Thursday

On Thursday part of the construction crew went back to San Benito Poite.  They bult a sand sifter then sifted sand, and made grout for between the rows of conrete blocks.  There are two rows of blocks in place.

The rest of the construction crew went to Corazon Creek to work on a wooden library building.  They made and installed roof trusses and put up batten boards to cover the gaps in the siding. They also framed out the window openings.  They needed a trip to the local hardware store for supplies to finish the project.

 

In Blue Creek the teachers had lunch with the family of one of our scholarship students.  Octavia leaves the house at 4:30 am to catch the bus to the high school and does not return home until 4:30 pm.  She is ranked first in her class of 26 students.  This family has two girls in high school, which shows their committment to education.

The teachers played frisbee with the students and  made cookie color wheels (a big hit!), the students were wearing more icing than was on the cookies, but everyone loved the activity.  Bridget got bit twice, first by a student and then by fire ants!

 

In Corazon Creek,Ann, Shannon and Rose had fun teaching the children about volcanoes by helping them build a volcano out of mud from the garden and then using vinegar and baking soda to make it erupt!  They also made pipe cleaner monkeys and played math games with the students.  There was a village meeting at the end of the day where the village leaders and principal presented a wish list for the school, at the top of the list was the completion of the library!

 

In Otoxha the teachers got one computer running-who would have suspected that the missing password on the donated computer was "password?"  The principal fired up the generator and we tried to get the other computers running, but they must have different passwords!  Where is a computer hacker when we need one.  The teachers were lucky enough to particpate in a school mass with the students.  The prayers and songs were in Ketchi.  Father Murray celebrated the mass with the students.  After mass they were treated to lunch in the home of the principal-delicious Caldo (chicken stew) and hand made tortillas.  Jerry had some fun teaching a geometry lesson to the oldest students in the afternoon.

 

On Thursday night we were treated to a little party at Dorla's house (she runs the Socio-Economic Outreach program) and then had a delicious dinner  in Punta Gorda in a restaurant overlooking the water.