We arrived at 10:00 am at La Caleta to teach and found one of our students asleep on the church's keyboard! Now that is a serious student..There was no power and no water and it felt like a sauna, but other than that it was great. Most of the students were there but with no power you can't play the keyboards so Scott did some board work with them on recognizing the keys by name and location. Some of the kids pick that right up and others struggle. This is the only group, other than the Institute classes, that doesn't have adults in it. A few started but decided they would never be piano players and quit. No power meant no fans to circulate the hot air.
Each week we pass this guy selling crabs in the street - such an interesting display.
At our next lesson, Los Melinos, the metal thing they call a gate was locked. We were a little early but as time went on and no one came to unlock it one of the students left to find the guy with the key.
As we sat outside the gate there was a group of young boys playing on the rocks by the gate. They always want you to take their picture, so I did..They are cute kids! You can't help but wonder just what their lives will be here.
So when we finally got into the little parking area in front of the church - no one must drive to church here -one of our bubbly little students was posed in front of the church door:
Pretty doors don't you think?? This is far from a nice looking church on the outside but the inside is nice and spacious. Between the rooster crowing and the music blasting from the little store across the street it was hard for an ADD person like me to stay focused on the lessons. To be honest, I will miss those sounds just a little bit.
Well when we did get into the building guess what?? No power - so no keyboards - and no fans working. The building wasn't quite as hot as the last one but I could hardly wait to get home and shower. On these busy days I am so grateful we had the opportunity to get away for a little while with the kids when they came here. I'm ready for another vacation but we have to much to do!
In this class we have three young girls who can outplay any of the other students and so when Scott was doing the lesson, on the board again, he just called on the older ones who weren't as quick. It was hilarious to watch them try to get his attention to call on them because they knew all of the answers.
On the road again. This time to Hainamosa. Every church here is behind locked gates but this time the gate was open AND we had power! We had more students than tecladas. Hot, hot, hot
in that big room because it has no fans. The older class came to practice for their recital - they never want to leave. Finally two hours later they wanted to lock the building so kicked us all out. Hooray!
We have certainly come to love Brother Felix who has worked so hard to be able to play a couple of simple songs. Scott was absolutely determined that he was going to be able to learn and just kept with him week after frustrating week.
SUNDAY:
Off to pick up the kids. It was even the same bunch we had last week - that is unusual!
How special these kids are. Olgalidia said William is not doing very well in his new venue of fruit and vegetable selling. We want to have the kids here again before we leave. It would be fun just to have William's kids and a couple of the cousins but as soon as they tell everybody in their neighborhood they are coming there are four to eight more added. So we end up with kids we don't even know - like the little five year old boy we take to church every week. Have no idea who he is or where his mother is but he climbs in the car every week. It was a calm sacrament meeting with just four kids!
In Relief Society they asked me to say the closing prayer - of course I didn't realize that because I can rarely understand what they are saying so was reading my scriptures instead of listening. Suddenly I realized everyone was looking at me and couldn't figure out why. Oracion? Finally I
understood. I was going to say it in English but decided to try Spanish. Now I am a witness of the "open your mouth and I will fill it" scripture! Actually after the prayer all thirty women were clapping for me - it was nice of them to care.
We had half an hour at home before our lesson at San Cristobal which is forty five minutes away on a good traffic day. This is the other class getting ready for a recital so they just worked on the songs they were going to play. Sure love this class! I think they are my favorite group.
Then load up, head out to another lesson in Oriental. This is a huge class and if it weren't for two of our graduated students we would never have been able to help everyone. We had 17 tecladas and 24 students using classroom tables and chairs stacked on top of each other to make tables. Thank heavens for a big auditorium with air conditioning. At least it was structured commotion.
And now, eleven hours later, we are home. Hurrah! For a tasty supper of chicken gizzards....
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