Busy week of Sailors, AmCham, and Embassy

US Embassy in Singagpore

This has been such a busy week!  I was sick with the flu last weekend and basically just sleep most of Saturday and part of Sunday. I missed out on a special Singapore experience with a Singaporian family from our school.


On Tuesday evening We had dinner at a very special Cantonese restaurant with the principal from the big middle school that right next to our school.  She was so gracious in ordering some very unique and wonderful dishes for us to try.  We are trying to have a relationship with that school and do some community service with our students in a joint effort.  

Wednesday night was a Bunko game after school with ladies and then a trip to Mt. Elizabeth hospital to see one of our teachers who was admitted to the hospital to figure out where the numbness in her arm and hand is coming from.  Without a car, these are always unique adventures and new taxi drivers to meet!  

Thursday we hosted 20 sailors from the USS Pinkney.  I was in charge of their schedule.  We started off with some photos with some of the classes in front of our school and then we split them up and some went to read with pre-schoolers and others joined a soccer game and a basketball game.  A few of them went into classes and talked about their jobs and what they do on the ship and let the kids ask questions.  They were so excited to see children.  Some were missing their own ehildren and nieces and nephews.  We ate lunch with them and then they were on their way.

Friday Chris had an appointment so I had to fill in for him at the Singapore American Chamber of Commerce Meeting.  The man speaking was from Johns Hopkins University and he addressed how colleges and universities to into other countries and set themselves up and what problems can arise.  It was at a nice hotel with a nice American style breakfast.  

Tonight (Saturday) we are going to some lantern festival at a park to celebrate Autumn Festival.  We are going with a family from school.  It has been nice to have the morning to have time to sit and read and run errands and do housework.  

Tomorrow night Chris and I received an invitation to go to the American Embassy to remember 9/11.  I'm not sure how they will do that but it will be at the same time that the buildings were attacked in the United States.  

Next week we have some visitors coming from KORCOS and our organization Network of International Christians Schools and then the following week Chris and I will be in Japan for his Director meetings.  They will have things for the ladies to do while the men are having meetings.  I've never been to Japan so I am looking forward to it.  

Well, I hadn't written for awhile so I wanted to give everyone an update.  Hayden is loving his time in Germany so far.  He has a traveling week coming up where he will be going to France...Paris, Normandy Beach, etc.  So excited for him.  

Last Day of Computer Class

Well, today is the last day to teach my middle school computer class.  When we arrived here in January they had a desperate need for a computer class to be covered.  Chris and I decided to tag-team the class and so we teach every other day to different classes.  It was a great way for me to be connected with some of the middle school students.  I am on the high school side most of the day and did not have a chance to meet or interact with them, so this had allowed me time to meet wtih them. 

This has been great fun for me and I have loved hanging out with these guys!  So...Goodbye until next year!!!!

MRS. HERRING LOVES YOU!!!

15 more School Days!! Wah! (as they would exclaim here)

It is really amazing to think back and realize that so many things have happened since this time last year.  Last year within a few short weeks we would be at Hayden's graduation, changing jobs, visiting family in the South, getting Hayden ready to leave for college, packing up our house and moving in with dear friends,  and I would be having major surgery!!  Wow!  That is a lot of change for one year!!  I decided to journal all of this and I have enjoyed going back and reading through it and realizing God's peace and faithfulness to our little family.  He has taken care of us beautifully and provided more than we could have asked for. 

Coming to Singapore was one of our major changes.  We have been blessed to meet a host of welcoming people here in the ICS community.  I can't believe how fast the time has gone even though the first 2 weeks felt like a month.  We have all be blessed to know parents, students and co-laborers. 

Pray for us as our job descriptions will be changing for next year.  Chris will be assuming Don Cole's position as Director of  ICS as he will be moving on to another school in California.  I will be moving from high school Bible where I was filling in until the end of the year to the 5th grade classroom.  Still more change! 

This summer we will be home for a few short weeks.  We will be in Mississippi visiting Chris' family and going to NICS training for 2 weeks.  Then we will spend a few days in California.  We hope to see many of you and say hello!! 

Thank you for your prayers.  We have definitely felt them.  It is so wonderful to be covered in prayer. 

2 Months Down-- Feeling a little more like home!

Wow!  Can't believe March has already arrived.  So much happens each week that I could share, but I will try to just give you some highlights!

This week was my first trip to the hair salon.  Those gray roots just had to have attention.  I was not sure what to expect, but I found a Redkin Salon at the mall close to the school where we work.  I needed to get it cut, some color and some highlights.  I sat down in the chair and this 20 something boy came over to find out what I wanted done.  He made some suggestions and I just kept telling myself that it really doesn't matter if it doesn't turn out--it will be ok.  Another young man came over and the two of them starting doing the highlights with the pieces of foil.  They said it would go faster if there were two of them, but I am thinking, "What if I have a different style of highlights on each side of my head!"  So...they decided that the one boy would do the back and other boy the two sides.  After that they both put color on it.  When it was time to sit and marinate for 30 minutes the one boy left.  The great surprise of the evening was the head and neck massage that you get while you are getting your shampoo.  They even scrub your ears and then very carefully dry them out for you.  When he hoisted this fanny pack full of scissors around his waist when it was time for the haircut, I got a little nervous. So...when it was all said and done, he did a great job and my hair turned out nice. 

This is the first time I have watched American Idol from the beginning.  Mainly I watch it because there are not other options!!   The bummer is that it starts at 10:00 and gets over at 11:30.  So...because I get up at 5:30 I cannot stay up for the whole thing.  So if anyone else is watching it this season....who are you rooting for? Some of you country folk probably love Scotty!

We are going tonight with a group of teachers and students to go see True Grit.  It is in the part of the city called Orchard Road where all of your high end shops are.  I call it the Rodeo Drive of Singapore.  Probably won't catch me shopping much there.  It is a hopping place with lots of restaurants and theatres and malls and shops.  It is where I went to the fish spa last week.

Chris just ordered tickets today for us to go to Vietnam over spring break.  We will be flying into Ho Chi Minh city and then we will take a train from there to Hanoi.  Chris (our resident history buff) will be planning this trip based on some historical sights he wants us to see.  I, on the other hand, hope to learn just enough Vietamese to know what the nail girls in California are talking about when I get my nails done!!  I know, really deep!!!

Hope this finds all of you doing well!

Chinese New Year

Well, we have now been here a month.  We have packed so much into such a little amount of time that it seems longer. 

Some of the highlights of this week were:
   Going with Raj, a worker at our school, to little India to the Banana leaf and eating Indian food.  The food was amazing and it was nice to have a short tour of Little India and one of the temples there from Raj. 
   Having a 2 1/2 half day work week so that we could celebrate Chinese New Year.
   We went to Malaysia for Chinese New Year and went to the Pulai at Desaru Beach.  It was very nice but the trek there was kind of interesting.  When we booked our arrangements we thought we were taking a boat ride there and it ended up being a taxi and 3 buses!  We were in one bus station for 3 hours because we missed the connector bus by 5 minutes, and the workers were all yelling trying to get you on their buses and one lady was trying to get Chris to buy lotion so she rubbed it on his arm.  We quickly found a corner in a Dunkin' Donut shop to get away from the noise and read.  Many shops have been closed the last 4 days while everyone celebrates.  It is not officially over until the 14th of Feb. but most people will be back to work tomorrow.  

Time for me to get busy and get ready for the week ahead.  I hope all of you are doing well.  I will post some pictures of our trip.

Marta

The Finish of Week 3

Just finished my third week of teaching.  I figured out how to post grades this week and I am finally learning the schedule.  (There is one schedule for M,W,F and a different one for T,Th and then my classes rotate every other day according to Blue/Yellow days.)  I love teaching the Book of John; however, when you have 8 classes of the same thing, you have to be very dilligent to make sure that you are telling each class the exact same things and that you cover the same amount of material each day. 

I went shopping on Thursday night with one of the staff to Holland Village.  She showed me where our uniform shop was and where there were some shops that I may want to go back to at another time. 

The high school had a swing dance Friday night and the boys had to wear pants, a nice shirt, a belt and nice shoes.  Micah decided to go and it was the first time he has worn pants since we have been here.  He has been doing activitites with other students and finding his way home ok! 

The dress code at our school is simple and it is funny how that is really a non-issue.  If you saw all of the other options that students wear all over the city, I think you would see how ours are great!!  My goal next week is to just take pictures of uniforms all over the city and post the pictures for you all to see. 

Today, our Saturday was a most interesting day.  I found a local wildlife reserve by our house (3 blocks away) called Bukit Batok Nature Park  that had a WWII memorial for the Japanese.  After roaming  through that we decided to go find the monkeys so we walked to Bukit Timah Nature Park and did the summit walk.  It was so cool to be going through the rainforest.  We definitely got our exercise for the day.  We will be posting the pictures, so be looking for them.  We headed out after our hike, and caught a bus just to see where we would go.  We ended up at Little India, had some great Indian food and went to see Mustafas, a famous shopping place around here.  Imagine a huge department store with stuff from floor to ceiling and every space used!  We then caught the train to a bus stop and headed home.  Now mind you, I was thinking about an hour hike and we left at 9:30 and came home around 3:15.  Yes, I am officially worn out!!  Easy evening tonight!

We will visit another church in the morning and have lunch at Chilis with one of the teachers from our
school. 

Please continue to pray for us when you think of us!  If you want to come visit we will wear you out too!!

Marta

Second Week in Singapore

Well, I have just finished my second week in Singapore and it feels like I have been here a month!!  I think with getting used to my classes and the heat and the bus and train rides, I was just exhausted by the time Friday night rolled around.  We have had a lot of basketball games this well also, so I tried to attend as many as possible so that I could learn my students' names and support them at the same time. (I have 140 high school students and some of them have very hard names to pronounce!)  Basketball just ended for both teams, so I hope for a little break. We leave at 6:25 in the morning and get home around 7 or 8.  Hopefully this week, it will be a little sooner. 

Some highlights of this week were:  
 All of us can now get to and from school by ourselves.

Spiritual Emphasis Week was really a neat time with many making decisions.  Many who are just learning about who Jesus is are very interested in knowing more.  I have many in my classes who did not grow up in a Christian home and are not believers. 

Our girls won their championship basketball game to make them league champions for the 2nd year in a row.  The boys played for 3rd but lost.  The pace of the game here is very fast and very rough.  The guys did an amazing job, but just couldn't pull it off. 

Micah has made a lot of new friends.  (I know you are all shocked!)  He has gotten around a little by himself and if he gets desperate there is always a taxi!!

Went to Lau Pa Sat with Don Cole.  It was very fun.  I will try to post some pictures of our time there.

Prayer requests:
1)Pray that we will be a light to our students who do not know Christ.
2)Pray that God will give us opportunity to meet and get to know our neighbors.  They are devout Chinese Muslims and even though we cannot witness to them, pray that they can see Christ in us.
3)All of us have various trips we are going on, so please pray for God's work to be done in the organizing and work that we will do.

Micah- going to India to do some sports camps and ministry work
Marta- Cambodia to an orphanage to build a wall to keep chickens in and kidnappers out.  (They have a problem with kidnappers taking the girls and selling them into prostitution.)
Chris- going to Indonesia with the middle school students
Hayden- going to Mexico at Spring Break with a group from Corban 

We love you and covet your prayers for our family!!

I'll try to post some new pictures soon!
Marta