The preschool class is already growing! On Wednesday there were four kids, yesterday seven and today twelve. I am thinking back to how it grew to 27 and hoping it will be more manageable this time. Belinda said that the younger kids can go into the nursery like they used to after Lourdes realized how unproductive it was, so that will help out a TON. Now I need to assess where the kids are and what they need to learn.
Usually I ask the kids if they can write their names. If they say no, I write it on the top of their paper for them. Today when Jose said no I took his hand in mine and helped him write his name. He had done two pages of work so when I started to help him with the second page he shook my hand off and said he wanted to try by himself. He did it! He looked at the letters on the first page and copied them really well onto the second. The S and the E were a little bit higher up on the paper than the first two letters of his name, but he wrote them all! He is a really smart boy. I also learned that Misael has retained all of the colors he learned a few months ago. That was great to see. He is maturing a lot lately. He still has crying fits, but they don't last as long.
There was a new boy, Bryon, who is only 3 years old but was able to concentrate and did really well too. I told his older brother, Kevin, how well Bryon did today in hopes that Kevin will bring Bryon back on a consistent basis. Only Scarlet screamed and cried. But she stopped eventually so I am very hopeful that we will have a productive learning environment.
A couple of days ago Kevin asked me to teach him English. He has a workbook that we worked in yesterday. When the other boys saw they all gathered around. Now we have a conversational English class while we eat lunch. So far it has been mostly identifying objects asking the difference between a cup, a mug and a glass, but that is a good start. The boys keep surprising me when they use English to speak to me at other times throughout the day. I find myself answering in Spanish by accident, which I know is not what they are looking for, but my brain is in Spanish mode. I need to be more sensitive to that. It is funny most of them will tell you that they know no English, but when you talk with them, they actually have a good foundation. It surprises me since I know the educational system they come from is horrible.
Today Jairo and Belinda gave Marlin and Jacky buckets full of supplies that we received from the government a while ago. The bucket had towels and washcloths, laundry soap and body soap, feminine hygiene products, nail clippers, but the thing that made Marlin most excited was 4 Ziploc bags, each with a toothbrush. I am pretty sure she was not excited about the toothbrush because I just gave her 2 really nice ones about a month ago. It had to be the Ziplocs. She kept showing the baggies to everyone. I brought two sandwiches to the Breakfast Program today, each in a Ziploc and gave one to her. People here don't use Saran Wrap, tin foil, baggies, napkins or paper towels like we do in the US. Some household have napkins on a regular basis. But generally those things are seen as non-necessities. If someone has a fridge they stick leftovers in without covering them. Or sometimes they might cover something with a towel. We also do not use sponges here, except to clean cars. In the kitchen we use a flat, square, plastic scrubber which is not absorbent at all. It drives me nuts to wash the counters at the Breakfast Program with no sponge. We don't have sponge mops either. I have searched everywhere and asked other North Americans. Everyone uses the rope mops. I am not good at mopping with the rope mop. That is one thing I may never, ever get accustomed to.
I am home for a couple of hours to turn on the dehumidifier. Then I am headed back down to the city. A bunch of us are gathering at Belinda's house to watch Honduras play El Salvador in fútbol. I am going to bring ice cream sundae makings. Perfect for a hot day. I was hoping to get to spend some time with the girl from North America who is here visiting, but apparently she left yesterday for Copán and won't be back until next week. I talked to her for the first time yesterday. She said she is leaving in a week. I remember how I felt when I came to visit for 3 months. That last week was hard. In fact everything after the half-way point was hard. I was so sad about having to go, and at the same time I knew I needed to enjoy every second that I had left in Honduras so I shouldn't waste time being sad. It was a difficult combination of emotions.
Jetty and I both got a better night's sleep last night. She was a little wheezy at 3:30 a.m., but the Prednizone seems to help. I hope it will continue to help her so she doesn't have to be wheezy at all. In the meantime I am running the leaky de-humidifier whenever I am home and awake. It is surrounded by towels which I have been wringing out until my hands are raw. I hope Carlos, my landlord, might have time to figure out where the leak is coming from this weekend so I can stop with the makeshift towel situation. Both this morning and this afternoon the house was at 90% humidity before I turned on the de-humidifier and it hasn't even rained outside in almost 48 hours.
I am excited to see how the preschool unfolds. How many kids will there be? What will they be like to work with? This is the beginning of another fun new adventure!
