First Week of School!!

 We are almost done with the first week of school.  I have 8 students in my class, 3 girls and 5 boys.  Things are going well so far.  My kids are great and my schedule is even better.  The schedule is the same Monday   - Thursday and every Friday we go 1/2 day.  We start school everyday at 7:30.  Monday - Thursday we have class from 7:30 until 8:30 then my kids go to Portuguese class.  At 9:15 the kids go to Merenda (snack and recess).  They come back to class at 9:45.  At 11:30 they go to Art or PE until 12:10, which is lunch.  Lunch ends at 12:55.  Finally we get to go home at 3:00.  On Friday, We have Chapel from 7:40 - 8:30, then Portuguese from 8:30 - 9:15, and Merenda from 9:15 - 9:45.  Then I have my kids for the rest of the day which ends at noon. It really is a perfect schedule.

Here are some pictures of my classroom:

Close up of border around black background.

Close up of border around green background.

Pictures!!!

 This is my bedroom.

This is the bathroom.  The only separation between the shower and the rest of the room is a small step .  OH yeah and you cannot flush the toilet paper.  That is sure something to get used to.

I have green toilet paper.  There is also orange toilet paper available, but green is more fun.

  
These 3 pictures are of my kitchen.  The center one is my clothes dryer.  I finally have food in the fridge because Tara took my roommate and me to Lider (the grocery store) to help us get started with food.

 
 
Yesterday, Saturday, a family whose kids go to AVA took us to the Bosque.  There were all kinds of critters at the Bosque.  The Bosque is part of the rain forrest that has been fenced in so that it won't be touched by construction.  We had a lot of fun running around the rain forrest with Hannah, one of the 8th graders from AVA.
Today we went to eat lunch at their house.  This family has all sorts of critters in the back yard.  They have rabbits, chickens, and dogs.


 

Saturday!

My roommate, Carly, and I went to the Bosque (a rain forrest in the city).  We got to see all sorts of tree and critters.  (I will have pictures soon.)   After we got back, we decided to take on the bus system and go shopping.  Luckily we had our friend Kathleen who had taken the bus before to show us what to do.  We went to a couple stores then to the mall.  The mall is air conditioned, which is one of the few places that is.  Carly and Kathleen were able to find toys and such for their class rooms.  We ate dinner in the food court at the mall at this place where you put the food on your plate and they charge you by weight. Sort of like cafeteria style.  On the way back to the apartment we went to a store "that has the things Big Lots didn't want".  At this store Carly and I were able to find more things for the apartment that we still needed.  We got canisters for rice and beans, clothes hangers, small round containers for left over food, other kitchen stuff.  Carly and Kathleen were able to find other things for their classrooms there as well.  We had lots of bags by this point, so we took a taxi home.  That is interesting since none of us speak any more portugese than to say hi (oi) please (por favor) thank you (obrigada) debit (débito) and we ate "straw potatoes"  (batata palha).  

I'm Here!!!

Yesterday was crazy!  I was to fly from Memphis to Miami then to Suriname and from there to Belem.  Everything went perfectly until I got to Miami.  It took me at least 30 minutes to find the Surinam Airways counter to get my boarding pass.  Once I found the counter the people there told me that I needed a transit visa just to change planes in Suriname, even though I was told that I would not need one.  I had to lug my carry-on bags (50 lbs worth) and get a taxi to take me to the Suriname Consulate so I could get a transit visa.  I spent $15 on the taxi there then $15 on the visa and another $15 on the taxi ride back to the airport.  All this for a visa that I didn't even need, in fact the folks in Suriname never even looked at my passport.  I got into Belem and my ride was waiting for me as I came through customs at about 3:30 am.  They took me to my apartment, which I had to climb 2 flights of stairs to get to.  One was regular stairs, however very narrow, the other was a spiral stair case.  (I will have pictures coming soon, but my camera battery is dead at the moment.)  The next part of crazy is that both beds in the apartment were wet because the rain came in through the window.  So needless to say I had to change the sheets before going to bed. I finally crawled into bed around 4:30am.  I got a few hours sleep and got up around 10ish and tried to take a shower but I could not figure it out.  Then I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out the lock on the gate so I could get out of my apartment. AHHHH!  I finally got it to unlock and I made it to the school, so i could look around and meet people.