Monday

It has been an amazing day! Our construction crew had the experience of a lifetime going into the rain forest in Corazon Creek to chop down the palm branches to build a thatch roof.

Be assured our team(Hans,Nick, Chris, Dominic, Mike, Rick,Jen and Vernon) were NOT swinging machetes, they left that to the experienced men of the village!) Our team did get to haul the branches out of the forest-the children found this terribly amusing as this job is usually done by horses!

The progress on the new outdoor classroom was fast. By lunchtime the posts were up as well as the support structure for the thatch.When we left at the end of the school day the roof was almost finished. Each of the 32 families in the village were asked to chop 25 palm fronds for the roof.  The pictures of the entire process are something to see.

The teachers in Corazon, Ann, Allie, Rose and Cathy had a crazy day as the students had been moved out of the school and into three different buildings because of the construction.They presented health and hygiene lessons and  worked on several art projects.  All of the volunteers in Corazon were treated to a homemade lunch. They split up and went to three homes were they were served cahoune cabbage or chicken caldo.  It was all delicious.

Anita, Nichole, Jody and Linda spent the day teaching in Otoxha. We had some significant rain overnight and this morning, which made the questionable roads even more questionable!  They also did the health and hygiene lessons as well as lessons on tangrams with the older students. The littlest students had fun with flannel shapes and the middle group did a very special religion project.

Apparently there are more families in Otoxha who want to feed us than we have teachers, so  we went to two different homes for lunch.  Nichole and Linda enjoyed their first authentic Mayan lunch, chicken caldo and homemade tortillas.

Mary Pat ,Mary, Don and Jill spent the day in San Lucas.  Not only was it the first day back to school after the Christmas break,but it was the first day of class for a new principal!  They presented the health lessons, worked on tangrams and made puppets with buttons. A solid day with old and new friends.

We have a presentation tonight from Dorla with updates about the Socio Economic Outreach program and then more planning for tomorrow's lessons.  We don't think it will be a late night for any of the construction crew.

Mary seemed to have the best quote of the day when she saw our dessert and proclaimed, "There is always room for jello!"