Oh, it is so good to be back in Xela. I still can't get over what a difference there was within less than 100 miles!! Everybody laughed at our reaction to the Mexican people. Apparently the Guatemalans already knew there was a difference but let us make our own judgments!!
I spent the morning trying to practicing my Spanish Verbs. I think I am doing so great until I listen to people talk and I still don't know what they are saying!!
There was a HUGE storm today. Every single window and door in the house had water gushing in through the cracks! The kids and I used every single towel in the house trying to mop up all of the water and cover the gaps. It was good for them to have something to do so that they didn't realize how much thunder and lightning there was. There was probably more rain in a one hour time frame than an entire year in Vegas! Chris called from the job site and said that everybody was running for cover. The lightning was absolutely amazing. It would light up the entire sky. When I drove to choir practice there wasn't a need for street lights since the lightning was so constant!
None of the women showed up for choir but the bishop was there (I think he's in his early 20's!!) and he let me in. I practiced the piano for about 1/2 an hour before a couple of men came in. They were waiting for the choir director but finally decided to come talk to me. They seemed very amused by my attempt at Spanish. They had me say all the lyrics to the songs and they helped me with my pronunciations. We finally gave up on anybody else coming and we all left.
Wednesday 5/27/09
I was supposed to go in and help with the transition for school today. However, on the way to the school, Morgan informed me that Teacher Marilyn had already had her baby. So much for the smooth transition. Rather, I was just thrown in and asked to teach pretty much everything. It went o.k. but I sure wish that I had been given a little more instruction on the topics and what I was going to be teaching. Oh, well!
When we got home after school, Laina was sitting on the toilet and said, "Mommy, muchos pee pee!" I thought it was pretty cute. Later, Alysa asked if anybody had a brown marker. Laina came into the room with one and said, "I have a cafe marker." She is picking up on the language pretty well.
Thursday 5/28/09
Everyone is finally starting to feel a little better. Not a ton but a little!!
The first thing that I did for each class today was to have them help me make up a set of rules for the class along with consequences both negative and positive. The 5th grade class really was struggling with the rules. They are so used to doing whatever they want whenever they want. A few of the girls were not happy with me!! The 4th grade class however was 100% better once they knew what was expected. I pretty much "winged it" all day trying to teach off of somebody else's plans. There is still lots to learn but I think I'll survive.
Since Morgan and Cole had class until 3:00, Laina and Alysa and I stayed also to do some planning/preparation. The girls had fun eating their lunch and coloring on the board. If anybody has any great ideas on teaching kids a second language in a tiny little classroom with lots of outside noise, let me know!!
Friday 5/29/09
Ah, it is Friday!! Classes were o.k. today. I am thinking about having them write pen pal letters as one of their assignments. Anybody have a 4/5 grader that would like a Guatemalan pen pal?
Once a month the school has scouts for the kids. I was pretty happy because that meant I got a half an hour without the kids to check homework. When the class went down though, the Spanish teacher said that I had to come also. I tried to say that I was checking homework but Morgan told me that Teacher Marilyn helps with scouts also. UGH!! I go down and don't have a clue what is going on. None of the other teachers spoke any English either! Finally the principals husband came over to the school and I asked him where she was and that I didn't know what was going on. He went and got her from the main building and she came over and took care of scouts while I checked papers. I felt pretty bad watching Morgan and Cole try their best to fit in with the other kids but really not understanding what was happening. They have been very brave!
Scouts was supposed to be done at 12:30 so that I could finish the rest of the lesson plans before school ended at 1:00. Well, we've got to keep true to Latin time and they didn't get done until about 12:55. It was such a mess trying to get all the kids back in the classroom and get papers taken care of, backpacks packed, etc. I don't think I like having chaos in the classroom!!
After we got all the kids out, Morgan left with her new friend Andrea. Andrea is one of the 5th graders that is extremely shy and none of the other kids will include her. I met her mom at an activity and she speaks really good English and kept saying how excited she is to have Morgan here to be her friend and to help her with her English! Morgan was pretty excited to go have lunch at Andrea's house and had a really good time.
While Morgan was gone, the other kids and I stayed at the school for the planning meetings. I met with the principal and showed her what I had planned then I went to the main building to use the computers to print out some stuff. What a pain in the rear end!! I couldn't figure out anything since it was all in....yup, you guessed it, Spanish! Luckily for me, Lily happened to be in there and she helped me out a little. She is pretty frustrated with how much extra work she is putting in and getting 1/2 the pay that she got in Guatemala City and is thinking about starting her own school next year. She was having a hard time finding some songs and stuff for her class and I was able to share with her my favorite website for kids. I hope it helped her!
At about 3:00 Chris came to pick us all up and Morgan came back to the school also. We all went home and the kids and I cleaned the house while Chris went back to work. I told the kids that they had to help clean so that we could have a pizza party and watch a movie that Chris downloaded. We even pulled out some of the root beer!! It was a great night except for the movie was recorded completely out of order!
Saturday 5/30/09
Today was a nice day outside. We haven't had much rain since the big storm on Tuesday and it has warmed up a little bit. We went to the market as a family today. I told all of the kids that they could pick out a fruit or vegetable that they wanted. Morgan got a coconut (reminds me of my dad!!), Cole picked pears (which he asked for and paid for himself!!), Alysa picked strawberries, and Laina picked cherries. It was a fun activity for the most part.
We went up to the job site and let the kids see what has been going on. They were pretty excited to see all of the equipment.
The remainder of the day was spent washing, sanitizing, rinsing, drying, cutting up, and storing fruits and vegetables. I can not believe how many fruit flies are in the kitchen at this moment.
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