Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!:
I'm finding it hard to believe that today is the beginning of my second month here. Thinking about when Becca was gone to Thailand for 40 days, it seemed like she was gone forever...but when you're the one gone, the time absolutely flies. I try not to think about leaving though, because I know I will miss these kids. They tell you when you arrive to try not to get attached...riiight...
I feel sort of like a student here, having to learn how to buy and manage my own groceries. I buy all the things that we would have in our own house at home (but in smaller quantities obviously). I still can't manage to finish what I think I can though. For example, I've been working on this one loaf of bread now for at least ten days and have gotten to the point where I just rip the moldy chunks off before I make a sandwich. The moldy chunks are getting bigger though and I'm trying frantically to finish the bread before I actually have to throw whole pieces away...
Our New Years Eve party last night was splendid. :) We bought loads of food, made a huge bonfire and all sat around and talked for ages. It was so lovely. A few of the girls and I spent most of the evening talking about Buddhism, Christianity, demons, parallel universes and being able to tell the future...really light stuff...It was cool though, because there were so many different ideas tossed around and no hard feelings about any of it. :P I came up with the brilliant idea of going around the circle and all saying something that we were proud of in the past year, i.e. our accomplishments, or major events that had occurred. It definitely made me realize what amazing and diverse people I am with right now. :) At 12, we went into the nursery and had our champagne there so we could celebrate with the night shift people as well; we all screamed 'Happy New Year!!!!' and didn't even wake up the babies. :) We hung around with the Main House kids for a bit since they were having their own party, complete with a hot tub...which was...a wine cask/barrel (?...just big enough for one person) propped up over a fire pit. Awesome. :) I managed to call a few people and wish them happy new year, but apparently everyone calls somewhere at the stroke of midnight, so all the networks were busy and I couldn't get through to very many people...I was asleep by one though, didn't feel like staying up all night...however...
This is the part that I will get a few emails about (from home at least). Remember when I wrote that we had two nights in a row where guys had jumped the fence (great fence...) and stolen things? Well, that was a couple weeks ago and it was quiet until two nights ago when they came back and stole some more lawn mowers. Everyone's response to this was "Oh, ok." Rather than the "Omyword, we're all going to die!" that it was last time. So everyone was fairly relaxed about the whole thing. Last night though, around four o'clock, my roomie woke up to men shouting right outside our cottage. She got up and saw men running around and let the night guard into our cottage (who had knocked on our door). I woke up when she came back into our room in a panic and started frantically searching for her phone. When I was awake enough to realize something was wrong, I got up and wandered over to the front door, where Albertina (my roomie) and the night guard were trying to get ahold of Pippa and Thea. After a few wrong numbers and cuss words they managed to wake up Pippa. The night guard just said, "Pippa, can you bring Mama (Thea) and drive down to the preschool right now. Thanks." And that was it. As it turns out, the two guys from the first robberies brought their friends. There were 6 men hiding outside our cottages last night and one was carrying a gun. The night guard was chasing five when he heard the one with the gun hiding in the bushes trying to reload his gun. Thankfully, it was jammed and I think that's the guy that the night guard managed to hit with an iron bar that he threw. The iron bar is the only weapon on this property. How these guys manage to get by the 7 or so trained guard dogs (German Shepherds, Mastiffs, etc...), I'm not sure....A little while later, Pippa and Thea drove up in the truck and picked up the night guard, who told us to lock our door as he left, and started driving around the perimeter. Holy brave women. I would have stayed in my room. Unfortunately, the ring of keys hanging by the door are all for something different then that particular lock. So, we pulled the couch in front of the door so they would at least make some noise if they tried getting in. Then we went around and latched all the windows, then peeked out our own window for a little while before decided to go back to bed. In the end, nothing scary actually happened, but it was enough to keep us all on our toes...
That's about it for news around here these days. I'm looking forward to my next day off on Sunday. :) Hopefully it will be a relaxing one, although, we are down from 13 to 9 hour days, so I don't know how much more relaxed I can get...Anyway, much love. I wish you all the best in the New Year. I know that this is one that I will certainly never forget. :)