Another beautiful day – some pictures from the balcony at Maximo Nivel:
Starting today, I was having private Spanish lessons for 2 hours a day instead of 1 hour. I figured, while I’m here, and the lessons are affordable, I might as well try to take advantage of it. It was a bit rough. 2 hours, especially when you’re still a “beginner,” can be quite exhausting. Sandra was able to tell. We took a 5-10 minute break after an hour.
(Olga’s helpers - Left: Rosenda and Right: Lorena)
At the childcare project, we were supposed to have a new volunteer. But we found out from Corrine that her volunteer project started next week for two weeks, because the first week (out of the 3 she is here), she did a 1-week adventure to El Salvador.
There was a child at the childcare who, at random times, kept on saying “arigatou gozaimasu” (“Thank you very much” in Japanese) over and over (and over and over) to me. The other kids kept on copying him throughout the day. When I asked why he knows Japanese, I learned that he had previously lived in Japan for a few years.
I added more vegetables, animals, and body parts to their English posters. I had to try to convince Lesvi and Fabiola that a tomato is a fruit. They just did not believe me – but I guess it wasn’t really important
(I added new animals in blue – whoever drew the original poster is a really good artist! And the kids said my “dog” looked like Snoopy. Yes. It. Does.)
(I added peas, peppers, and tomatoes)
(I added eyes, teeth, and finger nails)
As Noga and I tried to plan activities and games for the kids on Wednesday, I learned that she has a weakness in math. I also knew from last week that even though her English speaking is very good, her spelling skills aren’t, so she was always hesitant to teach any English to the kids.
This week was going to be a weird schedule. The child care is closed tomorrow for the kids, but Noga and I are coming to help Lesvi and Tino “pack.” Wednesday is a normal day. Thursday, Lesvi and Tino won’t be there so we’ll just play soccer with the kids. Friday, there is no child care in the afternoon and there will only be a Christmas party in the evening from 7pm until around 10pm. Noga and I will arrive earlier to try to help with the preparations on Friday.
Before leaving the childcare, Lesvi showed me the bracelets/necklaces that they had for sale (made by the kids’ parents - one way they raise funds for the childcare). I wanted to buy some for my daughters – and bought the ones below.
During the bus ride back to Antigua, Noga talked about how she misses her boyfriend. He didn’t have enough money to come visit her, and wouldn’t let Noga ask her father for help, understandably. It’s going to be a tough 5 more months for her without the boyfriend as she travels and volunteers throughout Central America.
Before dinner, the guide from the Fuego trip arrived. He had asked me (through Chelsie) at the end of that trip if I can write something in Japanese for him if he were to stop by our house on Mon or Tues evening. He wanted me to write something in his guestbook in Japanese – and since my Japanese (especially kanji skills) is so elementary, I had to get my laptop so I can type what I wanted to write to make sure the kanji is correct (on the computer, it suggests/guesses the kanji characters as you type). Yes, I did take a picture of what I wrote, but out of fear of the possibility that my grammar was incorrect, I’m not posting it here. 
After dinner, Chelsie and I went over to Deet’s place – the almost 77-year-old masseuse from Chicago – because she was having computer and/or Internet issues. I eventually figured out that something was wrong with her Service Provider, not her computer or username/password, and that she needed to call them in the morning. Then we (Chelsie, Sarah, and I) hung out a bit with her, talking about random things like how she is able to (and enjoys) flirting with everyone (even 20-somethings), and how the housemates covered all age groups yet we all get along really well (Lorena 18, Rosenda 22, Sarah 28, Chelsie 32, Taka 41, Sue 58, Olga and Dennis 60-something, Deet almost-77). Oh, and how she had a massage cream with marijuana in it…
(Left: Chelsie, Middle: Deet, Right: Sarah)
After leaving Deet’s place, Chelsie and I went to hang out at Rainbow Café to work on our Spanish homework. We invited Sarah but she disappeared somewhere else… I had 4 pages worth of homework, although I was only able to finish 1 before the Café decided to close early because they “weren’t busy”. I was so exhausted I passed out in my bed after we got back home.
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