Well I have now been in site for more than a year, and it’s
just so amazing how the time has flown by.
Since I am living in my own place this year for the holidays I have been
able to do a lot more than I did last year to help celebrate. This blog post just highlights some of the
activities that I have been up to during December including garden harvests, my
new summer classes for my students, and much more. Enjoy!
Earlier this month we had a big celebration in the school
where each of the students got their final report cards as well as the top student
from each grade received another certificate.
My host niece Rocio received the top honor for 1st grade and
many of my other students received this top honor. This picture is of the oldest grade (9th)
in our school which means they have “graduated” and then this fall will be
starting to attend the coleigo located in a nearby community.
Just one of the many wonderful pizzas that I am starting to
get really good at making, and has turned into a Saturday night tradition, with
wonderful leftovers for Sunday. The best
part is the homemade dough followed by all fresh veggies from my garden!
My crop of garlic and onions harvested from the garden. I had never grown garlic before and I was surprised
at how easy it is, just like onions. Ever
since I got back from my trip to the Pantanal my garden has gone through a
complete overhaul but I am now enjoying these wonderful fresh veggies!
A stunning sunset one evening from right behind my house, I am
just constantly blown away at the beautiful colors of nature.
This is the eco-bench that we made during long field
practice that got a paint job thanks to my wonderful students. This picture pretty much sums up the experience
though using oil based paint with kids.
I told them to not get paint on their hands because it will stay on but
of course they thought it would be fun to paint with their fingers so needless
to say luckily I had paint thinner and that we had all put our clothes inside
out to paint. But we had a great time
painting the bench and when we get another chance we will be adding some more
colors to paint the different handprints.
This summer I have started what we are calling summer
camp. It is a class that I have at my
house twice a week during the morning hours where we divide our time between 4
subjects including healthy cooking, conservation, art, and English. It gives the students a chance to get out of
the house and time for the moms to get work done while the kids are
occupied. So far we have had a great
time with each other and have done a lot of fun activities.
This picture is of the kids during the art portion of the
class where I asked them to draw a tree as a group. They completely blew me out of the water from
the roots and soil with worms and ants to the birds and fruit in the trees, I was
just so impressed. From there we went
into the conservation aspect and came up with many benefits of trees. By the end of the class we all had a better appreciation
for trees and the many benefits they provide.
During the next few weeks we will be beginning to plant tree seeds to
start our tree nursery project.
A picture of my wonderful students in front of the tree they
drew with the many benefits we came up with.
Just a couple of photos of the sunflowers that I planted
along and in front of my house which have just grown like crazy. Many of them are over 10 feet tall and got to
the point where the flower heads were falling over because they were so
heavy. They have become very popular in
my community and many are asking for the seeds which I am currently in the
process of collecting and drying right now.
The weekend before Christmas I decided to have a baking day
and invited some families from my community to participate. Also this past month I have been able to
welcome a new PCV, Annie, to San Roque (the community a couple of kilometers
from me) to the area. She is also a
fellow environmental volunteer and just recently sworn in. It has been such a great time to get to know
her and can’t wait to see what fun activities we will be able to do
together. So since I decided to make
Christmas cookies and goodies I decided to invited Annie over so we could make
a day out of it. So she came over early
Saturday morning and we made a large assortment of cookies from fresh fudge,
toffee, 4 types of cookies, and pudding.
In the afternoon we invited some families over to try
everything out and decorate sugar cookies that we had made up beforehand. This sign on my chalk board is all of the
different goodies we had to try with our clever names we had come up with in
Spanish.
The table with all of the goodies to try as well as fresh
mango juice!
After they had a few minutes to try all of the sweets with
the kids we made up some green frosting for the sugar cookies and then had a
great time frosting all of the sugar cookies.
Each of the kids had a great time and loved icing the cookies but loved
the sprinkles more, in the end though we all had a great afternoon of fun and
each of the kids were able to go home with a plate full of fresh cookies. It was just a great way to help share a
little Christmas tradition from my house with them and we all had a wonderful
time!
My new favorite Christmas cookies called Snowballs which are
just basically a chocolate chip cookie rolled into balls, baked, and the rolled
in powdered sugar. Very easy to make and
were a hit with my family and friends here!
Some of the wonderful bread that I have been making every
week. I have found that it is just
easier to make two loaves and so have one for myself and one to give away. Nothing beats a fresh loaf of bread!
My students during the English class playing Twister learning colors in English which has become a very popular game!
Our last class before Christmas during our art class we took some time to make Christmas cards for our families. The kids had a great time and special thanks to everyone back home who sent art supplies, stickers, and construction paper we use them just about every class now!
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