A Relaxing Weekend

First, (for those who do not have Facebook), I wanted to share some photos that I've taken of the kids. These were all taken last Friday, when the kids were playing outside in the afternoon and then helping make pizza for dinner. It was a beautiful day, and a happy time.

Esteban (Maritza's son), Maria, and Caty jumping rope

Dayana...how precious is she?

Carmen...the baby :)

Esteban swinging the rope while Fabian jumps. Fabian is almost never without that huge smile.

Maria...beautiful girl (and that's Dayana in the background)

Go, Caty, go!

Jorge cutting vegetables while Cynthia, Caty, Carlos, Maritza, and Christian work on the pizza!

All 16 kids sitting down for dinner. It was a fun night!

This week has been busy as we've finished up our teacher training. We didn't spend as much time on English this week (just a little bit every day) because there is so much more that needs to be done before school starts on Monday. Construction on the school is wrapping up, and now it's a matter of getting everything cleaned, organized, and ready for the students! Next week is only half days, doing orientation and giving aptitude tests for all the new students.

As part of teacher training, we had worksheet packets to do in Spanish, and had to take tests over them, and I survived and did well! I learned a lot, and although I didn't get much sleep this week because of it, I am thankful for the opportunity to learn and grow. 

We also received our schedules for school this week, and in addition to helping the kids in the Learning Centers with their English, I am also teaching traditional English classes with the 8th-11th graders, and I am looking forward to that. I hope to have some fun and doing a variety of things with literature, grammar, and pronunciation. I have considered certifying in English as a Second Language and working with Spanish-speaking students in the states, and this will give me an excellent opportunity to see how I like it and gain that experience. 

Laura and I have this weekend off, and we wanted to take the time to rest before school starts, so we are crashing at Jerry and Pat's house :) When we came over last night, all four of us got into our pajamas, and then Laura and I made yummy fajitas for dinner. We all curled up in the living room next to a roaring fire, and ate while watching the second Anne of Green Gables movie. (We watched the first over the past two weeks for teacher training, and were really in the mood for it :)) Late last night, we also made fabulous gooey brownies. It was an excellent, relaxing, fun night. Today we slept in late, and are taking the day to relax and read. We will be refreshed and ready to go for next week! 

"And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God!'" Mark 15:39  I enjoyed finishing up our study of Mark this week!