Mid-way through the morning, I went back to my room for an hour to prep for tomorrow's math class. Their homework for tomorrow is to find the vertices of 4 parabolas that I gave them. There were already 2 students over the weekend who asked me for help in calculating the vertices, which is nice that they were able to get a hold of me. Here, they just grab me and we chat wherever we are. In the States, students typically look for me on their study hall, go to a different teacher for help, or email me with their questions (which probably is the most common). Students emailing a teacher here???...doesn't happen, as technology isn't as easily accessible to students down here. Actually I like the face-to-face contact we have down here! Everything is so much more personal. Even Alina (who is an "American teen") says that this is like a home away from home for her because she feels much closer to the teen girls down here than to those in the States.
The Miller family arrived last night while we were at Luis David's birthday party, so Laurie and Rebekah were at the toddler house when I got back from prepping for math. Our trips tend to overlap some each year. Many of the children think we are/were friends in the States, so I explain (quite often) that we had never met until their 1st time here 6 years ago!
We headed with the toddlers to lunch and then back to put them down for a nap and came back to our room. Lately Alina has been using this time to nap too. For the past 3-4 days, she has had quite the cough and sore throat. Please pray for her health, especially since when she gets back to the States, she will be trying out for Varsity volleyball (in a very competitive program) with only 1 day to recover from travels. So we are really hoping that this sickness goes away by then.
Noah was also with us in the room during this break. He was with the horses all day. When 2pm rolled around, we headed back to the toddler house (and Noah the horse barn) to get them up and ready for supper. It rained today! It's been pretty dry the past few days, so the rain was nice. We did have to wait for the rain to stop to walk the toddlers to the comedor.
After supper, we walked the toddlers back and the normal routine is for them to get their clothes off, into the shower, and then jammies on. After that, sometimes they play a little bit, sometimes they stay in their room, sometimes they go on a walk.
The team that is currently here is from South Carolina, and we were told that they were providing supper for the staff and volunteers, so we didn't eat in the comedor and had to head to the team house for dinner at 6pm. They served tortillas with beans and eggs (and cheese & cream if you wanted), sliced hot dogs, fruit, plantains (Alina LOVES these), and a dessert. It was a lot more than we usually eat. It was Kaylyn's first time trying plantains, and she's not really a fan, so gave her extra ones to Alina. Believe it or not, Noah was not able to finish his plate...but I think that may have something to do with him using all $120 Lempiras that went into his account at the tienda (store) on Monday by mid-way through the day today (Tuesday). I guess he was buying food non-stop!
When Noah went to return his tray, he didn't come back...and we were ready to leave. So the girls and I just took off towards our room, knowing he'd follow at some point. Perhaps he was talking to Nathaniel (Miller) since they hadn't seen each other since last year? Back at our room, we got ready for bed, and Mary Beth drove over to drop off some Halls cough drops for Alina and me. We are so grateful to have such caring people here! We truly feel like everyone here is family.
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