Lasts

Pues,
It was a good last week. I was having doubts about whether or not I had been any more effective by staying 16 weeks instead of 10, so I made a list of things that have happened in the last 6 wks, and was pleasantly surprised. I felt affirmed in having stayed, despite some of the challenges that came along w/ it too. Maybe I'll try to post it at some point.

Saturday, Elodia and Rubia took me to Chunox, a pretty pueblo in the North where we had to take a hand-cranked ferry across the river. We met a sweet, sociable Deaf boy. He lives so far north on rutted roads that it would be unlikely he could come to Mary Hill for school, but the mom did take him to visit Nancy's class after we talked with her b/c they were going to be in Orange Walk for a Dr.s appt anyway.

In any case, I got to have good goodbyes w/ my schools this wk. We played the "Elephant Game" at San Narcisco and all the kids brought me snacks to share for a goodbye party. I talked to Mitchel and Laisha's principal about coming to the Wednesday afternoon Deaf class at Mary Hill, then talked their mom into sending both the kids, along with their hearing sister who I've been teaching to sign and their Deaf sister who rarely leaves home now cuz she has a 4mo old baby girl. Mitchel came in the morning w/ the principal for Sp. Olympics practice, then the sisters came in the afternoon for the Deaf class/Signing workshop. He and Christopher played all morning and I had no desire to corral them into participating in the official activities;).

The workshop in the afternoon was really fun. I enjoyed chatting with the Deaf teacher, Mr. McCool (perfect name, eh?) and I borrowed a cool math strategy from Nancy to teach to the teachers who came along w/ their Deaf students. I had a lil burst of pride too when Mitchel, who tends to be shy, jumped up and rattled off the alphabet when Mr. McCool started to teach it to the new students.

Yesterday I said goodbye to the Mary Hill kids, and gave them each a DVD I made of their work (yay for iDvd on my Mac. I recorded all "my" students signing a book, which they loved-- "I'm on TV!") The woman who makes lunch for the teachers made flour tortillas for me b/c she knows they're my favorite, and I had some nice moments with Miss Lupita and Miss Sheba (her teaching assistant). I tried to set them up with a webcam as a going away present, but the logistics did not work in my favor. They will get the camera but the programs I wanted to set up so they could use it more easily w/ the kids will have to be left to someone else to do, so I hope they have time for it. Elodia's talking about doing a masters in Sp. Ed in North Florida next year, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. I say goodbye to her and Rubia tonite, after Girl's Night, the last of the local goodbyes. All Nancy's students signed a gift for me today and hugged me goodbye in the afternoon. Nancy took me out to lunch for a debriefing on the internship as well.

Overall, it's been a good closing week. I still have things to run around and finish before I leave, but at least I'll get to spend some quality time w/ the girls before I leave tomorrow. Sulmi & Evelin are staying the night tonite instead of going home for the wkend, and they'll come with Nancy to drop me off at the airport tomorrow, along with Kristel.

Be seeing you all soon. Much love!