Visitors! and other things

In which I hang out with the Weavers and the Ramos family in Texistepeque for the weekend... I had been looking forward to this for quite some time, especially since I got invited to the Ramos residence for a whole weekend of being with people from my own church! The weekend didn't disappoint, either. We played games, sat around, and basically just did a lot of catching up. Facebook and Skype do a lot of things, but they don't replace actual interaction. :) Some highlights:

• Sitting around and talking
• Playing games (Black 7, Corn Hole, etc.)
• Watching Kendrick and laughing at all his minion-like sounds and indescribable escapades (we watched Despicable Me one too many times with him)
• Walking the town at night and watching fútbol (soccer, for all you Americanos)
• Passing out Antorchas in the local town

Alverda wasn't able to come along to pick me up from the school, because of a serious sunburn. On the way back, though, everyone came along and I showed them my classroom and where I live and we took group pictures. (see below) It was a bit hard saying good-bye to the visitors, but it was fun while it lasted, and I was glad for the opportunity to see them.

Some other things that happened here at school since last time...

Invariably, when learning something new, especially relating to language learning, one eventually makes a mistake that's either a painful recollection or humorous incident. Every Thursday, we staff have a meeting out in the veranda to have devotions and to discuss each of our plans for the following weekend. We were required to avoid using English. When my turn came, I eventually got said what I wanted to say, but it was afterwards when I made a rather unfortunate gesture*. Elmer, the deaf maintenance man, just saw some of it without any context and reacted with an incredulous expression on his face. I was innocent and didn't see it, but Matthias said it was hilarious. We all laughed for a while and then that was that. But, it confirmed what I already know--don't gesture randomly around people using sign language if you don't know what you're doing! *I won't post here what the word was that I signed, but just know that it had the potential to be kinda awkward. Thankfully, it wasn't. :)

Our sewer system has been giving us fits for the last couple weeks now. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not the maintenance man! (or the lady who does the cleaning, for that matter) Four times now, water has come up the shower drains, toilets haven't flushed, etc. I'll spare you all the gory details. :) The first two times, we think it was caused by a rag being in there and the last time, there was a shirt stuck in the pipe. That'll do it every time! We think we have it fixed now, but we'll see. I'll keep you posted if you're interested. :)

Now that school has been going for a week, the "newness" of it all has worn off a little for the students, so it's a little harder to keep their attention, but it's still going well. My main focus the last couple days has been number sequences in math. My students struggle to understand "what comes next" when I give them a number. I'll work on it, and hopefully I'll be able to pound it in.

My students are all at slightly different learning abilities, so I have to kinda juggle my time between the three of them. The hardest thing is to keep them all occupied and busy, even when I'm just working with one student. If you leave one student, especially the youngest ones, with nothing to do for even 10 seconds they will start horsing around. It takes a lot of patience, but it's worth it by far!

Some prayer requests:

• For wisdom and patience as I teach and interact with the children
• Beatriz won't be coming to school, details in last blog post
• Jairo, the 6 year old, has been sick twice now. Pray that he could feel better.
• Thank God for the lovely weather and that our visitors (James, Leonard, and Alverda Weaver) and the Ramos' could have a safe trip to Guatemala and back home.

Thanks for praying and for your support. I really appreciate it! Email me at samuel@mikesclan.com if you like.

We stopped at the local nevería for some ice cream.
Thanks Kendrick for taking the picture!

Wouldn't be James without at least one model airplane around, right? :)
This was Sunday at the Ramos' house.

The poor parrot had to endure much pain and suffering with us around
teasing him all the time.

I wanted a group picture to remember this occasion by, so we took one in
my classroom.

Always need a crazy pic, right? :)

Mornings and evenings are so beautiful around here!

Jairo--what a goober. Giddy-up cowboy! :)

Iced coffee is regular afternoon fare around here. It's especially welcome as
a break from studying and preparing for the next day's class.

Waiting until the dishes are done, so we can head over to the chapel for
afternoon devotions. Left to right: Silvia, Paola, Teresa, Andrea, Ana,
Clifton, Carlos, Kevin, José, Eduardo, Mauricio, Melody, Joel