Day 28: Friday!

This week has certainly had its highs and lows and I am definitely growing from this experience! 

We were able to get off to school early enough so I didn't feel rushed and behind before we even got started, and as we went through the day at school, I was more relaxed, knowing better what the routine (if you can call it that!) would be for the day. Friday is very different than any other day at Abbie's School, so it's taken a while for me to get in that groove.

After the first classes with the first, third, and fourth graders, we break into groups across grade levels. In those groups we're studying the rain forest and the group I'm leading is focusing on places, people, and products. It's caused me to do a lot of digging and I'm finding out new things I didn't know before! I'm having the kids look for things, too, and share them with the group. 

We will have a culminating activity in November that will be a community event. It will be an interactive experience with Abbie's School being transformed into a rain forest habitat, complete with a waterfall. My group will be building huts representing three major rain forest groups of people, and they'll be in traditional dress. We'll have a shaman and story teller for each one, too. Plus that, the kids will be showing the products that come from the rain forest. It truly is amazing how many things we use everyday that originate there. There will be food, music, maybe some dancing, and opportunities for people to make things. What a great learning opportunity for them!

When we were finished, I was able show the kids some very specials gifts a friend sent to them: beautifully personalized bookmarks. Each one had the student's name on it and was decorated amazingly! Plus that, they were all laminated, so they'll last forever! The kids were truly over the top excited about it. It was SO cool! The time and effort that went into each one is something else, and I'm so very grateful to my friend for this generous gift. 

Then we were off to the beach for our Friday swim. It was beautiful and sunny, with just the right amount of wind. Some of the parents picked some fruit from a tree and shared it. I had never seen nor heard of it before, but it's called canapas (I'm really guessing at the spelling). One parent went and retrieved enough for anyone and everyone to eat. You bite the thin but tough skin and it splits open (like in the picture). Giving an easy squeeze at the the bottom, the fruit easily slips out into your mouth! It has almost the consistency of a juicy plum but tastes like nothing I've ever had before. It was like eating popcorn, too! Once you started, you didn't want to stop!

Canapas - Yum!!!

After the beach I took the students home who had ridden with us and we went home and got cleaned up. I took a much-needed nap and then we prepared ourselves to hang out with some new friends on the island!

One of these women has a love for baking and she baked three or four kinds of cakes to sell tomorrow as a fund-raiser for the pre-school. She was amazing! She had a bakery on the main island and may open one here. She bakes cakes the way my mother-in-law bakes pies, which is nothing short of super-human. While the cakes were baking, my other new friend was making a delicious dish that consisted of a type of sausage, onion, sweet red pepper, eggplant, and I'm not sure what else. She served it with cilantro on a plate and then again in a tortilla. It was absolutely delicious. I told the two of them they need to open a shop or restaurant or something! They're amazing! We also had mango daquiris, which are pretty delicious, by the way!!!

Hannah played with their kids (one girl and four boys besides Hannah) and the house was noisy as all get-out, but we had a wonderful time and it was so nice to be with people and chat! It was a late night, but wonderful!

Thank you, God, for a great ending to a challenging week!