To many things to post about.

Me and Keili playing dress up with the things her Aunt Adrienne sent with Grandma and Grandpa.

School

         We did some fun stuff in school last week in our centers. I have some pictures for you. Recently most of our craft projects have been music makers, because our classroom collection is lacking and it is no fun if only the teacher gets to make one!

Playing the Apple Game. Role the dice and read then number and then put that many apples (beads)  on the tree. Get rid of yours first and you win!

Writing their names with stencils.

Kazoos!!! Kevin told me he would hunt down the person who sent one of these home with his kids,  cause yea they are kind of annoying but way fun. Toilet paper roll, wax paper, and a rubber band.

Some early arrivals helping me prep our tin cans for projects. My part of the prep way worse, old evaporated milk at the bottom of a can after opening to wash it- disgusting. 

Painting with Monster Cars!

Paper- Macheing balloons to make maracas to make music of course!

Some of the chalk art during free play outside.

         During my afternoons I make a lot of messes in my house creating things for school, of getting stuff together and coming up with ideas to take home to do with the kids at the orphanage. Last week I collected some rocks from Auden's worksite and I painted them to look like dominoes. Kevin told me they were flawed because they don't sit on the table on their sides like real dominoes. But kids like hoarding things in their laps anyways, so I didn't see it to be that big of a problem. And it cost nothing. 

Homemade dominoes.

       Speaking of things costing nothing, I have recently been telling people to save all sorts of things from milk cartons, to eggs shells, and they all look at me like I am crazy but it is fun for the children! Last week I asked the moms if they could bring to school their used milk cans. They all looked at me like I was crazy and asked why I just told them it was for a project. We are going to make little drums (more music) and we are going to make the tin can luminaries- pictures to come when the projects are complete of course.

This is the Wall Auden Built

       I may have mentioned previously that Auden and Wendy had purchased a small piece of land about 3 blocks down from where we are currently renting. Recently they have begun to build. Auden did all the digging to prep the land to pour the concrete by himself with the help of one worker. Then he was able to hire Maura's son Henry to pour the columns and the floor thanks to a donation. After that he was able to purchase the materials to begin building the walls, but doesn't have extra money to hire help yet- it is a future plan for sure when the rest of the money comes in. However, for now he is stacking his bricks by himself. 

The bulding. It will have two classrooms. Auden working on the left one in the middle a hall, the right another class. Behind that a bathroom, girls and boys. Then in the back an apartment for a teacher and one for Auden and his family. They will also be able to build a second floor, and to the left they will build a sanctuary. 

     Last Monday I had some time in the afternoon and didn't have anything pressing to do for school, so I walked down to help if I could if not just to take a picture proving that he is actually building his wall and not anyone else. 

I have to be honest, this is posed. I had already finished my work, when Auden said he would take a picture to prove I helped.

    At first he had me filling in the gaps between the blocks with cement but it was getting in the way of his level string, so then I filled the holes in the cinder blocks on the bottom of a wall so he could begin building up.

    I didn't do much work, but I tried. Then I wheelbarrowed some cinder blocks from the pile to his wall, with the help of 2 of our moms. They had seen us on the way to the school because it was their week to clean, so we moved a good load of blocks to him then I had to go and unlock the school for them, etc. 

Carmen's mom helping out.

    He is actually out working today again, but I am sitting here while a mom cleans the school, and trying to rest I am super pooped from the weekend, and kind of have a little head cold I want to annihilate. 

Starting the second wall.

Chicken!

       Kevin created a behavior chart for the boys house at the orphanage a while back, you do not want points. At the end of the week the chart decides who gets to watch TV and play video games, and who gets the reward of chips and a soda. At the end of 5 weeks if they have less than 9 points, I believe, for the whole time period then Kevin treats them to chicken at the polleria. I always get to go, and he lets me bring baby too. Baby love chicken and fries.

     Recently we went just us to get chicken cause dinner was kind of skimpy, and baby got to tag along, and we took him to the 3rd floor for the first time. the 3rd floor has a playscape ball pit included. So I went in with baby and he warmed up to it but wasn't good on his own yet. Then I took all the kids who did excellent on their report cards and baby came again to get chicken and play. And he loved playing with the girls in the pit but again had to be with someone. This past weekend it was time to take the boys again and baby was in there throwing balls at them, and laying on his back wildly kicking his feet and swinging his arms giggling. 

    And now if you take baby to get chicken and stop at the second floor, he walks over to the stairs going up, looks for approval, and says yeah?

Grounded

      I mentioned that I took the kids who did excellent to the polleria for dinner, but didn't mention that most didn't do so excellent, resulting in a ban of the television for the entire month of November- for all of them even if they did well. So, I have been trying to think of more things we can do at the house on the weekends that doesn't involve the tv.

      The girls like making Friday a dance night, so they taught the the hora loca dance that is played at any party you go to in Peru. In turn I taught them the Cupid Shuffle, they liked it. They also ask me to do exercises with them, so I just throw some yoga, lunges, arm circles, and calf rises together and they are whining at me in pain.

They have also been painting their nails, but they don't stay painted that long.  They scratch them right off then do something else the next day.

     Saturday, however, is more difficult to entertain them. It is so long, especially when the Pastors are at a conference and there is no bible school for the children in the afternoons. So this week the plan was to use the rest of my soil and seeds from school and we could color eggshells to be faces and plant the seed in them, because they had had scrambled eggs one morning and Kevin had them save the eggshells. (However, he then left and forgot to tell Juana and she compulsively cleans so the boys house shells were gone, and the girls didn't tell Arlita who also compulsively cleans so she threw their out too- they had even rinsed them and everything!) So, only a few girls got to plant some seeds when like 6 eggs were used in the kitchen (and I forgot to take a picture- their faces were cute).

     Since I had been using a lot of recycled things in school for our projects, I remembered back to my childhood and the days of Skip-it's. So I brought the necessary supplies to make one like my mom me when I was 11. The girls thought I was crazy the whole time I was putting them together, when I took them outside to show them what to do with it they asked if I was ok. After I showed them how awesome I still am at Skip-it they were pretty impressed and wanted to try it.  Some of them were naturals, others smack their feet a few times with the can.

Betsi mastering the Skip-it. A taped lid, some rope, and a tuna can.

Even Ricardo was a pro, the girls were impressed.

     I also took my curling iron because girls love to do each other's hair, and they all requested that I bring it again next weekend so I will. 

Mary after I curled her hair. She laughed the whole time  cause she has never had curls, but she loves it and wants curls everyday.

     I thought it would be a fun idea to make cookies with cookie cutter I had bought for school since that is a processed task and could take up a Saturday making gingerbread cookies for 30 kids. However the oven was in use all morning for Maribel's baby shower as were the pans I needed, and I had to make my ginger and cloves into powder myself, so we did it Sunday instead. Which meant it was more rushed, but it was still fun!

Merly, Greisi and Sibila helping me cut out cookies.

Jacky showing the little boys how to cut out cookies.

Baby wanted to help too. 

He loved the flour.

More boys helping us out!

How does the chicken cross the road?

     In America, the first thing that gets put into a plot of land being readied for development it the water lines, and anything else they want to put under the ground. Then they build houses and such after. In Peru it seems to have been quite the opposite. Since most areas come to be because people just squat on the land first and then it slowly develops, the part of Pacasmayo the orphanage is in is just now getting sewage and water. Which is really good for them, it will better the standard of living for sure. 

    It would have been nice, however to have a little warning of what was happening. 2 weeks ago the started digging wells at the intersecting street corners, a little inconvenient for traveling in a vehicle. Last Tuesday Kevin comes to visit me in Trujillo and when he goes back Wednesday there are fifteen foot ditches on 3 of the 4 sides of the open space in front of the orphanage. One of which being 10 in front of the door and main gate to the orphanage. Directly blocking any vehicle from going in or out. 

This is what the front of the house looks like now.

    

     Unfortunately no one at Casa de Paz was forewarned of this event, and so the Combi (the van) is stuck inside until said ditches are filled. It could have been moved into the church if they had been told ahead of time, and would still have use of the van for emergencies or to take the kids to the beach like they asked this weekend, but it is Peru. So it is also grounded?

the giant ditch

The planks the kids get to walk over to get anywhere outside or the orphanage.

    One of the ditches was filled on Saturday so here is hoping the rest are filled quickly too!

Some videos.

This is baby playing his first video game on the computer. It is on fisherprice.com , all he has to do is press any key and something pops up at him. He loves it and asks for it every morning I am here. He also knows more keyed commands on my computer than I do! Haha.

Kevin and Paolo throwing some rocks at the beach, being boys. Fun day.

This is for Wendy some of Josiah's first little running steps to mom. This was at our garden trip, he may be walking this week!

This is a video of Saul. He is one of the younger brothers that came on our field trip, and all he wanted was to catch a pigeon. He wasn't successful but has an adorable laugh!

Fun Week

Rock Time

         This past Monday when I was off from school chilling out in Pacasmayo, Kevin and I went took Paolo to the market to do some shopping. After the market we were super hungry and bought some bananas and went to the beach to throw some rocks. Paolo is not so talented at walking on the rocks but he loves it. you have to be careful though because he always tries to pick up the biggest and throws it right next to your knee or leg or ankle, yes it hurts. 

Picking up the big rocks, of course.

Remember these?

          Every memory of my own preschool experiences, and church nursery school includes a set of those cardboard, brightly colored, brick blocks. If you need help remembering here is what they look like. 

photo stolen from target.com

       Well a few weeks ago I realized that the milk boxes here are basically that exact same size and shape.  So I started saving my milk boxes, and had Wendy do the same. I wish I had thought of this sooner because we could have close to a hundred fun boxes to play with and could build a giant fort for ourselves. Because over a period of 3 weeks I have 26 colorfully wrapped blocks not even counting Wendy's 7 or so from this week.  So if we had been saving since March in preparing for school with the amount of milk we drink, we could make a city of milk boxes. ( I drink between 3-5 liters of milk a week, Wendy has 2 kids and almost go through a liter a day, if we have juice on hand that is even more boxes!-each box is a liter)

Before and After

    Wendy will be well prepared with blocks for next year. 

Our stack of blocks, it even grew by 14, 2 days after I took it when I got Wendy's boxes!

Building!

Baby gets new clothes

    Babies grow pretty frequently and quickly as everyone knows, which means they need lots of clothes. The orphanage has a whole storage area full of clothes for all sizes of kids boys and girls. For good reason it is under lock and key, and only a few people have this key. However, the problem is that the people who have this key are never there when I am, and no one else seems to have the motivation to go search for clothes like I do. So the poor baby has been squeezing his head into too small shirts for a while. And Friday night when the poor guy couldn't stand up in his footy pajamas cause they were too tight, I knew this weekend it had to be done. But I didn't get to it till Tuesday cause Gina wasn't there all weekend and she has the key. So Wednesday morning I receive an email from Kevin with a picture of baby in some of his new clothes.

Soccer Jersey and shorts with tall socks to accompany one of his favorite words- Goal!

And his little pumpkin Kevin and I picked up for him because he loved the pumpkins the kids carved so much, this is the one he can play with,  Monday and Tuesday I just kept putting his snacks in there, he loved it. 

Paseo (Field Trip) to the Botanical Gardens

Keili and I waiting at the gate for the kids to arrive on their bus for our adventure!!!

        One day when I was heading home from the mall I felt like walking a little before hoping on a bus.  Since I was walking I noticed more things than, and I came across the Botanical Gardens. So, that week I took Keili on an exploratory trip cause it is free (!) and we wanted to see if it would be a fun trip for the kids (Keili, age 3, my test subject). At the end of the trip Keili informed me it was a good idea to bring the kids. About a week ago we finished our unit in school about plants, and we finally were able to go on our field trip to the botanical gardens in Trujillo. 

     It turned out to be a really great trip, all the kids absolutely loved it! Upon entering we were even taken around part of the gardens by someone who worked there. She taught us about all the animals there, and some of the plants. The kids payed attention pretty well for the most part. At one point they were distracted and she asked if the rabbits were covered in feathers and some of the kids said yes! She sure got them, haha. After our tour we sat in the grass, ate some snacks and the kids chased pigeons!

Taking a peak at the map while awaiting our guide. They have a section for all the regions in Peru, the coast, the jungle, and the mountains

Turtles! By far one of the kids favorite thing at the garden. 

Then we saw the aquatic turtles, there was a big one, a little one, and a middle sized one.

The Peacock, or the royal turkey as it is called in spanish.  He thinks he is all that. 

Looking at the birds from the jungle, he even flipped upside down for us.

Me and my "nephew", Josiah. Who may be walking this week, he took some pretty good quick strides solo this day while hanging in the grass.

Segundo, Neiver, and Richard taking their picture with the turtles somewhere behind them. I love their faces.

Chasing the pigeon. I thought I had taken a cute video of this, but turns out it was only  like 10 secs long and 5 of it was the ground, good job Samantha. 

Me and my students who came. 

Here are some of our plants

        I remembered to take a few pictures of our plants before they got sent home today!

This was one of the beans that we started in baggies, with a cotton ball soaking in H2O ad taped to my door. 

These are some Marigolds. 

These are the Portulucas, if that is even how it is spelled. 

In my class let there be art everywhere

Some art we did with beans (seeds) when we did our plant studying. Good thing about Peru there are lots and lots of different beans to go with your rice- or glue on paper. 

First they drew a design with a pencil then wendy and I squirted some glue along their drawing and they filled in the beans. this is Keili's- age 3. We helped with the drawing.

While learning about plants we also did some learning about farm animals. So what better than to create them with your hands and feet!

A bee and Pig

A cow and a turkey

Two horses.

Plants, Pumpkins, and Possibly More

Two of my students playing at the park. The swing has broken many a time so it is now really tall  they need help from a local rock, and they like to swing 2 at a time.

The plants

        Unfortunately I have no pictures to show you of our plant project. I had taken pictures from the beginning of our experiments and to the results, however an unfortunate incident occurred at my home and my camera was swiped. So I don't have those pictures, and then when Kevin loaned me his small one I forgot to take pictures of our now growing flowers.

       But I can tell you about them anyways. I wanted to do the lima bean in a bag project with the kids as we started our plant unit. But I could never find lima beans, so instead I found one larger but similar. I decided to do a test before I did it with the kids just to see if it would work. So I put two beans in their own baggies with a cotton ball soaked in water, and taped them to my bedroom window. Unfortunately all it yielded was one molding bean and a strange smelling bean.

       I decided to give it a go anyways with the kids, but changed the location of the taping. I instead put it outside on the bathroom door, because I thought that my window just didn't receive enough sunlight and the door would. And if nothing happened well that is a lesson in science and experiment doesn't always bring positive results or the outcome you hypothesized. 

      But within a week we had roots coming out of our beans. Not all of them, there were a few duds. And soon after the roots with a little extra water and of course more sunlight, the kids were delighted and amazed to see their big beans in a bag growing roots and stems with leaves. 

      They also really enjoyed putting their beans in dirt, and taking them home. I do not know if they are still alive or not but there is one still at my house that is growing magnificently. 

       We also plant some flowers from seeds directly into little cups with soil. Those I can eventually put up pictures when I remember to take more and have Kevin's cord to put them on my computer. But we are growing Marigolds and Portaluca (think that is how it was spelled don't remember). The kids had no idea what soil was and were kind of amazed looking at it and smelling it. It is different than the dirt we live in which is a fine silt/sand. But the kids really loved learning about plants. We have finished with the unit but are getting to finally take our trip to the botanical garden this Thursday- I will post, Keili and I are excited because there are Tortoises! 

Centers

      So I have finally accumulated enough things- now that school is almost out of course- to set up my classroom how I really want it, IN CENTERS! Centers are wonderful, and in Pre School or Kindergarten they work really well and way better than normal class instruction.

Doing their work at the fine motor center, they like this one.

     The kids were all thrown off on Monday of course, when they walked into class and began walking to the box where they normally put their backpacks, to find it wasn't actually there. Instead they found a carpet rectangle and a box of books in its place. They looked so confused, I tried to redirect them as they came running into school, but a few slipped by and came up to me so lost.

Searching for the stamps that have the letters they need to write their name and some words we have learned while studying plants.

      But after we made it through our morning routine they, I explained the centers, and they loved them. Friday when I told them that the next week we would have new things at the centers they got even more excited. So, here is for a good close to the school year working on our fine motor skills, exploring books, discovering math, beginning a desire for literacy, and working on socialization skills- cause that is what Pre School is all about!

They love books! They are ever looking at two of them I have made (the 2 on the left) , a skill I picked up from Jamie Young in my Practicum. 

      (Side kind of funny annoying story. I moved the big shelf/future home of cubbies across the room, all the tables and chairs, and the heavy wooden chairs to create our new floor plan Sunday night by myself. Monday great day, Tuesday great day loving the centers, Tuesday afternoon the moms come to clean asked if they could move stuff around to get it cleaned well, I said of course. When I came out of my room as they were leaving it was all back in the original floor plan. So Wednesday morning I had to move it all again.)

My "Niece"

      I have mentioned several times my friends Wendy and Auden, they are the people I am teaching for. They are currently building on their property with plans to be in their own building next school year. Auden has been coming to Trujillo a lot by himself to work and Wendy at the kids end up staying in Jequetepeque a lot. Every once in a while when only Auden in coming he will bring a long his daughter. I used to be Nana Sam when Josiah was newborn, but now I am Aunt Sam. So Keili gets to have a bunch of hang out days with Aunt Sam in Trujillo.

     This week I have to say were some of our best hang out days.  She came because I had a pumpkin for us to carve. They got in just in time that she got to go to school with the kids- which she loves- and then after when we were waiting for Carmen's mom to come we went ahead and started carving the pumpkin. I think it was her first pumpkin to carve, she thought it was great!. She being three meant I did most of the carving, but she helped scoop out the insides, and squealed with excitement after every piece came out and reminded me not to miss the next whisker.

scoopin out the foochiness

Finished! What should we name it? Cat- that she picked up from me.

     Then since we finished our pumpkin before lunch (and that was what I had planned for the afternoon) I decided we should go see a movie (cause it is cheap). So we went to see her first movie in theaters! Top Cat and His Gang, my first movie in theaters was 101 Dalmatians, haha.  We made it just in time as we walked in the lights were dimming for the trailers to start. We got the whole theater to ourselves and only paid for one ticket- even though Keili should have had one the lady just said the one and assumed she was under 3? Fine with me we had popcorn money!

At the movies!!!!

    She loved the movie, talked through the whole thing commenting on the story and the characters, and when it was done said "another one Sam," like when we are at the house and we can put in another dvd or replay it, she is cute.

This girl loves her some pizza

    Then we played with the toys in some stores and had PIzza Hut, she slept the entire way home and through the meeting at the house she was so worn out. 

4 Little Pumpkins

    The other week Kevin and I ran across real pumpkins in one of the grocery stores in Trujillo. Wendy and I have used a different gourd/squash thing as a substitute for pumpkin in baking cause the orange pumpkins aren't native to Peru- they grow great but not found really. But being in Trujillo means even more Americanized and they had Halloween stuff out, and there were pumpkins! I was super excited!

    Kevin decided we should have a carving contest with the girls and boys at the orphanage. So this week he bought 4, 2 for each house.  Rules: Sam and Kevin could carve/help with one, and the second the kids had to do all on their own. Bruce, our resident Canadian would be the judge to see who was the winner of 2 big bottles of coke. It was on.

And it begins.

A little instructional time with Jacky and Sibila

Practice before the big event

   As far as competitive goes, these kids are champs. The girls and I decided on our designs and went to work. I showed the girls how the best way was to carve, and the technique for getting your details without making a wrong slice.  On "my" pumpkin I only carved the eye then the rest was practice for the girls, and some opportunity for the littler ones to give it a try (w/o risking the one for the competition).

The non-carvers Azucena, Sibila, and Merly playing some dominoes. They love dominoes, thanks mom. 

Becoming professional carvers on their first pumpkin.

    I was a little worried the Mickey was going to be too complicated but they were kind of awesome. Three girls did the carving for Mickey and I have to say he turned out great!

The pros. Katia, Lucero, and Ruth Karina

The left the girls did themselves. The one on the right I carved the eye and about 6 of the girls jointly carved the mouth.

    We were not declared the winners though, Bruce liked the boys pumpkin better because it was more traditional. O well, Kevin gave the girls a bottle anyways cause he is a sucker and thought theirs was better. So then I heard all day about why everyone got some and was asked who won over and over again, kids are silly. But it was really fun and the kids loved it, baby is amazed by the pumpkins and wants to play with them. 

The one on the left is what beat us. The right is Kevin's he is talented. 

They look better glowing!

A Few random Fun things

    I am not really a creative person. People think I am because I can create things. However, most things I make or do are gleaned from someone or somewhere else. Here are a few fun things I have gleaned and made for school. These are some of the things I do to fill my afternoons. Tis the life of a teacher with lots and lots of time.

Some things to add to the music box. A little cardboard, paint, and some bottle caps and we are ready to make some rhythm!!!

I made some stamps with foam rubber and wood blocks the girls at the house tested the for me. 

My plan is to have these for school, we will see if the girls let them take them home. 

In this world ya gotta work

This is Doane if he could work. Haha. Saturday was his 6th birthday and this is what he bought with Mr. Bruce with his birthday cash!

    As far as me working when I get back, well I have finally started applying places. So pray for that. I applied for one in Hays CISD for a middle school Special Ed Life Skills teacher, one in Comal ISD for a Sped Support teacher at Canyon HS, and am finishing up an app for Leander ISD for a Elementary Life Skills, and a General ed 4th grade position.
   I still have more searching to do, and the options are up I-35 near the family or friends who have offered me a room- cause they are wonderful. I would really like to get the one in Hays cause that is my favorite, but the Canyon one would be ok too, cause then I can live with Mandi and be close the San Marvelous, and my church from college and what I was doing before I fled- haha I kid left the country.