Cleaning the Tilapia Tank

Like the other mornings, we headed to the medium boys house this morning for circle (where Noah found ANOTHER grasshopper) and then walked with them to the comedor (dining hall).  When the boys were done eating, I headed back to my room to make sure I was prepared for the calculus that I was about to teach in Profe Ramon's class.  Rachel (the math major university student visitor who is staying in the room next to us) met me just before I had to head to the school.  We waited at the school for Profe Ramon to arrive.

Noah, Gerson and the grasshopper

Unfortunately today's class of normally 12 students only had 3 students.  They boys were all pulled from school to plant trees up in the mountains, and the rest of the girls decided to come to school in something other than the uniform they were supposed to wear, so they were sent home.  This material that I will be teaching this week is difficult and it will be on the exam next week Friday, so I am a little heart-broken that 9 of the 12 students were missing.  The lesson went well because each of the girls smiled and you could see the 'light bulb turn on', so I have a good feeling about Wednesday (the next day I'll be teaching).

Towards the end of teaching, Alina headed out to work in the tilapia tanks, cleaning the tanks.  When I discovered that there was no reading classes today, Noah and I walked down to the farm to check in on her.  We found her IN the tanks WITHOUT waders, cleaning!  I was told there are currently around 6000 tilapia in the tanks.  She seemed to be having a lot of fun with the others cleaning the tanks...but she smelled AWFUL when she got done and walked back with us.

Alina cleaning the tilapia tanks

Alina enjoying cleaning the tilapia tanks

Noah took himself to the tienda (store) THREE times today!  He's been getting more and more hungry by the day - not sure if it's a growth spurt or all of the walking and activity is draining his calories more quickly.  We'll have to be sure to buy more food than usual in town.  I've told the kids that because I've bought a month's worth of crackers/cookies, that if they wanted more in town, they'd have to buy it.  I'm guessing they both will be buying quite a bit this coming Wednesday when we go to the supermarket.

This year I banned the kids from bringing electronics down (Nintendo DS, tablets, etc).  The past few years they seemed to be hindrances to what we were trying to accomplish down here.  They brought books and we bought a few games (Connect 4, Dominoes, a deck of cards, Checkers, TicTacToe, etc) from the Dollar Tree.  It's been amazing how much the kids have been reading (and actually getting INTO it) and then playing with each other.  It's reduced my stress as well that they are more than willing to get out at pretty much any time and go play with the children here...because the electronics are not here distracting them.  They each asked to keep the lights on this evening before bed just a little bit later so they could finish their chapters!  It'd really be nice if this reading before bedtime could carry over into our routine in the U.S.