Jan 24--
I have a feeling my journaling’s going to taper off dramatically once I start working at my other schools but I’ll keep it up for now. Today was a good day-- tiring, but good. Practiced fluency/literacy tests w/ the kids, met the student who was absent yesterday-- Misael, who is quite possibly the cutest child I have ever seen. That makes 10 students total in the class, 7 boys and 3 girls, ranging from 6yo to 14yo. Yesterday I got to brush up on my math while I helped the older boys w/ their homework. The years each student has been in school doesn’t really correspond to her/his age, so it’s definitely an interesting environment. Nancy manages it all really well and it’s awesome to get to see a really good Deaf teacher with Deaf students-- today I got to see a great rendition of the Little Red Hen and Dr. Seuss’ Bartholomew and the Oobleck. It’s great to see the kids interacting with the story, copying signs, asking questions, etc-- something they wouldn’t get to do much with a hearing teacher. Anyway-- after school I got lost in town for a bit before heading home. When someone I had passed already asked if I was lost though, I said No, just out for a walk. I found my way eventually and got some exercise out of it too. It was fun to check out what’s in town anyway. I found a beautiful river/lake where I’ll probably take my lunch sometimes, and lots of little shops. I’m realizing I had painted a picture in my head that was a lot more rustic; from what Nancy had told me, I thought I’d be roughing it a lot more. Not so! We have lukewarm water, not cold, and it’s so hot here, who’d want hot water? There are little convenience stores everywhere where you can get just about anything you need (including a Montana Glacier Park t-shirt, ha), people are friendly, I’m not lonely because I get to hang out with Nancy or the kids, the town is small enough to be walkable but big enough to have interesting places to see, my house and room are really nice, and we might soon have internet at home. Plus it’s warm, sunny, cuadralingual+ (English, Spanish, Kriole, ASL), and I get to feel a little self-righteous whenever I see the tourists come through w/ their safari hats and backpacks, because, after all I live here;). (I realize I much prefer living in a place than touring it, whenever possible).
As I was saying..I eventually found the house on my own and immediately crashed for a much-needed nap. All you teacher people, my long-standing admiration of your energy is confirmed. I’m wiped out after a day w/ the kids, fun as they are.
In the evening, Sulmi and Kristel and I played on my computer. They got a huge kick out of the PhotoBooth program on my Mac. It takes all kinds of distorted, fun-house-type pictures that had us all cracking up. Then we were off to Elodia’s house. She’s the district liaison for special education, and I’ll be working with her about 3 days a week. Tomorrow I’m spending the day with her doing assessments of 14 kids in Trial Farm, a small community right next to Orange Walk. Next week we’ll figure out exactly how/when I’ll be working with the kids she serves in the different districts. It could be pretty overwhelming, but I hope I can make a small contribution to the kids’ education in the short time I’m here. I did get a little boost to my signing self-esteem today from Nancy-- she said I understand her students’ signing better than she thought I might-- Yay!:)
To summarize, it’s certainly been interesting so far, but I’m really enjoying it. I miss everyone bastante, but I’m so busy all day with school and then work for my GC Internship class that I don’t have too much time to think about it. Hopefully I’ll get a real handle on the rhythm of things here next week.
Have a great weekend!
Much love.
-- Oh, I almost forgot; we have 2 cats in the house! One is as big a pain as our Plilf in Goshen, but the other one is super sweet. (I have to say it’s pretty nice to be in a new culture but still have some US-cultural comforts since I’m living w/ Nancy-- she’s a great host/bridge person, and keeps pets & peanut butter in the house even tho that’s strange here. Lucky me:) )
New vocab:
50.MISAEL: p-d M brushes back at eyebrow
51.HEN: 3, p-L on chin. Little Red Hen story.
52.YESTERDAY (Belize): marked w/ Y. Yesterday we read 3 little pigs.
53.DONUT: m= CLASS, marked w/ D. Mystery of the missing donut story.
54.DINOSAUR (2): p-o, ftips up D moves fwd/ 2h p-in, knuckles down S, plod fwd. Reading book to Misael, The Big Dinosaur
55.SPICEY: p-d Bent B, ftips L, waves front of mouth. These tamales aren’t spicey.
56.EAT (Belize): =SPICEY, but ftips face mouth. Eat first, then shower (to Sulmi).
57.IGUANA: p-in S at throat, opens to open C. We always stop here by the road and count the iguanas.
58.TATTLE: COMMENT, point to person, nms=th. I don’t to hear you tattle on everyone else, just sit quietly and pay attention.
59.LIQUID: POUR, marked w/ L. Give examples of solid, liquid, and gas
60.SOLID: HARD. “
61.GAS: #GAS “
62.SMOKE/STEAM: Cl-4, ftips-d, swirl up from Lh. Must describe kind first, eg WATER HOT/FIRE
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