The sun burns

Kitty!!

Random horse sample

Charlie and Amalia's house (where I'm sitting using internet now)

My backyard!

Fabiana on the beach
The kids put messages in bottles and threw them into the ocean. Eventually a fisherman helped us out by dropping them off a little deeper.

Laundry day

On the way to el campo to play!


Little guy watching us go by

On the way to play

Amigos
Laundry at sunset

Happy happy!


I have been so careful since I've been here, but as usual, I only lasted a week and a half before I got sunburned. We took the kids to the beach after class today and that's where it happened. It was an unexpected trip and I just wasn't prepared. I'm very unhappy with myself because being burnt in a location where it is deathly hot and there is no air conditioning and only cold showers is just plain uncomfortable. It's not too bad though, mostly my legs and forehead, so I'll deal with it.

Today is the first day is hasn't rained in about a week. Yesterday when we headed to the river to swim it started raining so we swam in the rain which was kinda cool. Seeing the raindrops on the water right at the water level was pretty, wish I could have taken a picture!

Last night I helped tutor a few people who are trying to complete their elementary/high school education. It's a government sponsored project and these people study from 6-8 every evening. When I first got there I found out I would be helping a 13 year old and a 60-ish year old with third grade multiplication (4x5, 7x1, etc) This sounds pretty simple, but keep in mind, I speak very little Spanish and they speak NO English. Another spin to the situation was that the point was not to teach them English, which is usually my situation. So I couldn't point to a number and say it in English, I had to do it all in Spanish. It was rocky at first, but ended up working out fine. It was actually quite touching to see this older woman working so hard on 3rd grade math. She struggled with writing the numbers and took a while to understand. When she finally got a problem correct without my help we were both pretty excited. The 13 year old understood the math a little more so (Dad,) I taught her the 9x's trick with her hands. Love that one and every human should have the right to learn 9x's that way. :)

Today I went to my morning class and then laid out on the beach with some of the girls. It was sunny all day today and after my morning incident I put on plenty of sunscreen. The water is really nice because it's calm so you can swim out pretty far. It's also a perfect temperature. Pretty delicious.

I went with my friend Shannon to help with the afternoon program she does twice a week with the littler kids. They are SO CUTE. Made me miss the little ones. These kids definitely live in worse conditions than the kids in my class. We picked each of them up at their home and one lived with his extended family which must have consisted of at least 15 children. They were all running around barefoot in their little underwear eating mangoes from their tree, very cute. Unfortunately, I'm sometimes hesitant to take photos near the children's homes because I don't want to offend their parents or make them think I'm mocking them somehow (not sure if that's the best way to explain my feeling). I do think however, that if I continue to go with Shannon to play with these kids I'll get some good photos while were playing.

The people in El Porvenir are very nice. When I'm walking around, most people, esp kids, usually greet me by saying "adios" or "bye." This is a little confusing to me because we never said "hi" so I'm not sure why were saying "bye" but I guess it's just another cultural difference! I'm still not accustomed to all the roaming animals. We often have a horse chillin outside our porch and you can't walk a block without seeing about 5 dogs and 2 cows. Not in a yard, just wandering in the grass or streets.

Okay, time to make some dinner and relax a little. Time goes so fast when I'm on the computer! Goodnight!

xx