July 19, 2013

Last night after I went to bed, Sahne, a volunteer from Belgium who was here last year, arrived. She was the one who got the Rufinos started coming up here to shower and have breakfast. Everyone was eager to see how excited they were going to be when they saw Sahne since they did not know she was coming. I got up

at 6:15

to see their reaction. I met Sahne and talked to her for a few minutes. However, the Rufinos' reaction was kind of anti-climactic. They were not sure who she was, but they were happy when they realized it was her. They were actually calmer and quieter than usual. The kitchen was overflowing with people so Amber and I ate outside with the Belgian couple who also arrived last night (Linda and Kasper). We had toast with avocado on it, leftover rice with lentils, and coffee. I also drank some of my cinnamon soy milk. We got ready and headed downstairs before 9. I realized yesterday that we are actually on the fourth floor, not the fifth. The tricky thing about the building is that it actually has two parts that connect. Therefore, we sometimes have to go downstairs to go upstairs in the other part. It sounds confusing, but suffice it to say that we do a lot of stairs! I decided to count each stair today that I went up or down and the grand total was 390 and I think I did fewer stairs today than other days! Crazy! I think I know why my leg muscles are sore.

Amber and I worked in the English office, planning and preparing the lessons for today. Then we went down to the Montessori preschool. We had the whole group again today. I taught them 5 Green and Speckled Frogs. We did the usual weather, emotions, and questions. We also read Somebody and the 3 Bears. We got done early since we only taught the lesson once so we sat downstairs and worked on planning tomorrow and part of next week while we waited for lunch to be ready to carry upstairs. For lunch we had carne asada that was grilled outside and smelled delicious all during the preschool lesson, salad with cucumbers and avocados, rice, and oatmeal juice (which sounds nasty but is really quite delicious). While we were still dishing up our lunches, the kindergarten (preparatoria) teacher came out and said they were ready in a circle. We hurried in and got started. I pulled kids in pairs to practice sorting animal picture cards by the type of covering they have. It worked really well for the most part because the rest of the kids were eating. We read the Goldilocks shape book and did new stations. I helped with an ending sound sorting station. I think it is really good for the native Spanish speakers to work on ending sounds because I have noticed that they often to do say the ending sound in a word. Mauricio did not want to come with me so I just worked with Nicole and Josue for most of the time. During recess the kids ran and played on the concrete patio. It is amazing to me that more of them do not hurt themselves because there is loose wire covering the windows of the other building and rusty loose chain link fencing that has holes in some places that the children reach through. There is also a small step in the middle of the patio and a metal screw that sticks out of the cement in another place. It is less than ideal but certainly better than nothing. The other grades spend the whole day in their classrooms (including recess and lunch). We started making animals (real or pretend) out of toilet paper tubes. Today we just did the eyes, cut out of scrap paper and glued to a circle that I cut out earlier. There were lots of behavior problems during the day, especially from a few students. We watched about ten minutes of Magic English, which is a Disney video that is made for students learning English. They use scenes from Disney movies and use simple repetitive phrases with the video clips. There are also songs to go with the theme. The one we watched was about cooking. Next they had another recess and then it was time to go home. There were two boys who did not want to put their shoes back on and get ready to go home. Today for some reasons, many children kept sneaking back in the classroom and tried not to leave. We eventually got them all out and Amber had to talk to one boy's mother. He will. It be allowed to goto the park with his class tomorrow morning as a punishment for his behavior. He did not appear to care about this consequence because Amber reminded him multiple times that he needed to change his behavior or he would not be able to go to the park. Jazmin and I cleaned up the classroom together. She is Amber's Guatemalan bilingual assistant. She is a very interesting person. She has been to the U.S. ten times! 

Then Amber and I took her stuff to the English office amped got ready to work on curriculum. The Internet was not working well there, so we moved back to the prepa classroom. We sat on the kids' tiny tables and tried to look up the Guatemalan academic standards. We were still having trouble getting it to download which may have been Amber's computer. She is going to curriculum map English conversation (speaking, listening, grammar, and vocabulary), English reading, math, and science because those are the subjects the English-speaking teacher will teach next year. The Spanish-speaking teacher will teach Spanish reading, social studies, and probably reinforce math. We decided to quit for the day and go walk over to the trash dump. However, just as we were about to,eave, Lukas came and told us that dinner was ready. Sanne had made guacamole, pico de gallo, and refried black beans in addition to heating up leftovers. We put all of this on tostadas. Dina (the Guatemalan preschool teacher) and her daughter came up to eat with us. Linda is very close with Dina. Dina was sharing Guatemalan traditions surrounding marriage since Linda brought her boyfriend with her. One of the traditions involves the bride-to-be having to do all the in-laws laundry for two weeks. Linda and Kasper shared delicious Belgian chocolate that they brought to share. it was Carrefour chocolate, dear father who sometimes travels to Belgium for business. After dinner, we put on jackets because it was getting cool and headed to see the trash dump with Lukas and Darlene. I thought we were going to the one we can see from the English office, but the one we went to was much smaller and much closer to the school. It was right down the street. We walked through the neighborhood and saw lots of children out. It was getting dark so we did not go far. We walked over to see where the Rufinos live. We saw Hilda. She was wearing a different outfit and smelled like she had just showered. Linda showed her a picture of Hilda's older brother from when she was here 6 or 7 years ago. I ate a few jelly beans and started working on my blog. Then Amber suggested foot massages so I washed my feet and we lay on my mattress and talked for a long time. I really enjoy Amber! She is such a insightful, positive, and encouraging presence in my life! Amber went to bed and I got ready for bed and finished writing my blog. Katie was still downstairs. I went to bed about 11:30.