A case of the Mondays

My morning started with an extremely rough, two hour ride in an army grade Landcruiser. I woke up in blissful 60ish degree weather of Los Pinos and plummeted into the sweltering 90 degree (don't even get me started on humidity) depths of Santa Marta. I am constantly surprised by how easy it is for one to travel so quickly to drastically different climates (and geography) within this country. I spent the early morning in Pine trees and ridiculous vistas of the entire Magdalena region, then found myself rocking along on a public bus with front row seats to an amateur reggaton concert.

I have lived in Colombia for a little over two years now, but I really haven't been able to appreciate these little pleasures of my town until I started working with CSF. Maybe it is because I am so incredibly happy with the place I am in my life or maybe it is because I finally have the time to relax and breathe a bit that I have been able to see what was always here.

Maybe it is because I have pleasure of working with kids that are so incredibly happy playing with a chunk of styrofoam and climbing trees for fun. They devise their diversion instead of buy it. I am more and more aware of that every day. The less I buy, and the more I have to discover new (budget) ways to get things done, the more I enjoy this life. Simplified.

Anyway, before taking off to class this afternoon, I said, 'Ciao' to my roommate and friend (and our art teacher!), Rachel. After a year of working in Colombia, her time (for now) is up. She left on a jetplane bound for Bogota...and then Philly. She will be back...!

There were a few teachers who were unable to make it to classes today so things were a bit harried at the beginning of classes. We had to relocate a couple teachers and Rob was left with a ton of pre-schoolers to himself. Honestly, I didn't even open the door to his room as I knew better than to let the chaos spill into the rest of the building. Pre-school kids are unbelievably adorable and want to shower you with hugs and kisses, but, whew, they are a mass of bubbling energy that can knock you on your rear...literally.

I settled in with my reading comprehension group (Ana, Lina, Lucelis, Javier, Camilo, Alvaro, and Juan Sebastian) silently thanking God that I wasn't on the other side of Rob's door. We reviewed expectations, their new sticker charts for behavior, and then got into reading and writing around the topic of 'norms'. Sounds a little boring, but the stories were great and the kids were very interested in reading out loud and sharing their skills.

There were a few little scuffles that I had to deal with as it is I am finding that often the way these kids take care of issues is through 'physical reminders'. I had more 'private talks' than I would have liked, but they are necessary at this point and the kids are still learning that there are other ways to cope with their issues with peers. I think they are pretty used to seeing physical punishments for behavior so it is taking a little adjustment to understand that the school is a 'hands off zone'.

Javier spent a little while pouting in corner today and I gave him his space to figure out what he was going to do with his time in class, offering the suggestion of reading a book if he didn't want to join in the activity with the rest of the class. It took him a few minutes, but, eventually, he slid over to the bookshelf and grabbed a big, black and white picture book about a family of zebras. Before long, he was urging me to come listen to him read and the smile had returned to his face. His eagerness to share his reading spurred Juan Sebastian to follow suit and I got the opportunity to take a 'snapshot' of their current reading levels.

I ended the day going back over the expectations with the kids and asking them if they had earned their stickers for their charts (based on following all five expectations). All, but one fell short when it came to the 'respetamos a nosotros mismos, nuestros amigos y los maestros'...everyone except Juan Sebastian had managed to 'da una patada o golpe a uno' during today's session. There were some disappointed kids when they realized only one person earned a sticker today, but they accepted the consequences for their actions. I am curious to see how tomorrow goes...