First of all, Nata, Becky, and their family took a trip to Mexico to help out with the annual Deaf camp. Last year was the first year they went and they were asked to contribute again this year. It involves about 10 days of traveling and 8 days of camp. They usually take a few days to enjoy the mini vacation with their family. They plan to return sometime in the second week of August. While they are gone they asked Enrique & Laura Vasquez from Costa Rica to come be "jefe." Enrique is a brother to Paty, who is a teacher here, and Laura is a sister to Lidia, the cook. So they are both enjoying having family around, not to mention a darling nephew, Eric, whom we have all adopted for the time that they are here. Elmer especially dotes on him, to the point that Veronica chewed him out the other day because the cows were out of water. She blamed it on the fact that Elmer was just playing with Eric instead of doing his work!
Us girls took our annual Gals Trip last weekend. We stayed a little closer to home this time. We headed to Lake Suchitlan, about 45 min. from Aguilares. It was a great time of relaxing and enjoying some sunshine & shopping & girl time & eating, of course. Our hotel had an amazing flat roof and we spent most of Friday evening enjoying the cool lake breezes and aerial view of the central park. Sadly, there was no circus going on so we couldn't have a Ferris Wheel ride!
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| View of the cathedral from our hotel roof |
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| Zulma & Mary Zulma is a deaf girl who graduated from school and lives with her grandparents. Right now her grandparents are visiting the states, since Zulma had no one to stay with she has been staying here at CICS. |
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| Paty & Verónica Paty is a teacher and Verónica is the dorm mom. |
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| We find great ways to entertain ourselves! |
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| I think my favorite thing about Suchitoto is the awesome colors on all the houses. |
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| Getting ready to head out onto the lake. |
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| Me & Lidia Lidia is the cook, and I am, well, me! |
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| The CICS gals (l-r)Zulma, Lidia, Mary, Verónica, me, Paty |
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| Waiting patiently for our personal chauffeur to arrive! |
In other news, school days continue to fly by. July in our school year is about the equivalent of February in a U.S. school year. If that comparison didn't make sense to you, you're probably not a teacher. It's that time of year, when the excitement of a new school year has worn off, and new books are no longer new, and it's not just easy review stuff anymore, but actually hard math problems. But neither is it close enough to the end of the school year to start getting excited about all the end of year activities. In other words, a teacher's favorite time of year!
Thankfully, we have a week of vacation to look forward to immediately after July, so that helps.
My kids have really amazed me in the last weeks though. They have really seemed to dig in and put new efforts, including reaching new goals in their timed math drills, and some majorly improved scores on spelling tests. So, maybe they were bribed . . . just a little bit. Hey, it's a teacher's secret weapon, don't judge!
But I think my favorite new event has been the questions they are starting to come up with. I love to see them using their own heads and thinking things through and not being afraid to ask about stuff that don't make sense rather than just nod and say, "I get it."
Last Monday morning we spent the whole first period talking about different things their parents did or told them regarding Catholic traditions and worship. It totally took me by surprise, but it was a great chance to show them the errors in that way of thinking.
A few of my other favorites have been,
"How do whales have babies in the water?"
"Do even whales feed their babies milk? How?"
(We were having a science discussion about the different groups of animals)
"Do animals go to heaven?"
"But the elephant from the zoo that died went to heaven, right?"
"How does the water in all the oceans stay on the world if it's round?"
It does my heart good to actually be able to have them join in the discussion and get involved and get excited about learning.
Here are a few pictures from the normal everday.
This coming week, will be focused on last-minute studying for the Spelling competition on Friday. And then we will send all the kids home and enjoy a week of vacation! I for one am very much looking forward to that!
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| Miguel wins in the "Cool Sock Contest" purple with pink ribbons! |
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| me with my gals, (before Silvia left) |
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| Anthony concentrating on Pick-Up sticks while Jairo & Joel watch to make sure he doesn't jiggle any of the others. It's the new favorite game and they are quite sharp in catching when someone else wiggles one of the other sticks! |
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| Eduardo, Miguel & Mauricio work on a puzzle. |
Well, I think I achieved my purpose here. Made it through my afternoon without being tempted to sleep! And got one thing knocked off my to-do list. :)
Now to find time to update my books page . . . .
Until next time,
Mel
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