We planted seeds in Science today, and the kids were too cute about it. They were each putting five or so seeds into their cups, but one of my girls dumped about 30 into hers. Apparently she plans on growing a heck of a lot of lavender. Her bff quickly called her out on it, and the whole exchange made me smile. Some of them planted zinnias, so I'm anxious to see how they grow :) One of my girls was insistent planting sunflower seeds, in their hull, and threw them into a few of the other kids' cups while she was at it. Maryann and I shared a good laugh because one of her 5th graders did the same thing. The cups we're using as planters are just so tiny, so it makes me laugh to think of these giant sunflower plants trying to grow in there. We also published our class story in both English classes today, which finally wraps up the "Getting Started" section at the beginning of their books. Very much looking forward to starting Unit 1 next week! It is full of fun activities :)
Marvin Isaac plays futbol Thurs-Sat in a nearby town, and his parents have invited me a few times. Remember Marvin and Doris from the market? He's their son, and one of my students. He's also my only student to take me up on leading the morning prayer--go Isaac! I've been meaning to go for a few weeks, but I find myself so pooped after the day at school I hardly want to walk around the market, let alone take a cab and chat with strangers. Don't I sound like a little shut-in! But I was determined to go today, and I'm glad I did! Irene and I walked to the main road to find a cab, and just as we were coming out of the neighborhood Alexander, one of the friendly cab drivers, was driving by! He already had two guys in his car headed to Cañavreal, so we climbed in and were on our way. I wasn't too surprised when he picked up another kid headed that way, and he climbed into the front seat to sit very close (on top of) the kid already seated there. But you could color me surprised when he stopped to pick up a young lady, also headed to Cañavreal, and we (strangers other than Irene) squeezed four-deep in the backseat of his compact-sedan. Luckily for me little things like that just add to my experience here. The soccer game was fun! Maryann joined us toward the end--she went home with Kerem because Javier and Ana, one of their girls, had a surprise for her, which again, we'll get to later. Irene and I were surprised how many of our students were on the team! Marvin and Doris unfortunately weren't there, but Eric Raul is on the team, and his dad chatted it up with us for a while. He was in Pakistan for work for a few years, and learned English while he was there so I think he had a good time practicing some with that. We took a mototaxi home from the game, and those things just kill me. This one didn't have any doors, and the drivers almost always wear sporty little driving gloves. Think tricycle meets lawnmower.
Eric's parents graciously invited me to their church one day last week, and I'll write about the actual church in more detail in another entry, but I went last Saturday and really liked it. Raul and Rosemary (Mr. and Mrs. Eric) told me about this women's Bible study they have on Thursday nights, that Raul said has become more of a coed Bible study, but that I was welcome to come check it out. So the girls and I walked for dinner in town, and then Irene and I headed to the iglesia to check out the women's meeting. It definitely wasn't a women's meeting, more of a women, children and a few scattered spouses meeting, but that didn't bother me a bit. Tonight's theme (would it be considered a theme?) was the importance of a health, and how nutrition is the key to living a long healthy life. How interesting for that to be the topic of my first Bible study! At first I wondered if I'd just interpreted her incorrectly, but turns out my Spanish was spot-on. A gentleman spoke for a bit about how we really are what we eat, and he read a few lines from Genesis that talk about what humans should ingest. He played a series of videos, and they got intense pretty quickly. Don't get me wrong, I was so stoked to nutrition talk, especially in Spanish--what a great opportunity to learn some new, important vocab--but I was so caught off guard by some of the images! I'm talking colon tours, first an unhealthy 'oscopy, then the post-detox healthy colon. Lots of colon talk tonight! Hahah there was also an image of a cartoon man nursing from the teet of a cartoon cow, and that one killed me. I laughed inappropriately loud when that one came up. It was a longer meeting than I had anticipated, but I'm very glad I went and am looking forward to next Thursday evening.
As for Kilala, Kerem and Javier surprised Maryann with a stray kitten! Maryann is always in search of a puppy who needs a good home, and not long ago she wanted to take in a kitten from their neighborhood, but Ana said she thought it had an owner. Ever since then Ana has apparently been asking around school and determined said kitten did not have an owner. Well now she does! I'll post pictures of her soon--she's white with some dark brown spots and these big sort of hazelish green/brown eyes. I should check her eyes again tomorrow to be sure. She has these lines that look like eyeliner, and it matches these whisps of cat-eyes Maryann will put on sometimes. Like mother like daughter I guess :) We've decided she has an Egyptian look about her, so we started looking up Egyptian names tonight. None of us are thinking Kilala will stick, and we're honestly not sure how long she'll stick around the house for that matter. In the meantime, we'll keep her fed, watered and sheltered until she's ready for her next big adventure.
It's been a long day and I've got teaching to do in the morning. I know I might have made light of it tonight, but I do think the key to maintaining good health is dietary discipline, and I find it an unreasonably crazy coincidence (but of course those don't exist) that an all-nutral diet was tonight's topic. I guess I'm meant to spend my Thursdays at that church. Of course the topics will vary, and they won't always be centered around one of my passions, but hey--they might just lead to a new passion! Dios les bendiga...
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