilted 45 degrees and unable to get out. great ~ that's going to be me in couple of days, i thought. i later find out that VW belonged to a new American family - this poor lady was standing in the rain waiting for help. the school is so used to having people get stuck, the guard has all kind of equipment to get the car out of a ditch, a hole and cow dung. is that a good thing or not?

hallelujah! i just heard from the school that makayla could ride the school bus. Thank the Lord. now all i have to worry about is mak's safety and her emotional stability. please pray that she'll adjust to riding a bus with bunch of older kids. . . . poor girl, she has to suffer because b/c mommy is too chicken to drive in a foreign country.

so i mentioned earlier that everyONE has a dog in this country. or at least it seems like it - in our neighborhood. and not those little hollywood dogs but big, scary, hairy black ones. one day i was walking my cleaning lady to joe's co-worker's house, we ran into two of these dogs wandering in the street. ignorance is bliss, i tell you. my cleaning lady, statia, was so scared, she kept wanting to turn around. i was like "it's okay, i think they are owned by someone..." so we proceeded without a hitch. couple of days later, my neighbor tells me that she was bit by a big dog when she was jogging - and since the owner kept denying that it was her dog and refused to get the dog tested, she ended up having to go through the whole rabies shots. . . she was so sick from those shots. later i took the kids for a walk in a stroller. and sure enough, we saw those two dogs far away. this time, they looked so dirty and unkempt. i turned around and started to walk as calmly and quickly as possible. i turned around to see where they were, and they were running full speed toward us. i was soooooo scared! i was mumbling "LORD HELP US.... LORD PROTECT US." and started to imagine what i would do if they attacked any of us. then when it reached us, another dog in someone's yard started to bark at the two dogs and provoked them further. i had to stop moving for a second... the two dogs started to get all excited and started circling around barking at all the dogs in the neighborhood. hoping that they are now distracted, i just quietly started to walk again. THEN, makayla and ethan started to bark at the dogs!!! "ARRRRG, WOOF WOOF" "RUFF RUFF" - are they crazy???? don't they see the dire situation we're in????? i started to whisper loudly - you know what i mean? "SSSSTOOOOP IT, SSSTOOPPP, no barking! no barking!"

it was comical since we arrived home safely - thanks to God, and we haven't taken a walk since then :)