fresh start with the niños

Our updated schedule in Usme has been great so far. The new star chart works wonders with the kids. We keep it up on the wall to remind them that they have to behave if they want another star by their name. We even have a huge stack of stickers that they love to chose their own 'star' from (thanks mom!). We decided to be more careful with giving out the stars, but last Thursday they ALL behaved well. Brittany and I just had to give every kid a star...

They are bringing their homework to the mission and we spend a while working with them to complete it. We even had to learn the "Colombian" format of long division so that we can help them. If they don't have homework, they write in their new journals. We give them questions and they write the answers in their books. One of the questions from last week, "What would you do with a million colombian pesos?", gave us some interesting answers. We were expecting race cars and ponies, but they wrote that they would give it to their parents, to buy food for the family, to pay off debt, or to buy a house.

We are getting organized and creative with our space and had all of the kids make 'name plates'. Sam's Aunt Cathy sent some art supplies for the kids and they were perfect for this project (thanks so much!). They had to find their names from all of the foam letters and decorate their foam circle. We are now using them to mark their 'puestos' where they keep their notebooks and backpacks.

We were able to watch the superbowl this past weekend! We went downtown and found a hostel with the game on. Even though there were only a few other people there, it was a great game and fun to share one of our traditions with our Colombian friend, Lucho.

On Monday, we went to a surprise party for Ferney, a good friend from the church. The party started about an hour and a half later than planned because it took a while to get everyone together outside of his place (yes, outside...Ferney was already inside). We went into the house and yelled "sorpresa" and had a great time. Andrew, Brittany's boyfriend, is visiting and he was able to share in the Colombian fun with us.

Brittany and Andrew are in Manizales (coffee country) right now, so I'm staying with Myriam for a few days! Tomorrow, I'm heading to Usme to teach a little bit about nutrition and healthy eating (because I'm such an expert...). I realized yesterday how much having Brittany with me makes a difference. They are a little bit more difficult to control when there's only one pair of eyes looking. A fellow YASCer, Curt, is teaching alone in Ecuador and I give him a lot of credit!

Happy Valentines Day (and Feliz Cumpleaños Toots and Sara)!!

Love, Kate