We are living with Reina who is about 60 years old and runs the house, her brother, Eduardo, 65ish, her daughter Claudia, 25, and Cladia's son, Reina's grandson, Diego, 6. A really nice, Spanish speaking family whom we practice Spanish with all the time, since they don't speak english, except for a bit from Eduardo. Reina is a great cook so far. We have a private room and bath. Next week, one more volunteer may join us across the hall and share the bathroom, but no issues for the moment. Yippee. The house is a 10 minute walk from the central plaza. San Francisco church is next door so no need for 6am alarm as the bells begin to chime then. 4:30am on Fridays, which no one told us about. Surprise!
My school is a 15 minute walk to where I get picked up by the school's blue VW bug for a 15 minute drive uphill!!! My first time actually riding in one of these. Old, but she gets up the hill. Classes start at 8. I am teaching a 4th, 5th and 6th grade class, same kids everyday. About 30 kids per class, 40 minute classes. Next week I will add a 4th class of 3rd graders to help cover during an absence. The school is in the village of Hato and is funded primarily by an N.G.O., Las Manos who have provided a slew of classroom resources for us to use. Check out their site for more information. http://www.lasmanosdc.org/teachers .
The area is poor and sadly, does not have a steady supply of fresh water or at times, any water at the school!!! Not good when ya gotta go and the door is locked for the day!!! What is a teacher to do? First day went well shadowing the current teacher who is Dutch. I get home from school around 1, have lunch with the family and am on my own to prepare, read, do whatever, until 6:30p when we have dinner. No cable, internet or wifi in our house, so we are "roughing" it. Ha! We go to bed early for 7am departure for school.
Part of this and all of next week, I will lead the classes, while the other teacher conducts annual assessments. This week's lessons focused on a review of family members, days of week, months, use of he/she, is/isn't and this/that. Lots of workbooks to use as resources which is nice. Midweek, there was no school for 2 days while the local Rotary Club brought about a dozen dentists from Portland to Hato to clean and treat the children's teeth. Get this, they were EXCITED!!!??? I ended up working at another school in town with 4 other volunteers. A public girls school. 450 Antigua students, all in uniform. Quite different from a class full of rural 30 boys and girls but those of you who teach know that only too well! Overall, using lots of skills, many songs/games etc. from my Camp Counselor days. Just a few pics of kids as well as more favorites from around Central Plaza (park) in Antigua. More next week of classroom kids etc. or when assignment ends. 
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| Friday procession in Plaza |
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| Girls this time carry the cross. |
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| People watching in park...like the hat and shade? |
As for Aaron, he is working at an animal shelter that helps rescue, care for animals, sterilization services for those who can't afford them for their animals in the rural villages and educate students in the schools about animal care. He takes TWO, yep, TWO busses and then walks UPHILL through farmland, 15 to 20 minutes to get to his project. Takes about an hour. Aaron's tasks are helping mix cement, skim walls and basically build the walls for cages in the quarantine section they are making. Check out the site. http://www.animalaware.org/ for more information. For a non-pet lover, he gets to see some 300 dogs and 100 cats everyday. Yesterday, he even got his photo taken with a bunch of them (visiting photo journalist).
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The walk to work
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| Aaron is proud of his walls!!! |
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| New kittens |
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| Dog mountain |
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| Come on, let me outta here! |
More stories to come. Hope everyone is doing well. Great news for Betty! Randi, love the new do!Adios. Susan and Aaron
