The other day I was walking out of one of my classes trying to figure out why I was sweating so much.  It wasn't that hot outside, so that couldn't be it.  It didn't make any sense to me that every day after I'm at the preschool building I'm really warm and sweaty.  Then it hit me.  I'd found a far more intense exercise program than I could get at a gym.  It goes as follows...
1. Walk 8 blocks.
2. Sing movement/marching songs with 2 classes of 5 year olds for half hour each, then 2 classes of 4 year olds for half hour each and then play "Ring Around the Rosie with a class of 3 year olds for half hour.
3.  Walk another 5 blocks to the other building.
4.  Teach a class of 6 year olds for 45 minutes, singing movement songs and moving around the classroom, catching kids who are talking.
5.  Teach a class of 7 year olds for 45 minutes, singing movement songs and moving around the classroom, catching kids who are talking.
6.  Walk 14 blocks home for lunch.
7.  Walk 14 blocks back to the school for the afternoon.
8.  Walk 14 blocks home.
(steps 9 and 10 happen a couple times a week)
9.  Walk 14 blocks to the school/church for church service.
10.  Walk 14 blocks back home to go to bed.

Preschoolers singing/marching "The Ants Go Marching". :)

Beginning of the year

I have all sorts of stories saved up in my head, but haven't been able to write any of them down because I've been so busy living them! :)  We're in the middle of our 2nd week with kids and I'm slowly getting the routine down of my schedule and how each class's dynamics differ from the other classes and what works best with the kids.  That's my day and in the evenings and on the weekends I hang out with friends, either at church, their house or around town.  I've actually managed to make it to the river twice!!!  In the 3 years I've been coming here, I'd never made it to the river.  I'd seen pictures of it and heard all about it and even been invited once, but wasn't able to go.  A week and a half ago, Ivonne and Fernando invited me to go with them after church.  It was a really hot day (just walking a couple blocks, I broke out into a sweat), so I was really excited to be able to go.  We went to a portion of the river that formed a slightly moving pond and swam around for probably a couple of hours and then went to the actual river and ate sugar cane.  It was so nice to be able to float around in a lake on such a hot day!  Then this last Sunday (a week later), the some of the youth group decided to go swimming, so I went again. :)  For those who might be a little confused as to why a 27 year old is considered a part of the youth group, the youth group here is for people anywhere from about 15 or 16 up to whenever they get married!!  The group that went to the river was at least half my age or more. :)  I took a ton of pictures, but am not in any of them, my poor parents, they don't get to see me. :)

pictures

I haven't really had any time to write, when I've been anywhere near a computer with internet access, but I have been able to take some pictures!  Here's a few from this past month.  The second link is of pictures from my last 2 summer in Macas. :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=109492&id=517974210&l=2f0b90bf32

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40920&id=517974210&l=8b1b2d067e

my apartment

We're slowly, but surely getting our apartment fixed up!!!  Our new stove (see previous post for why it was necessary) and fridge came on Friday and the washing machine came on Monday.  Our kitchen is fully usable at last!  I celebrated this weekend by baking a lot. :)  I'd been wanting to make chocolate chip cookies for awhile now, but hadn't either had time or a working stove for the past couple months, but I was finally able to on Sunday.  When I started out grocery shopping on Saturday, I wasn't exactly sure what kind of cookies I'd end up making, sense I'm still learning what kinds of foods are available here.  I know that people have told me that chocolate is hard to find, which was hard for me to believe since I've seen cacao trees here!  But I knew what ingredients were necessary for a few different kinds of cookies and what I would make would depend on the ingredients I found.  I ended up walking halfway to the school from our apartment (7 blocks didn't seem like much going there, but coming home, it was a lot longer!).  There's a large grocery store there that carries many different kinds of foods that you can't get in other places, plus the closest open paper store was on that block so I had to be there anyway.  I started wandering around the aisles and found chocolate bars!!  No chocolate chips, but that's ok, the bar works. :)  The picture above is of me making my own chocolate chips.  So, Sunday after church I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  Yumm!!  I even found whole wheat flour, so my mom will be happy. :)  Cookies are a bit of a novelty here, so people who have been over to the apartment are pretty impressed, which is very nice for me! :)

I also thought I'd share a little bit of my view from my bedroom window.  The first is looking south, the second to the west (at Quilamo, the local hill) and the third is looking north.  :)