July 17, 2013

I slept better with my earplugs in last night. I woke up

at 6:15

and made it to the bathroom before the Rufinos showed up. The littlest one who comes here (Mario) ran in and lay on my bed. Katie got him off as fast as she could and we sprayed some lice spray on my bed. Amber made me oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. I rinsed out my laundry and hung it out to dry. I got ready and read for a while and checked my email. Then we headed out to take the bus to the market. We waited in front of the school for 15-20 minutes until the free trans-urban bus arrived. We pushed our way onto the bus. I got to sit down soon after getting on. I held Amber's bag since she was standing. The woman next to me was nursing her baby and picking through the baby's hair and her toddler's hair for lice. The bus stopped in front of the market and we piled out. We walked into a large indoor market and walked around between vendors buying products. We bought all sorts of produce for dinner tonight. Then we walked around the corner to Sennma and went to a grocery store inside. We bought tomato sauce in little bags, some larger zucchini (or "suchini" in Spanish), milk, and cheese. Then we walked out to thatch the bus home. It was already there waiting and we found a spot to stand near the back. The ride home seemed short. We put the produce away and went to the English office to get ready for class. We then went down to the Montessori preschool. We had all the kids at the same time and they were incredibly good. Then we borrowed a baby shoe from the daycare for comparing sizes and got the lunch to bring up. We had rice, black beans, cold cooked veggies, and chocolate soy milk. We got our kindergarten materials and dished up our lunch. We got the kids seated in a circle and did a few quick things before it was time for lunch. Today went better than yesterday. They had brought their stuffed animals for "Bear Day," and were very excited. It helped to be able to put any misbehaving animals in time out rather than having to discipline the children. Most of the children responded pretty well to this. We retold/reread Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We also sorted bears by size. We had the baby shoe, a kindergartner's shoe, and a volunteer's shoe and talked about "too small, too big, and perfect." During recess the jump ropes were not out which was good because they were not trying to tie people up. Instead they played with their stuffed animals. I was impressed that all but one of the children brought a stuffed animal! Way to read the note in your child's backpack, Parents! I helped with matching numerals and dot cards during centers. Amber started having two shorter recesses rather than one longer recess. This way she has the option of taking away minutes from the second recess, which did help improve behavior. After school, I talked to Katie who teaches science in English to grades 1-6. Then I helped clean up the classroom and headed upstairs to start working on dinner. Each person has to cook one night a week with a partner. Amber's partner is named Rachel and of course I helped, too. We made ratatouille bake, couscous, and flan with strawberries. For this meal, we had to clean and cut carrots, tomatoes, onions, red onions, zucchini, strawberries, garlic, parsley, cilantro, basil, thyme, jalapeños, leeks, red peppers, and a squash-like vegetable called huiI cut my finger while trying to slice a gigantic carrot. My finger was bleeding too much for me to dig out my band aids, so Amber gave me one of hers. The cut was not that bad, thankfully. When Rachel was cutting the strawberries, she tried to put one in my mouth to try. Somehow she missed my mouth and the strawberry fell and stained my shirt. When the food was done, we took a picture and ate. It was delicious! Afterward, we helped clean up the dishes and Darlene the board member did the dishes. I took a shower, replied to emails, and wrote my blog while people talked in our room. I washed my strawberry-stained shirt in the sink, but there was not a laundry bowl to soak it in overnight. I finished my blog and read a bit before bed around

10:30

.