Lots to share!  Last night one of my student's mom wanted to take Carly and I out to dinner.  She took us to La Guera, her favorite restaurant, and we ate under a cabana.  I had chicken wings and french fries and let me just tell you, it hit the spot.  I have definitely missed American food. We stayed there and talked and laughed for hours.  It's amazing how easy it is to make friends here.  I barely knew this young mom and she just up and talked to me and then invited us out to dinner. 

Ms. Chavaria told me that she would not be at school today or tomorrow.  The principal asked if I minded being by myself or if I would rather have a substitute with me.  I felt up for a challenge, so I told her not to worry about getting a sub.  So I went from teaching two subjects a day to teaching all of them.  Today was definitely a challenge, but I absolutely loved it.  I taught scripture this morning with a story about Peter, James, John and Jesus.  My second graders are learning multiplication and they have just about mastered it with their ones, twos, threes, fives, and tens.  It has been so rewarding to see them grow from seeing multiplication as repeated addition and using manipulatives such as the beans and egg cartons to being able to do it without manipulatives and more mentally.  I discussed adjectives more in depth and the students got to take turns describing me and each other.  I also taught a lesson in Social Studies on citizens' rights.  I utilized cooperative learning and assigned each group a right.  Their task was to depict their assigned right and present it too the class.  As I mentioned before, the schools here do not have related arts teachers, instead the main teacher fills all of the positions. Today, I also got to be the art teacher and the students drew a picture of a place in the world that they would like to visit someday.  Kids drew everything from China, to the U.S. to Disney World.   Planning and implementing activities are somewhat difficult here without the resources that I am use to having, such as a school computer, printer, a vast array of books, workbooks, manipulatives, art supplies, etc.  Therefore, I have to get a little creative when planning activities and lessons for the students.

Tonight, Carly and I are going out with some friends to get pizza and karaoke!  This will probably be my last post for the next couple of days.  Carly and I are leaving half a day tomorrow to go with students from Galen University to Dangriga for an overnight trip to learn how to make drums.  I'm pretty excited for this trip, but a little intimidated because the students we are going with are drummers and have been taking classes.  Carly and I are just going to wing it.  I've also heard that there is a beach there! I'm ready to get my beach fix.  I think a fun weekend at the fair in one of the villages and afternoons at the river are in store for the next couple of days.  Until then, adios!