Day 11: School

Tuesday September 8, 2009

Vocabulary

castor: beaver

deslizar: to slide

yacer: to lie (not the false witness type)

Photos

Las Salinas

La Escuela

Kids Goofing Off 1

Kids Goofing Off 2

Today we went to the salt mines ("las salinas").  They are pretty run down and haven't been active for years, but the area is really beautiful.  One of my favorite spots in Dominica was a large forest of coconut trees that you pass on the way to Roseau, the capital city, and I've been keeping an eye out for a similar spot here.  There are plenty of palm trees, but usually in small groups.  But today on the way to Las Salinas we passed a true coconut forest much like the one in Dominica.

A few days ago I had planned to go to school with Luis to visit his English class but then I got sick and was unable to go.  Today was the only other day he had English, so after visiting Las Salinas (Luis goes to school in the afternoon) I went to his school.  It turned out his English teacher was sick, so I didn't end up getting to visit an actual class.  The kids just goofed off and sat around until their next class--no substitute teacher or supervision of any kind.  

The school schedule is much more flexible here than in the states and in general education is just not emphasized that much.  While I've been here all the kids have missed multiple days and no one seems to mind.  Luis is 13, and this will most likely be his last year of school because he's just not that interested in it.  

There are plenty of other things kids here are interested in besides school, and the two "goofing off" albums demonstrate some of those things.

I gave Luis two books for his birthday, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and "The Mouse and the Motorcycle."  I continued my family's tradition of reading the Narnia books aloud by reading some of TLTWATW outloud to Luis and some of the other kids, and I finished reading it to myself today.  Today's vocabulary are words I learned from that book.  "Castor" ("beaver") I had no reason to know before, but "deslizar" ("to slide") and "yacer" ("to lie") are useful words (and used VERY often in the book) that I'm surprised I did not know.  But now I do : )

Today it rained really hard during the day for the first time.  It was definitely some of the most impressive rain, and thunder, I've experienced in my life.  Luckily we were all home at the time with no urgent need to leave.  I did worry about it lasting so long that I might have to go to the bathroom, since the outhouses are not connected to the rest of the house, but it ended up lasting less than an hour.


This evening I sat down with Ester and then Alfredo to make sure I've got the family tree written down and also the names of everyone in my photos.  I don't have all the family names memorized, but at least I have them written down.