Tuesday Update

Here I am, a day behind again! Actually by the time I catch up with everybody's news for the day it is too late to go into town to post.
On Tuesday, the San Marcos teachers got to school and were surprised to see the children lining up and leaving the school builidng! No, it was NOT a natural disaster drill, but Father Dick had shown up, unexpectedly and would be having a school mass. So Jack, Cathy, Anita, Peggy and Chris got to participate in mass with the children. It was lovely. The singing was in English this time.
After mass it was back to school. Tuesday was art project day. The children made chalk facs, crayon rubbings, pipe cleaner people and created crayon resist pictures with watercolor paints. We discovered that you cannot paint outside and not expect every other child in the school to stand over you and watch the painting. We also realized that grown up fingers are way too big to try and glue tiny googly eyes.
The construction crew is making amazing progress in San Marcos. The walls are almost up to chest height. Bob gets his exercise every day when one of the little boys steals his hat and then Bob chases after him to get it back. We put Vernon's excellent plumbing skills to good use, six of the seven flush toilets were broken at at the latest count all but one is fixed. The teachers are thrilled!
At Silver Creek, Conde, Steph and Joan taught lessons about rain gauges and thermometers. Joan, of course, found a family who has four brand new puppies and proceeded to name them all! We will be checking her suitcase to be sure that NO animals are going home with her. The teachers there have really worked well with the team to come up with some great lesson ideas.
Father Don, Shannon and Jen worked in San Miguel. They completed the health and hygiene lessons and then set to work on a graphing activity. There school is in three buildings so it is a challenge to get to all of the classrooms. None of the children cried today, so it was a very good day. They are looking forward to art projects tomorrow.
Ann, Carol and Jay spent the day with Dorla's assistants, Mario and Donissio. They were able to see the coffee making process from the planting of the seed to the making of coffee. Quite amazing. Jay went along with Donissio to vaccinate some pigs. As Donissio wrangled a pig and it began to scream, some of the wild pigs in the area ran over to see what was going on to their porcine brother, Jay was a bit worried for his life.
Tuesday night was an interesting presentation at St Peter Claver Parish about the Garifuna culture.

Chilly here, but not raining. We heard that there were two earthquakes here on Monday night, but NO ONE noticed anything and we are fine!
We are having a great time, all is good, keep praying for us as we are praying for all of you at home.

-Posted by Anita Dutrow