One fun activity we did this week was make balloon pinatas. We made about 9 of them and I'm saving them for when kids have birthdays. The first birthday we have is Juan Carlos the 30th. I think he'll enjoy it!
Here's Lupe with a pinata she was working on.
I also had a really fun friendship project with two of my kids, Leo and Delmi. We took a walk into Parramos and ate some ice cream.
Here's me and Leo. He's holding a purple flower and fell from this really pretty tree in the park in Parramos.
My class has definitely had some rough days these past couple weeks. We have one little 8 year old boy who can be really sweet, but is having a hard time. He recently came in December and has had a rough past. He will get really attached to a select few people and get very upset if he's not with them. He runs out of our classroom a lot and gets aggresive. I've spent a good amount of time following him and trying to coax him back in. The hardest thing has been everyone being consistent with him in terms of rules, discipline and rewards. But it has been really neat to see how everyone, all the kids from 8 years old to late teens, want to welcome him and love him.
Its still really neat to be among so many different cultures. The other day during lunch I was chatting with a couple German volunteers about sayings we have in our countries. Of course our expressions are in our respective languages (English and German) but we were explaining everything is Spanish, which altogether is pretty fun. My favorite German expression I think is when food is too salty they say the cook is in love. If you're cooking and in love, you're not going to pay attention to how much salt you're shaking into your food. I like that, I might bring it back to the states :)
Yesterday a couple of us got together with two social work grad students from Dominican University in Chicago for lunch. They've been doing a project here at NPH for the past three months and are getting ready to head home. Also it was Mary Anne's (all the way to the left) birthday. Shawn brought us to a really nice restaurant that looked over Antigua and was really pretty. Here's a pic of us and some really yummy chocolate mousse I ordered.
Along with the comfort stage starting, I've decided to stop using the excuse of "but we're in Guatemala!" For example "I know I've already had dessert, but we're in Guatemala!" or "I know we already went out to dinner last night, but we're in Guatemala!" or "I know I could use this time to go for a run and exercise, but we're in Guatemala!" After indulging in a bit of an unhealthy lifestyle the past three months, its finally starting to kick in that I don't want to indulge forever. I'm excited to start making some healthier decisions, like running 5-ish times a week, cutting back on the chocolate and bread, and opting to cook more. I started running almost everyday after work this week and I've felt so much better for it. I'm excited and hope to continue with these good and healthy decisions :)
And I am still working on Harry Potter in Spanish- I'm in the last 50 pages of the 4th book which is getting more and more intense. I think I've enjoyed the 3rd one the most so far. Its a danger to read with Charlotte or Shawn close by, because I'm always tempted to ask if so and so died, or how harry's name got into the caliz de fuego, or why Snape has never been the defense of the dark arts professor, and it could go on. Sometimes they let things slip that I shouldn't know yet, and then I just get mad :P
And thank you so much Mary and Jessica for the letters and chocolate chips!!! They really made my day!!!!!
I hope you all are well and enjoying spring!!
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario