Well it has been so busy the last few weeks. I think I have only had 1 day off since the middle of February! Time here is truly flying by and I feel that I am really becoming a part of this place!
It is so nice to walk up the hill to the girls school and have them yell out “Joana, Joana!” and come running up to me asking if they are having computer class today or what will I be teaching in PE. By the way the PE class is going great! On Fridays I have three classes. In the morning I have the first and second graders and then 3rd and 4th, and last are 5th and 6th. With each class it gets easier and easier to teach because I learn what went wrong with the 1st and 2nd graders and by the time the 5th and 6th graders arrive it is top notch!!!
Last week I had them in four different stations one doing jumping jacks another doing push ups another doing lunges and the last one on jump ropes. A sight to be seen!! Haha! I had about 45 kids in the last class and they were so excited for about the first ten minutes but then they started to sweat and were slowing down and I would jump in with each group and do their different exercises and when the two minute interval would come to the last 10 seconds they would do a count down in Spanish diez, nueve…dos, uno!!! And they would all start hooping and hollering!!!!!! And then I would have them go to the next one! They were so energized it was great! Their school teacher peeked her head in to see what in the world was going and then she joined in later for our Frisbee game. It was so funny she was running across the salon in her heels trying to beat another kid to get the Frisbee almost taking him out!
The teachers came up with some themes for the PE class and they asked that I work with the kids on direction and learning the left from the right foot and stuff like that. So last Friday I had two volunteers come with me and we had the children doing a gringa-fied version of the Hokey Pokey. I wish I had a picture of this. One great big circle of kids with three tall white people pointing their fingers in the air turning in the circle singing the Hokey Pokey in broken Spanish…pretty entertaining!
Other than that not too much is going on…really staying busy with school stuff and helping with volunteer projects…a lot of painting.
I had a nice evening a few days ago. Betty, one of the long term volunteers that lives in lives in a house that she built about 2 years ago and it sits right next door to the main volunteer house. She had us over for appetizers…which was so nice because I have not been in a home in about 2 months…and you don’t realize how much you would miss sitting on a couch or just seeing walls with paint on them instead of grey cinderblock. So it was so nice and refreshing and we made some guacamole (delicioso) and had some bruschetta type food and I just felt normal for a little while. We sat outside on her porch where she has all of these different plants and flowers growing up around her house and they were all individually beautiful and each one had a different color: vibrant fuchsia, soft mango, deep red…absolutely gorgeous! And we sat on chairs and chatted about different things and Betty who has lived all over the world told us a little bit about when she lived in Egypt and how spectacular the pyramids were and it didn’t matter how many times she had seen them every time was just as amazing and breath taking.
After weeks and weeks of constant moving around with the short term volunteers that were coming and going… it was nice to just sit back and watch the sunset. I have to say this is such a special time for me in my life…especially because I have great people to share it with and am in such a beautiful place. The sunset that night was majestic. The sky was a beautiful clear blue and there were full white puffy clouds scattered through the sky and the front of the mountains were a cool gray color and as the sun dipped behind the them and you could actually see the individual sun rays shooting through the sky and breaking around the clouds. I felt like I was right there with the sun. And the color of the sunset was gorgeous it was pink and yellow and bright and as it fell more and more behind the mountains it became more of that soft mango color. Mmmmm just beautiful!
That is all I have for now, busy, busy,busy…but thoroughly enjoying every minute! I am off to Costa Rica for two weeks on Wednesday can’t wait to see some of my family!
Hope all is well!
Pura Vida!
Joana
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