school.

The first week of school has just ended, and it has been interesting. (Well… I started writing this like three weeks ago. So school started the first week in February.)

This year is different because now the kids go to school from 8 until 3, whereas last year they went from 7-12. So not only are they not on the property for a while, they are gone almost all day.

The good thing is that someone has to walk them to and from school, as well as go and bring them back for lunch and then take them back to school after that. I get to walk the kids to school with Maria (another volunteer) and we get to spend a good amount of time with the kids that way, as well as working on our tan!

Each kid has a hat, to shade them from the sun, cause it’s a good walk to get to school, but they always try to give their hats to us, as well as their backpacks. So some days I end up with 5 backpacks to carry, and a hat that doesn’t fit my head.

Since the kids have school all day, we haven’t been able to start the classes on the property that we offered last year as an additional program in the afternoon. For right now, I go up with two volunteers (Monica and Maria) to teach English two days a week, and it’s super fun getting to plan activities and games to teach them English. And I also get to hang out with some of the other kids that don’t live one the property by going to the school.

Something else that is different about this year, is that two of the oldest girls are being homeschooled on the property. Because of their age and current grade they will not be allowed, if they are accepted, to enter Instituto El Rey, the private Christian high school, that our kids will attend after elementary school. Hopefully by the end of this school year these girls will be caught up enough to enter IER!

It’s been a lot of fun being able to teach the kids, and attempt to speak Spanish and explain things well, as well as teaching them new information. I started out planning the activities with Maria, and after Monica taught the information we would explain and run the activity. This past week I taught the whole class by myself, with a little help from Maria!