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hey! I wanted to post some photos...but the computer's not letting me...ahhhh
but, HAPPY NEWS!!! this week our students are taking exams and then we're finished with the school year!!! Not that I'm excited about that or anything. 😊 It's been a LOOOOOONG year and it's nice to have a change on the horizon and some time to rest. whew!
The rains are starting!!! Yesterday another teacher and I walked up to La Pintada (about an hour hike up the mountain). It sprinkled on our way up which was better than the sun beating down on us and being drenched in sweat b.c of the humidity. It cleared up and we had a nice little time up there. Then, just as we were started out it down poured!! Thankful it just turned into a steady rain, so it wasn't too miserable to walk in. Later last night it really came down and I got to walk in it again 10 minutes to my house...plus the electricity went out, so it was completely dark. A bit of an adventure walking in heavy rains in the dark. Thankfully Carlos gave me a lift in his taxi the last 5 minutes. I had on a huge rain coat and in the darkness you could tell who anyone was, but he said, "I knew it was you that needed a ride." "How'd you know?" I asked, "Because you're so skinny." HA!! 😊 Oh well...if it gets me a free lift I'm all for it!
It's the best falling asleep to the rain on the tin roof though! Sometimes the rain is so hard and so loud that inside the house you have to yell to be heard. And then the roof will leak a bit, but we've just got cement floors, so you move everything out of the way and don't worry about it. 😊
OK...here's to the last week of students! Really, it's a bittersweet time. I'm happy to have a change and not be constantly lesson planning and grading and worry about who sits next to whom and discipline problems....but there's still so much I'd like to leave with these kids. So much I'd like to instill in them. Not reading, math and science, but how to do the right thing and be helpful. I have seen changes in some of the kids...actually remarkable changes. When I started in January one boy could not sit quiet for a minute straight. I'm serious. We'd be taking a test and he just could not stop talking. And he never raised his hand. Just blurted things out. Always out of his seat...etc. Little by little, with the help of his mom, others at the school, and classmates, he now can sit quietly through an entire test, remembers to raise his hand (most of the time) and actually can do seatwork quietly, on his own, for 15 minutes straight. Amazing!
And one girl that had one of the most defiant attitudes I've ever seen...especially for a 9 year old!...now says, "Miss Nesbitt, I want to do the right thing." And she sits at her desk, hands folded in front of her, eyes on me...incredible! Before she also just did not care. "Agh. No me importa," she use to say with disgust. Now she often says, "I'm sorry Miss Nesbitt. Will you forgive me?" And she is trying more to do her best.
So maybe I left a little bit of something with these kids. I think the absolute hardest part for me is knowing that some of them come from such sad home lives. Parents living in the states, the kids going back and forth between relatives; one parents gone, or traveling all the time, the other busy with the family business...It's one of the most frustrating things for me to see kids not getting what they so desperately need from their homes. And the ones with the biggest behavioral problems in the class are the same ones that have absent parents in the house.
OK, this was definitely just going to be a short "hey!" note. Oh well....my heart got out. 😊
Lots of love to all!!
April
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Aunt Betsy
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almost done
April - you are one VERY special person. You have touched "your" kids in more ways that you can imagine. It is THEIR blessing that they had you for a teacher. I know you had many hard times but you are one strong hardworking gal that does not quit and have become a better person for it. (Not that you were not good prior to this mission you chose. ) So glad to hear that the medical equipment that was sent is what they needed. Love, hugs and prayers,