Independance Day

So the celebrations have finally ended for independance day. Usually it only lasts 2 days but this year it was 4. One of my highlights was the children´s stalls on the Thursday. Each class had a stall selling food and drink they had made at home with their families. Lots of the children had dressed up in traditional clothes which i just loved. I played in a game of football with the boys and about half the team was dressed in huasos which i just found bizzare! Another highlight was the parade on the 18th around CholChol. Leona and I both dressed in Huasas and walked with the children from the school. There was other childrens from rural schools in the parade aswell. At the end of it we all got birthday cake to celebrate the 200th birthday of Chile. Later we went round to one of the teachers houses and i was expecting a huge meal but when we got there she told us to make ourselves at home and showed us all the empanas in the fridge. She was going out to her friends for lunch and left us in her house! Feeling slightly uncomfortable with this, we decided to phone another teacher who warmly invited us round to her house the have a hugh meal with her family. When we left I thanked her and told her the food had been delicious although Leona later told i have said she was delicious!
I helped in the wee ones class this morning although there are never very many children early in the morning as all the buses haven´t arrived from the rural parts yet. Eveyday a bus collects all the children from the countryside and brings them to school. Some live up to 2 hours away from CholChol. Some of the children stay in the boarding house but others decide to do the journey everyday. We took the bus home with the children one day to see abit of the countryside. Some of the house were just amazing: made out of straw others looked like sheds. They were all spread out and dotted about the hills. Alot of them looked like mini farms with a few chickens here and a few pigs there. When all the children had gone except one boy we started our climb up a hill. When i looked at the road ahead i couldn´t actually believe the driver was even going to attempt it. The hill was vertical and the surface rocky! The driver tried once and failed and i didn´t know if i should laugh or cry. With his second attempt and alot of gas we made it...just! but after about a 30 mins drive to the top of the hill we dropped off the one boy. I couldn´t believe how far they went just for one boy! And the driver does it twice a day every day. But the views from the top were amazing well worth the scary journey up!
R xxx

teaching

I just got my timetable on tuesday and taught my first class. I taught colours to a class of about 40 five year olds although the previous voluteers had already taught the colours to them already, so that meant what was suppose to take 45 mins took about 5! so not very successful although i am sure there are going to be many more lessons like that to come.This morning I helped the same class with their reading which for me was quite challenging because it was in spanish. But I am pretty sure i got the pronounciations right! but it was very hard to keep their concentration as there was other much more interesting things going on around the room. one boy i was helping kept blowing his nose on his sleeve which was just lovely. But they just have the most cutest faces you can´t get annoyed at them. They always greet you with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, which is the usual greeting here in Chile. In another class i helped with colouring in. They were colouring in all things related to chile in prep for Independance day on the 18th of September. It is the 200th anniversity so it is going to be bigger than ever with girls and boys dressed in the national dress and dancing the chaca through the streets and lots of foooooood! the girls in the boarding house went over the chaca dance again last night so i´m hoping to have it down for the 18th! The school is now covered in decorations. we helped the girls in the boarding house 2 nights ago put up their decorations. one girl bravely stood on and chair balanced on a table to put up the really high ones and then while she was up there told us she hated heights! Got to go now as i have a class of 10 years to awaiting me!
Rxxx

some pictures of chol chol. i have many more!