8 Days til CHRISTMAS! :)

Almost Christmas!!!

This week we had our advent Novena. It started last Thursday and ended this morning and each morning at 5:30 am we had Mass at our local parish. I want to say that it took a LOT of dedication to get up each morning but was well worth it. I got so many things done when I got home at 6:30 and was already wide awake. Since I leave the house at 6:45 on tuesday and thursday it was kind of a crunch time, but it was still alright.

One of my favorite homilies this week talked about how much time we put into our faith. I started to think about how some people get really frustrated when they don't understand their own religion and yet don't take the time to figure it out. I was thinking about sports and how to be good at a sport we must practice. If you wanted to be a good basketball player but only practiced once a week for one hour - you wouldn't accomplish anything. Even if you practiced for one hour every week of your life you still wouldn't be at the best of your ability. Even worse say you only practiced twice a year, now how could you expect to know much of anything about the sport rather than what you see. Our faith is exactly the same. If you don't understand the Catholic church or why it teaches what it does - and you don't put any other extra effort into it, its not going to magically appear.

This made me think to myself "How much effort do I put into my faith life?". If I put even 10% of the energy that I put into work into my faith, I know I would be improving my faith life from today. God's messages to us don't transfer into our minds by osmosis, we must study his word, listen to his pastors, and take time to talk with Him and listen to what He has to say to us. Next time I find something about the Church or the Bible I don't understand I realize maybe it's my own fault because my priorities aren't exactly in the right place. We have no one to blame but ourselves if we don't become NBA players when we only practice basketball once a week. :)

This week was the last week of school and all that I had left to do was clean up my room and attend the school party. I really enjoyed just being around the school and not having a lot of work to get done or accomplish! :) I met some of my parents students this week and one of them said to me: "Ohhh, you're miss Ashley, yes I hear a LOT about you, almost every time my son comes home from school he tells me something about you". I felt really awkward but at the same time i'm glad to know that my students enjoy my class somewhat. Now I just need to start working on my lesson plans for next term.

We had our staff party last night for the school and it was a lot of fun. I always enjoy dressing up in Guyana! We just had a dinner and then we got gifts from the school. I got a really beautiful weaved baskets!! Its nice to see everyone dressed up and talking about something other than school for once. My co-workers all really make me laugh and are very supportive of each other and I really appreciate that.


Yesterday we had the MOST CRAZY DAY EVER at the hospital. I walked in at 8am and was told that they needed someone in the ER immediately. My supervisor told me that the lady who is normally there isn't here yet, and that I would be much better than him at grief so he sent me down. We had a woman who had lost her husband and her seven children were on the way to see him. I just kept praying that the counselor who deals with grief would show up quickly and lead the team. Right as the children arrived she walked in to and I thanked God that she was able to take over. I obviously stayed and helped her, but it was a huge relief. Once all of that had happened we had to see all the patients for the day and then get ready for the childrens party. I face painted with another young woman and it was a really great time. The only thing was once I stopped face painting at the end of the party around 5:30, I realized that was the first time I had stopped moving since 8 that morning. I hadn't had time to even take lunch or think about eating. I was glad that there was Roti and curry there when we finished face paiting - nothing like you're favorite food to end a CRAZY day!! :)



Georgetown before Christmas is always chaos and I do not enjoy how long it takes to get home on the bus anymore. I have never been a huge fan of crowds and I am going to enjoy when all of the Christmas chaos is over... I still have to go and buy my christmas presents and I am not looking forward to the long lines. Mmmm i'm looking forward to all of the Christmas food :) It's still always hard to believe that it's Christmas without any snow. Not that I really miss the cold, rather I just miss the clean look and beauty that snow gives to a city.

I hope you all have a blessed last week of advent!! I will make sure to post a blog after Christmas sharing all of our Christmas Adventures!!


Merry Christmas!!!


Love,

Ashley Ann