123. Fractions, Digging, and Sleeptalking

Friday, 3/22/13

So for the past four days, it has been relatively the same schedule: school, lunch, work, soccer, Bible seminar and sleep.

7:30-School

Fractions and money was Math this week. The Bolivians text books actually use American dollars and cents to help teach the kids Math. That was neat. Most of my fifth and sixth graders belong in 3^rd and 4^th grade Math. They could not multiply or divide. I have finished teaching them how so I can safely say that ¾ of the class knows their times tables and how to divide. However, they do not know when to do which…and that is like the most important part. Oh well, I see it as another goal to strive four. We just started adding and multiplying fractions. We played a game outside to help them. Hopefully it did because Daynor sprained his ankle doing it. He will never forget his fractions.

12:00-Lunch

Emy’s the best cook on the planet. And lunch is always her best meal. Sometimes the breakfasts or suppers are a loaf of bread and chocolate milk, but her lunches always rock.  This week we had lentil burgers with yellow rice, salad, and French fries. We also had amazing pasta soup with 4 cookies. I can’t remember the other meals but they were all immaculate (except for Tuesday when Chad and I cooked. J…I’d have to say we are improving though. I recently learned that the trick to great rice is a little oil.

2:00-Work

Get out the machetes and shovels! We used them every day. Chad and I took groups of kids and cleared out some jungle and dug some trenches. We want to extend the property of Familia Feliz and provide as much yard grass as possible. The trenches are to put the electrical wires into the ground. We want to provide enough power for power tools to make chairs, beds, and tables ourself.

Surprisingly, the kids enjoyed both these tasks and we worked quite efficiently. Chad managed to cut himself with a machete, and Armando hit a kid in the head with a shovel. I mean, come on…we have to make things interesting!

4:00-Soccer

Goal! A kid kicked the ball through the goal, into our door, and directly into the pot of lemon tea that Emy had made. Three points! Haha. Emy was not happy but you have to laugh a little bit. Monday was my favorite day of soccer. It rained super hard. Yet, we played for 2 and half straight hours. At times you could not see 5 feet in front of you. I would kick the ball as hard as I could and it would go about 5 feet and land in a puddle and stay there. It took a long time to get your team to the other end of the field. Oh, I attempted a bicycle kick—but ended up missing the ball and kicking poor Alex in the shoulder. No worries, he is still alive.

7:00-Bible Seminar

We have a famous Adventist on campus. Pastor Moore from Weimeir College. He is Missy’s grandfather and quite the Bible expert. He has been writing more books and sharing his wisdom with some of us volunteers for the past two weeks. I like the title of the new book he is working on: The Power of Humility. Sounds like quite a paradox to me.

9:30-Sleepy Time

Chad said two full sentences in his sleep one night. I have no clue what he said but it was quite impressive. So we now know that I talk in my sleep and he talks in his sleep. We are thinking about recording us one night to see if we have any deep philosophical conversations at night that we do not know about. That would definitely boost our self-esteem because now, with our broken Spanish, we appear to have the intelligence of 5-year olds.

**Keep adventurizing!...I know I will!**