Friday August 17, 2012

Friday August 17/12 update

To bed at 2am, awake at 5, and up by 6 as the mind is just whirling with ideas.

I managed to finish a small name sign for the new Amigos English School and proceeded to check out more children’s songs.  I did not download any more as I emailed Chris about the many free ones apparently available on iTunes, of which I know nothing.  He at least has an iPod.

As a hedge, I did save my kids tunes to a memory stick and fired up our old laptop.  Unfortunately the sound on my laptop is really awful, even full blast, so I hooked it up to my computer speakers for a drastic improvement.   Then I had to slip out to Coral to pick up another set of these small speakers for $6.62.

One really good thing this morning was that I finally got a response to our GringoTree ad from a visiting US couple who are willing to come out today to see the kids.   Welcome Chris (#2) and Pamela!    I filled up my laptop backpack and headed out to meet them a few blocks from the school.  They are really a nice couple.

We had a full complement of people today, including Miguel.   Linda had made lovely nametags for everyone and then she started the afternoon off with an alphabet race game.  The original idea was to suck on a straw to pick up a piece of paper with a letter on it, then transfer that to a table across the room to spell a person’s name.   The straws were too long so Miguel came up with a participation scheme where they had to hold the paper letter between their foreheads and bring it across the room.   We pitted the boys against the girls and the girls came from behind to win 14-12.  They were really enjoying this!

Then it was my turn to find a working power outlet to power the new speakers hooked up to the old laptop.  We ended up using Chris’ speakers as they seemed to put out more sound.   We played the ABC song, Row Row Row your boat, Day-O, Michael Row your boat ashore, Mary had a little lamb, etc.  On the rowing songs I was making the rowing motions, but we don’t think the kids knew that.   We are pretty sure they just thought I was a nerd dancing and they were just howling.   Then when we got the Chicken Dance running they joined in enthusiastically.   I was leading that one and ugh, I just hate that song.

The good thing is that we did not scare off the new couple, as the new Chris has been teaching in California.and he is willing to help us plan our way forward.    Onward and upward….

Feria Libre was quite busy again today.   While waiting for the bus a couple of policemen started giving heck to two buses that didn’t pull into the bus drop-off lane.  It’s about time they start helping out with the bad traffic manners in this town.

When I finally got home by bus I was amazed at the number of people on the walkways and soon discovered the reason.   It appears the police and military took down 3 miscreants across the road and the crooks were huddled in the box of a pickup, trying to hide their identities.   We watched as a policeman crawled under 2 vehicles in the alley to check their undercarriages.  The drama is still ongoing 4 hours later..

That was today’s excitement.   Please see all photos at souvenircuenca.blogspot.com.  Hugs to all.