Qué hay de nuevo...

Hello all! Well it has taken me quite awhile to upload all these pictures to the blog so this is going to be a shorter post. I have internet access only once a week here, when I venture to the nearest big town which is an hour and a half away by bus. As you can see from the pictures, I´ve been keeping myself quite busy these days...We had the Independence day parade at the school which was a huge event. Our little community school just started participating last year. Apparently everyone in the big town where they have the parade was nervous that this little country school in the middle of nowhere would participate. They expected the kids to show up in rags, banging on pots and pans...However, MC (I can´t say the name of my community so I´ll refer to it as MC) stole the show....they wore uniforms and made dresses for the dancers and came completely prepared. Apparently, the competing bands were jealous that the country school outdid them and threw rocks at the teachers on their way into school and shouted insults to the students that participated in the band. In spite of the cruelty, MC participated this year yet again, and yet again they were absolutely amazing. We went all out and the morning of everyone was so excited. I woke up at 330 and walked to the mill in the dark, flashlight in hand, to help Niña Eva grind corn to make pupusas for the band. We went to the school and made pupusas as the sun started to rise. The kids showed up early in anticipation, cleaned their instruments, got all dressed up and loaded on the bus. The parade lasted about 4 hours. For four hours, they marched, danced, smiled, and sweated relentlessly in the streets of Dolores. I was shocked that only one person fainted. Even though we came with water and gatorade, the sun was just so intense. I was so proud of all the kids and the teachers for putting together such an amazing show. They worked so hard and it clearly paid off. MC was the talk of the town again this year. They don´t have many instruments but they have a lot of talented students who would like to participate in the band. I would like to work on getting more instruments so the band can grow.
I´ve also posted some pictures from a trip to the monte with some women in my community. We climbed up into the hills to pick anonas (pictured below). The view was spectacular and we laughed a lot as Niña Reina and Marisol climbed into the trees and plucked off the anonas. That same day we went to the poza to swim. Some of the streams here gather in deep pools in certain places and they call these places pozas. Kids jump into the pozas from the trees or from rock ledges. The water is clean and refreshing. Now that we are coming into summer, it is raining less and less. As a result we rarely have running water at the house anymore. So we go to the river to bathe, wash dishes, clothing, and splash around to cool off. I love going to the river! All the kids come and we play games in the water. (I just taught them Marco Polo). Aside from that, I have a lot of people in my community that are dying to learn English--the little kids, the teachers, the teenagers, the working adults of the community so that will be one of my big projects. I´m going to start working with the 4th grade next week. Everyday I sit with Amita, the English teacher and practice. She is so sweet and cooks me lunch sometimes at the school. She´s an amazing cook! I am infinitely happy and at peace here. Sometimes I feel like I´m in a dream. I´ve been very embraced by my community and have loved this process of getting to know everyone.

In response to mi amiguita Sarah--
Hammocks are sooo comfortable to nap in! I do have a bed with a pillow that I sleep in when it´s not too hot but on nights when it´s really humid, I prefer to sleep in the hammock. It´s very relaxing to get rocked to sleep like a baby! I also have to sleep under a misquito net which doesnt work so well over a hammock, otherwise I would probably prefer to sleep in the hammock all the time. Hope all is well with you! Thanks for reading!

Barb--
The students and teachers here are all on board for doing some kind of language-culture exchange with North Hills students. We will need to discuss logistics but I think whatever we could work out would be exciting for everyone involved. The kids here have summer break November through December and go back in January. Maybe we could start up correspondance in January when they come back. Let me know what you think! Also, would you mind scoping out some ESL texts for me? I would like to have some kind of book and-or workbook as a base or reference to design lessons. The ones the English teacher has are horrendous--full of errors, really outdated, and all grammar exercizes...(What would Dr. Glisan say!?) If you could find something good, I could have my Mom purchase it and send it down to me. I know you´re busy so thank you for taking the time to read the blog! Take care!