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So I guess it has been 3 weeks since my last blog now, about time I got another one up and running! I have started teaching my class by myself now, it was pretty nerve racking to begin with and the kids played me up a bit as they wanted to see how much they could get away with without Jenny being there with me. By now though I have settled into my own little routine and love my class to absolute bits. To begin with I was lesson planning in the evening but I have decided to try to start doing that in my 2 hour lunch time break now as it is a very long day during the week and by the time I get home I seldom have enough energy to make decent lesson plans. When I say the days are long, I mean that I have to wake up at 6am to get ready and get the bus to the school, we are teaching from 9am to 12 then 2pm to 4pm and don't get back into Antigua until 5pm usually. I am so glad that I have finished my Spanish classes now as it was too much to get back from a day in Itzapa and then have to have an hour's Spanish class!
Friday is fun day at the school. I don't bother teaching them anything because I think they need a break and a chance to just be kids, so on my first Friday teaching alone I got the paints out and let them go wild, they loved it! Last week I bought some big A3 pieces of card and drew pictures on them and let them paint those, which I have now decorated my classroom with. They love it because now the class is a bit more personalised to them. This Friday (2 days ago) I let them make Valentine's day cards, but I put a spin on it letting them make them in English so I taught them a little English first. It was so funny, I said to my morning class that if they wanted to they could give it to someone else in the class and they were all like "NO SEÑO NO!!!!!!!!!" (seño is what they call a female teacher, short for señorita) haha and in my afternoon class they were all telling me who fancies who and giving them to each other, it was hilarious. Two of my kids gave me their cards, one from a boy called Gustavo was really cute, it said Happy Valentine's day seño yoel (they can't pronounce Js properly so they say yoel like joelle with a y) and he said in Spanish thankyou for all your help with my learning, I was like awww!!!!
It is so satisfying to help the kids. I know it sounds really cliche but you get such a warm feeling when they get what you're teaching them and can complete all your handmade worksheets correctly. They demand all your attention all of the time, some need more help than others though so I sometimes feel guilty for not giving some of them as much attention as others. I just feel sometimes like screaming sometimes when they are all going "seño yoel seño yoel seññññoooooooooooo" haha and it's so funny when they all want you to mark their work at the same time, they will hold their sheets literally about an inch away from your face so you can't even read it, and the funniest thing is when another one then slides his sheet down infront of the one in your face. It's like, do you think I can actually mark your work when it is that close to my face? They make me laugh so much. I always knew that I would like my class loads but until you get here you really don't realise quite how much you will love them and how attached to them you will get. Floridalma, who I mentioned in a previous blog, made me so happy the other day. She came into school for the first time in a few weeks and gave me a big hug then went and started playing with two other girls from my class, it is literally the first time I have seen her actually play in break time. It was amazing. She has such a sad life, but she is amazing.
I don't think I said this in my last blog, but a few weeks ago we went for a walk around the town of Itzapa, I was almost crying by the time I got back to the school. The only time we see our kids is in the school environment and you forget how they actually live. About 5 families will share a little shack, there is loads of rubbish in the stream, on the roads, everywhere. Scrawny animals everywhere too. It is such a poor area and it is just heart-wrenching to think that my class have to live in these conditions. It was so cool though that I was Pedro and Yoselin from my class in the streets and they were like SEÑO YOEL and high-fived me. My kids rock.
The other day I played sharks and fishes with my kids, they LOVED it! it was so funny, although I felt a bit bad because I really distracted some of the other classes, but hey ho, I had fun and so did my class! My morning class used to be harder because there were 24 but now it has gone down to 20 and it is actually a lot easier to deal with now and they are much better behaved now that they have got used to the fact that I am their teacher and I'm not leaving for a while. My afternoon class, who were always easier, and now harder because the 4 kids from the morning have gone into my afternoon class now so instead of having 14 there are now 18 and it has upset the balance a little, but I hope it will settle down in a couple of days time. Amilca in my afternoon class is such a sweet little boy, every break time he now comes and sits next to me and cuddles me for the whole break. I love him, he is adorable. I am going to be distraught when I have to leave these kids, I really will be. I love them to bits. I am now staying in Guatemala until the 11th April, so I will have my last day at the school on my birthday!! That is going to be a sad birthday, when you leave they make you sit by the gate of the school and every single kid in the school lines up and gives you a hug goodbye. I'm really not sure I'll be able to hold it together. Then I'll be going to Honduras for 4 weeks, Ecuador for 5 and Peru for 5.
That's about it on the school front for now, other than Andy who came with my group on the 2nd Jan has gone on to Honduras now and I will really miss him, he is a good friend and it won't be the same at the school without him. I literally, constantly bicker with him about how much better England is than the States. He disagrees. Hahaha. Now you may understand when I say that the school really does occupy you completely and become all that you think about.
Hmm what have I been up to other than the school? Let me think... can't remember what I did the weekend after the lake trip now... oh yeah that's right, I just chilled out in Antigua with Chels, we went up to a place called Cerro de la Cruz, it's a really cool view point where you can see the whole of Antigua and Volcan de Agua too, it really was stunning. We had a picnic up there which was fun! Last weekend we went on a chicken bus (an experience, I really think they are going to kill people some day! we went around some scary cliff sharp bends at about 60! and they get majorly squished and overloaded with people too) to Guatemala City. We went to see Avatar in 3D, which I already saw in England before I left, but some of my friends hadn't seen it so I didn't mind seeing it again since I think it's ace. This weekend I have just been mainly on my balcony in a bikini reading, which is a nice way to relax after a stressful week at school! Had a good night last night, it was Andy's last night so we went out to a few bars which was fun! Today I went to a place called Luna de Miel, which is a French creperie, it was DELICIOUS, definitely going to have to make that a regular!
I think next weekend we are planning to go to a macadamia farm which will be fun, and the weekend after we are planning a trip to a beach in El Salvador to a beach for the weekend! The weekend after I think I might climb Pacaya (the active volcano you can roast marshmallows on! haha)!
I have decided I definitely want to come back to Guatemala next summer for 3 months in my uni holidays, so I will be saving up for that as soon as I get home!
Anyway, I have been in this internet cafe for far to long now due to talking to Amy and Amber on skype for a long time, and now I need to go now, shower, and go out to Rainbow to eat and lesson plan and watch Luke's band play! (they are so good, play all my favourite songs every time!). I hope you are all well, I miss you lots and hope to speak to you soon! I will try to do another blog again soon but the liklihood is that I won't as I am always very busy now, and like to leave enough time for some interesting things to happen in between so that I actually have something to talk about!
Lots of love
Joelle
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