day 82

today was my birthday and what a ride!!!!

i woke up around 3:30 with an intense pain in my eye. so i went to take out my contacts, b/c that normally helps. let me preface this story with another. just before i came down here i got contacts that you can leave in for 5-6 days at a time, even in the night. you are supposed to keep them for 3-4 weeks. the pair that i threw away this morning, in utter disgust and severe pain, was the same pair that i put in the night before i drove to wisconsin back in may. well, takin out my contacts didn't help, it actually worsened the situation. i had pain when my eye was open, and more pain when my eye was closed. i layed in bed thinking about all the possible explinations of what was goin on with mi ojo (my eye). finally, at 5:30 or so i couldn't take it anymore and got dressed and went to the hospital. i have/had a small infection in my eye and the eyedrops are working marvelously. although until about 11 a.m. it looked like i was crying...
after school today we had a meeting to talk about some thing coming up at the school, and first thing they announced that one of my 3 year old students was diagnosed with leukemia today. he had a biopsy done a couple of weeks ago and other than he has cancer of the blood, i don't know any more information at this point in time. i know he went to a cancer treatment center today in a city called cuenca. i'm pretty sure their a special hospital for children with cancer. his name is illian. he knows the colors: purple, red, orange, yellow, green and blue in english. he loves the hokey pokey and has on many occasions actually referred to me as Hokey Pokey as all the kids in his class think that is my name. now, some of the parents are even calling me hokey pokey. :) please pray for this little guy and his family to have the strength and faith necessary to endure this crooked road. the bible says that with a tiny piece of faith we can move a mountain. that means our god is super strong and awesome. so with a 1/16 tiny piece of faith illian and his family can make it through this.

other than that, i taught two extra english classes today after school, a friend bought me a plate full of ribs and yuca tonight (yuca is a potato like vegetable that is native to the jungle here, they fry it like french fries and it's almost like a mix of pancake batter, potatoes and funnel cake). he later invited me to his house and we just hung out. another group of friends called me at the guys house and invited me over to their house where the 12 year old boy was goin to make donuts, but he fell asleep by the time i got there. tomorrow i'm getting donuts...woohoo! and i came home to find my email full of birthday wishes. thank you all for your support and love, it stretches through the cables of this thing called the internet, and i really appreciate. continually pray for this boy. good night (i've almost been awake for 24 hours)