bon dia! los siento para la tarde blog (i'm sorry it's taken me so long to blog) our internet hasn't been working at the house.

so a month has passed and gone, and the second is almost gone as well. and bonaire just keeps amazing us...
carnival (kind of a mixture of mardi gras and halloween, with parades like thanksgiving and the fourth of july) is now over and lent began with a huge gathering at the catholic church right next to dev's school; everyone left the church with ash on their forehead in symbolism of ash wednesday. i've never seen such a catholic-rich culture.

dev and i are both doing well in school. i have two more weeks left for this first class, and have kept an A, despite the internet problems. it's fun delving into the art of teaching, and honing better practices. dev's one of the top students in his classes; he made A's and B's on all of his exams last block, and he is currently studying a lot for the block exams at the end of this month. i asked him if he hates it, because i hear a lot of his fellow classmates complain, especially about one class (histology), but he says he loves it. he's happy to finally enjoy and take interest in the material he spends so much time working at.

i gave a talk on sunday, all in spanish. well - spanish and english. the power was out, so the translator machines weren't working, so i translated myself. it was nerve-racking, and i'm afraid i did much more reading than i usually do (in english talks), but i was told afterward that i did a good job, and it was kinda fun! i'm learning a lot. we have a new missionary in the ward - he's from utah. it's funny because they teach an english class that i go to on wednesday nights, and the other missionary is from australia, and so he'll be teaching and then he'll pronounce a word the australian way, and it'll sound funny, of course, so i explain to the class the difference, and tell them the american way, which of course confuses the heck out of them! it's so funny to hear them struggle to pronounce seemingly easy words (like daughter!), but i guess the same thing goes for me in spanish. i struggle with pronunciation as well!

bronson got two more teeth - that's four total. but the new ones are not directly above the two middle lower ones. no - he's got fangs. it's his kanines that are coming in now - we're beginning to worry whether he's a vampire or not! esp with how frequently he bites us now! haha! i built him a high chair with one of those baby plastic deck looking chairs, a platter, and three tie-downs. it works pretty well, and has been helping me re-acquaint bronson with the idea of food and feeding himself (as he has all but forgotten since we haven't had a high chair since we moved here). he's been biting me a lot recently, and even though i flick him when he does it, he hasn't stopped, and it's started to draw blood, so i'm planning on getting him back into the swing of really eating well, and then wean him in the next couple of months. i can't handle the chiquita dientes.

in spanish to "crawl" is referred to as "catting", and that is exactly what describes bronson right now. he's either rubbing up against your leg, finding mischief to get into, or attacking moving objects, or sleeping. he's a cat!

anywho, we still love it here. we make sure we take time for each other, as well as time away from the books: we enjoy our quick 2-hour dinner and snorkel dates at least once a week, and plan one evening away from bronson every other month. this month we enjoyed a dress-up valentines day date sponsered by dev's school (our land-lady watched bronson). this time is crucial for us as a couple, and we're so grateful to have such a gracious landlady helping us out in all the ways she does! dominicans are incredible!