Sunday, June 22

We had a very full day today, with Meeting for Worship followed by ice-breakers and an orientation. We walked through Suchitoto and had lunch at Rinconcito del Gringo. Then we split into groups---some went shopping, a couple went swimming, some rested, and others played cards. At 4:00 we reconvened and spent the next two hours sorting our ESL materials, forming teams and teambuilding, then planning the lessons for tomorrow. We have four teams, and each team is really stepping up to the challenge. They have made lesson plans, really thought through what they are doing, and made the materials that they wanted that they didn't already have. Our pre-dinner planning was punctuated by a downpour that knocked out all the electricity, but some folks really enjoyed running around in the rain. Very refreshing!

Robert, however, has come down with a fever and is feeling terrible, so he didn't join us for the late afternoon or evening session. Andrew has checked in on him and we are hoping that he'll be feeling better tomorrow.

At 6:00 seven youth from El Bario came for dinner, and fortunately our dining room has a battery operated light so that we could see each other. These five young men and two young women speak very little English, but we interspersed them among our group and everyone valiantly attempted to communicate. There were definitely some awkward moments until people figured it out. After dinner we moved all the tables aside, put the chairs in a circle, and engaged in some dinámicas or ice-breakers. These games involved running, hanging onto each other for dear life, and huge amounts of laughter. We will be meeting with these youth throughout the week and some of them will be our Spanish teachers.

We ended the evening with more planning for tomorrow and then our youth played cards for awhile. The biggest event was when a toad got into the boys' room and we had to call the caretaker to remove it, thinking it was one of the poisonous variety. Evidently it wasn't as the caretaker picked it up with his hands and carried it out to the garden.