First day of school and I am exhausted!

May 5, 2010

Today was the first day at the schools. 6 of the girls rode in the back of a pick-up truck to their two schools (Chonco and Santa Cruz), the rest of us took two tuk-tuk's or motor taxis. I filmed the way there as we peeled around corners and skidded over the rocks and dirt. It was pretty scary, but I laughed more of the way. The scenic views on the way are so beautiful and we passed a tomato and jalopeno farm.
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Our school is called El Sinai. there are grades 1-6 and it has 3 classrooms. We met two of the teachers today, the third teacher we found out broke her leg and will not be at the schools for some time, but we don't know how long.
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The kids are so shy! But when you say 'hola' to them, most of them smile. Some of the older boys played football (soccer) with us during recess. Kelsy is like the 'mother'. She helped this boy who was being bullied. Richard's Spanish is the best, since he took 1st year Spanish this year. But we're all learning. We helped/watched Elsa (from Arte Accion) teach about Maya Chorti culture, to practice for tomorrow.
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After lunch I took a nap. Had a hard time getting out of bed. Think the heat is making me sleepy. When to Spanish lessons at 3:30PM so I was a bit early. I got my homework book today and reviewed some grammar, but I mostly end up just talking (or trying to at least) with my teacher. When asked, I tried explaining that my parents were teachers (I didn't know how to say vice-principal), but now they are retired and that my brother wants to teach English in Korea
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After class we went to Elisa and Richard's house. They have an 'outdoor living room' and their uncle speaks very good English. He studied at University in the U.S. and in Germany, as well. He let us try some bananas that taste like apples!
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At dinner, Anisa and I spoke a lot of broken Spenglish to our host mother and showed her pictures of our friends and family. Anisa had a picture of us from the grad banquet and she didn't even recognize me in the photo! She also thought that Jason was very handsome! After dinner we met most of the students at Arte Accion. El Sinai is inviting the mothers to school on Friday so we started preparing a lesson plan for that. We made templates for hearts, flowers and butterflies (to decorate the school). And we will ask the kids to write their name and "I love my mother because..." in the different shapes.
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Afterwards we went to this bar called 'ViaVia' for salsa lessons. Danelle and I burned the dance floor. I led her and we made up a 'combo routine'. Elisa recorded it and we think this random guy at the bar did to... some white guy was there trying to dance with all the girls. He asked me first and I didn't. Actually no body from our group danced with him... Maybe next week I will. We had a few drinks, I had a mojito (which was amazing) and we left for our big day tomorrow.
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There is a film festival tomorrow night at our school, El Sinai and no body got a clear instruction of what we are to do in preparation for that... I switched my Spanish class with Anisa for tomorrow, but forgot to tell my teacher, so I'll have to do it later.

7:00AM start tomorrow! I wonder what time the rooster will wake us up though...