School Activities

With the holiday time here, the next couple months are going to be quite busy.  This week, there were a couple activities at school that made me realize just how much I enjoy the kids.

I cosponsor NJHS (National Junior Honor Society) with Elizabeth.  We had checked out Fundacion Funvivir about a month ago and decided to take our students to visit.  The foundation helps families who have kids with cancer.  Many of the patients come from small towns hours away and stay in the house during their treatment.  Other times, the foundation provides food, clothing, baby supplies, etc. for the families.  

When we arrived this past Tuesday, there were eight kids there, many the same ones I had seen before.  Combine that with our 25 NJHS students, and it was a full house.  All the kids were really good during the games we had planned and are looking forward to visiting again.  

I have never been a huge fan of dressing up for Halloween, but the kids enjoy it when their teachers wear something, so I donned my witch's hat and all black clothes, except for my red heels, and bore through the comments on how I didn't even need to dress up.  Sigh.

Each class was cut ten minutes so the students could have an hour at the end of the day to party.  The student council had prepared all the activities: musical chairs, hot sauce sampling, a deathly game of bounce basketball, bowling, a movie room, etc.  It has been years since I have played musical chairs, but it was a blast. There are not so many rules here, so no one bats an eye if a teacher begins pushing kids out of her way to get a seat.  

They even had a photo booth. At this point in time, I wasn't wearing my hat, but they gave me a paper one instead that kept falling on poor MariJ's head.  

Me with MariJ, Pily, and Angie, the learning center teacher.

As I contemplate leaving Cartagena at the end of this year, these are the times that really make me question on whether or not it's the right choice.  Sure, the students gab incessantly and often drive me crazy, but they are good, kind kids with amazing senses of humor and so much life to them.  Whenever I do decide to leave, it will not be easy.