Now that vacation and visits are winding down I have been able to step back, take a breath, and look at the coming year. Work will not be changing too much for me. However, instead of giving classes planned by other teachers, I will be giving English classes to preschool through fourth grade. Also, my friend Yamil and I are planing on starting a movie club. We hope to show a movie a week and have some kind of discussion around them. We are thinking to have a theme for every month, for example: classic movies, Latino movies, justice, race, etc. Once Yamil and I put our heads together there's no stopping the ideas. I was also just gifted a basketball, soccer ball, and even a good ol rugby ball which could open up some opportunities for playing with my students. Last year I played a lot of basketball with some of the high school students. I don't know if it will turn into a coaching position but it should be a lot of fun shootin some b-ball outside of school.
One challenge so far has been reaching out to our community in Ciudad Sandino. Our house, although beautiful and spacious, is closed off and walled in. I get the feeling that our neighbors look poorly on us or at least write us off a bit as the rich white folks who live in the house where the nuns used to live. It will be interesting to see if we can form good relationships with the people in our neighborhood. It's slow going so far. I will need to be really proactive about getting out into the community because our house is literally right across the street from school. It will be really easy to just go back and forth with minimal connection with the larger community.
So there you have it, some reflections because the work really starts and my nose is back to the grindstone. More to come sooon. Salud.
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