The Miranda House

First of all, an LMU AB group came and it was so good to have them here. My dear friends Beth and Joanne were on the trip and I loved getting updates from home and just sharing my life with people who know me so well. I brought them to my classes, had Beth and Joanne play music games in music class and asked Kyle and Beth to draw animals on the board in English (Beth's animals always had cankles and Kyle's were a little too complicated-looking for my girls). I cried when they left and unfortunately I'm feeling a little homesick now. A lot of the students from the trip are thinking of coming back to volunteer, especially the seniors in the group, so we'll see what happens...

Last Sunday I went to the Miranda family house. A former volunteer was visiting the center and she wanted to go see this family--I thought, hey, I have all of their children in at least one class...I wanna go. So I asked my high-schooler (one of the older sisters) if that was okay and she said "sure, bring anybody." So four of us volunteers decided to go and we had a lovely time. We started out playing in the park, worked up a huge appetite before lunch, then sat around and played games and scoped out some of the toys the former volunteer had brought (a favorite: little sponge animals that grow when you put them in warm water).



They're a great family (9 kids, a sweet mom and dad works as a janitor at the center) and I'm so glad I invited myself over. As soon as I asked the older sister if I could go, my other high school girls started inviting me to their homes. And when the younger kids found out that I went to the Miranda house they started asking if I could come to their houses too. We'll see where I end up actually going, but I'm learning that it takes a little initiative on my part.

Today the choir kids are singing at a special memorial mass, then after lunch my high school girls are playing soccer in a tournament among the nivelación (levelization) and colegio grades. Should be a great Saturday. Oh, and coming up: the English Teatro will fire up once again for Easter. Expect photos of my second graders wearing masks and pretending to be animals, "What is it? It's a cow. What's it doing? It's watching TV." They love it, it's so silly.

Until then,
Marian

A few things

A number of things I'm pleased about:

• The LMU Alternative Breaks group is coming this Saturday and they'll be staying for a week. AB is dear to my heart so I hope they have a good time--I'm definitely going to plan something extra special for my classes so the AB crew can help out. Can't wait to see them, plus they're bringing me mac n cheese.
  

• My parents are coming in April during Easter vacation. Woo hoo!

• Yesterday I talked to my brother and his wife on Skype while they were sitting in a pub in West Ireland drinking a...beverage.
  

• Three friends are in Japan together. That's nice.

• Today I'm having my second-grade boys play charades. We'll see how they do--I'm sure it'll be amusing.

ciao, Marian

Playing in the park and more from the CMT Choir

These are my English boys playing in the park. Pastor (in the yellow hat) used to sing love songs to me in class but now he's moved on to teasing a little girl named Diana.

Yesterday the choir sang after mass--this video is of a song called Mi Chacra in which they imitate barnyard animals. After this came Row Row Row Your Boat (not on this video) which I so lovingly taught them. Their pronunciation is great, in case you were wondering.

ciao, Marian

The Big Picture

Probably the least useful thing I've ever said to a kid:

"How are you going to survive in the world if you can't make up a sentence about flan?!"

More ice-skating and something for Bern

Ice-skating once again. Unfortunately our class has dwindled over the year and some boys didn't show up for this particular outing. But Alex, Dario, Jorge and Alejandro thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Pure joy.

Alex is not ready for the photo.

Alex (tan jacket) fell as this one was being taken. He was holding onto Jorge and not even moving and he still fell. And then in class today he tells me I wasn't a good ice-skater. jeez...

Take two.

Jessica (fellow volunteer) with the boys.
Unfortunately her schedule changed
and she won't be teaching this class with me anymore.
Don't say anything but we're going to make her a goodbye card.

You can guess where they wanted to eat lunch.

This one's for Bern. From Good Magazine.

Wait, wait...I don't believe in killing cats.
So does that make me an alley cat ally?
Do I have to go to meetings?

Love,

Mare

I'm baaaack...

Let’s begin this update with a story about three boys, freckles and an eraser. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons I work in the second grade classroom of the Escuela here at the CMT. I usually focus on the kids who need a little extra attention, like the three boys I’m about to tell you about (Kevin, Dario and Cesár). The other day the four of us sat together because they are very much behind in their reading skills. At the beginning of our reading session, one boy asked me why I have so many freckles. I told him I didn’t know, and that seemed to end the conversation. We began to read and about five minutes into our first story Cesár leaned into the boy seated next to him and whispered “she has 94 on her arms.”

Soon it was time to practice writing. At one point Dario loaned his eraser to Kevin, who said he needed to keep using it when Dario asked for it back a few moments later. Finally Dario decided that he really needed his eraser, but Kevin insisted that he no longer had it. Where could it have gone? We began to check under the notebooks and under the table when Dario noticed that Kevin had little bits of some white material all around his mouth. Dario asked, “what’s that white stuff on your face?”

Kevin feigned ignorance at first, but when pressed he sheepishly spat the remains of the eraser out of his mouth. Yes, Kevin ate the eraser. Dario was quite upset, even as Kevin suggested he could still use the last unchewed bits recently salvaged from his mouth. The situation was so far out of line with anything I would have ever expected that I began to laugh almost uncontrollably. I felt guilty for the amusement I got out of Dario’s loss, but c’mon, the kid ate the eraser. When can you ever say that you watched a kid eat an eraser and then lie about it? I wish I could show you the little bits of white eraser on Kevin’s face, it was perfect—like when the cat is caught with bird feathers around its mouth yet still acts like nothing out of the ordinary has happened.

So that’s the story of the freckles and the eraser. I’d like to show you some photos (many of them care of Ally Stoltz) from my New Years vacation to the coast…

First Canoa, a small, tranquil town to which I will definitely be returning. Everyone there seemed to know each other and we even ran into a few old friends.






Then Puerto Lopez. The town itself wasn’t as pretty as Canoa, but we took a short boat trip to Isla de la Plata, where blue-footed boobies are abundant and the snorkeling is top-notch.




The hanging heads belong to paper-mache figures that represent the old year (el año viejo). The tradition is to fill the figures with explosives and then light them on fire at midnight, first of January. We rang in the new year on the beach in Montañita with hundreds of people and various bonfires full of exploding año viejos. Montañita photos are below; the first is Ally and I in our hostel room, or closet. Small, smelly and overpriced for how thin the walls are, but totally worth it. Having Ally here was a Christmas miracle that left me feeling a little homesick (read: this is an open invitation for visitors--I'll show you a great time!).

We told these people they wouldn't be in the picture. oops.
The little guy in front (red shirt) is actually an año viejo and not really a little guy.

That's all. If you're reading this I probably love you, so take care!

Marian

Feliz Navidad

A young-looking and uninterested Santa Claus.
My girls found him quite amusing.

A few things to be excited about:

• Ally Stoltz is coming tonight.

• Tomorrow I get to see my second graders receive their first communion at the Christmas mass. They're incredibly jazzed about it because they get to be in the spotlight.
  

• In two days I'll be leaving for the coast: Canoa, Puerto Lopez, Isla de Plata, and Montañita for New Years.
  

In other news, we went ice-skating! A few other volunteers and I took our kids to the "Ice Palace" and we had a blast. Thanks so much for the donations that helped me make this trip. I took my girls ice-skating and gave my other classes Christmas parties--I'm planning on taking some boys skating in January because I couldn't quite do it all this month. Some photos below...

Ivis mid-fall with fellow volunteer Laurita


Andres and Colin were a big help...



The Andres-Tatiana series




Tatiana had quite a bit of trouble...

The Centro Infantil (pre-kindergarten age kids) put on a Christmas show and it was outrageous. Between the costumes, singing, dancing and messed up lines it was like something out of a movie. Por ejemplo, the kid who played the angel who visits Mary to tell her the big news kept saying, "Maria, llena eres de grasa" (which means Mary, full of fat) instead of "Maria, llena eres de gracia" (full of grace). It was the perfect kind of cute, everyone was cracking up and the kid just kept going with it.

And then the one-year-old kids came out in these Christmas tree outfits to dance...you can't see it but the second from the right started crying after about a minute of waving her chubby little arms. Poor thing but so very cute.

I would love to be able to see everyone now but I feel like I'm in the right place. Love and miss you all--take care during the holidays and let me know how your lives are going!

love, Marian