Staycation!

So, a few things have been going on lately. We had our first 4 day weekend. Almost all of the teachers went traveling around for our Independence/Teacher's day vacation. They took off Wednesday after the Independence Day parade and trickled back in Saturday and Sunday. There were mixed reviews of the vacations, but they all had stories to tell.

Kat, Lauren, and I felt a tightness on the ol' wallet and sprang for a Staycation. I was also house/dog-sitting for a missionary family that's back in the States for a few weeks. The main house/dog-sitter wanted a mini vacation too, so I subbed in for her. The house had internet, is about half a block downhill from my house, and has a very active golden retriever puppy.

Out big outing was on Friday when we walked and hitched up to the hot springs. We gave ourselves a kind of spa day and then hitched back down to town. It was a blast. Otherwise, I mostly cleaned, did laundry, or hung around in the other house. I did not do most (any) of the school work I intended to do, but I made up for it later this week.

The school week had two notable events. The first was when I learned and had the pleasure of informing one of my brightest students, who was previously being paid for by the Mayatan Foundation, which will only carry her to 6th grade, that a woman in the United States has decided to sponsor her through secondary. The look on her face was pure joy. She's the full package too. Sometimes we have stories of heart-break when a sponsor pours time and money into a student, but because of social pressures they drop out of school and get married. Elvira is smart, ambitious, and she has the familial support to go all the way. If her sponsor decides to take her through Colegio, which are the last high school years, Elvira could go college bond, easily.

The second, is the school came down with a widespread virus. Thursday night, around midnight for most of us, about 5 teachers found themselves ill. At school, 3 more came down with it, and a host of students too. That was less than exciting. Luckily, it was short lived.

Yesterday I hiked up to Yanitios with Christina and Kyle. It took us about an hour and a half to get there and on the way we saw the most incredible, huge, hairy caterpillar. I geeked out over it a tad bit. Once we did get there, both Napoleon and Dona Lucas greeted us and brought us 2 oranges each. We ground corn, then ground it more, then patted out tortillas, and cooked them. We ate a huge meal of beans with ground roasted squash seeds and tortillas. Then we explored around. Napoleon gave us nancies from a tree and took us down to where they grow sugar cane where we stood around, talking, and sucking on sugar cane. When we came back up to the house and Dona Lucas got clay so she could teach us to make whatever we chose from her pottery wall. I made a little serving dish and the others made bowls. Before we left, she gave us each a whiskil, we bought some pottery and paid her for the food. We hiked back down, stopping again at the caterpillar, who had finished his leaf and moved on to another one, and had pineapple smoothies at their house.