Monday I was supposed to walk Humber College and a family of 6 in to John F. Kennedy school to teach. However, it had rained a lot that morning and was very muddy. We made the 30 minute walk into town dodging mud, getting dirty, and when we arrived, there was only 1 student at the entire school! So, needless to say we returned home, back thru the muddy streets and did an activity with the orphanage kids who also didn't go to school.
Here you can see my braids kind of. I had three on one side, two on the other and then rest of my hair pulled back into a ponytail.
We came back and had multiple activities. Play-dough, puzzles, paper airplanes, cards, bracelet making, etc. The kids enjoy doing all types of activities, typically staying at one station for 15 minutes and then getting bored and moving on. Arianni and her sister were at a table with construction paper and scissors. Some of the volunteers were cutting out shapes and they would glue them on to their paper. Arianni called me over, and gave me her artwork but instructed me to give it to Heather. What love! So, I asked her to make me one and she did. She cut out the shapes herself this time! :)
In the afternoon, it cleared up enough for the groups to go to school. I stayed back because I have the afternoons off to work, and I actually took about a 3 hour nap, dozing in and out for 30 minutes or so. It was great. I woke up at 5pm! We had some free time with the kids before dinner, and then movie night. I sat with Nena and we watched Shorts. Luz Maria lost her sandal when Bryson lifted her up and over to sit next to me and so every 10 minutes or so she'd get up and bend down to the ground whining about her lost sandal. I couldn't convince her that we would find it at the end of the movie. Surprisingly, it had fallen behind Jaury who was sitting next to me and apparently he didn't feel it on his bottom/back area. But we found it which is all that matters!
Tuesday morning the weather was clearer so we went to teach at JFK. The first session was preschool, 1-2 graders and it went well. The little Haitian bag girl was in preschool and I talked with her a little. I don't actually teach, I just walk around and make sure everything is going well and if needed help get the students back on task. They did a good job handling the classes and teaching English. We had some time for recess where a little 1st grader came up to me and stuck by my side the whole time! She had about 4 black/half rotten teeth in the front! :(
After recess, they went back to teach 3rd and 4th graders which was a little more challenging but they did a good job. We headed home in the heat and then had lunch. I again had the afternoon free so I spent several hours finishing my last public health teaching unit! I finished it and emailed them all to Tom about 15 minutes before dinner! WOOHOO! No more typing of those things!
Tuesday night is history talk for the volunteers and they watch In the Time of the Butterflies. I hung out with the kids for a while, but since the rain the mosquitos have been horrible. I was with Jessica and Jenny for a while before I had to go put on my bug spray and when I returned they were at the mesita playing cards with Karie. I played with them for about 20-30 minutes but it was so dark we could barely see the cards, and it was hard to see the rocks on the table that were being used as our "spoons". You couldn't tell if someone had taken a "spoon" (rock) because it was so dark!
Later I played some Phase 10 with Christine, Heather and Coco.
It rained all night and so our sunrise hike got cancelled, along with school. So we allowed Humber College and the family to plan for an activity with the kids. They came up with some good ideas. Eliza made a tunnel out of old boxes for the kids to crawl thru, there were paper airplanes again, musical chairs, play-dough, cards, bracelet makings, puzzles, etc. I played some L,R,C with Carolina, Nicol, Jessica and Zuni, the orphanage administrator. The kids had a good time going thru the box tunnel. Jaury would pop his head up and scare the twins and they would crack up and then do it again! There was also an empty box that I used to pull around some of the little girls, like a wagon without wheels!
After the activity ended, was one of my favorite moments of the day. I went over to the basketball court and played about 45 minutes of Knock-Out with Jessica, Zuni, Peter (the dad of the family), and several other kids. We played so many rounds and I was dirty and sweating by the end. The ball would get dirty from the court so I'd just wipe it on my jeans and was so gross by the end but I loved it!
After lunch, I showered and got ready to go out with Dr. Garcia. I arrived at his house, we drove to the Banelino office, and then he said they had called and said it was too muddy to go out to the batey. So, Coco who was in town met us at Garcia's house and we talked about the upcoming weeks and then headed to town to pay some bills and run errands.
This evening we are going to do a sunset hike since the sunrise hike got cancelled, then we'll have culto with the kids, and then we are meeting with Coco to figure out where everyone is going to be for the next 5-6 weeks. The leaders are going to be here, there and everywhere! Should be interesting!
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