First Day in the Pata de Gallo Classroom.

This was my first experience in front of the children at PdG, and what a treat! All of the school’s 13 students were there ranging from the 2nd through 6th grades.

When I arrived the children had completed an exam covering shapes, colors, numbers and body parts – quite the wide-ranging test. All were all sitting in neat little rows watching Toy Story 3 being from Xinia’s computer being projected onto a white board with her “new” projector! They were able to have the “free” movie time because Xinia was testing each child individually to gauge their subject retention. Which, judging from there scores, was excellent.

After the movie we did personal introductions and I gave them a little review of body parts and gave them some homework to do for next week. These kids actually LOVE homework!

As a side note, an interesting comment on the isolation of the children in this community: Located only 9 miles from San Ramon, Pata de Gallo is quite isolated. There are only a handful of cars and TV’s in this community of about 150 people. There are no stores in town and the most of the people walk to the nearest store several miles away. The reason that Xinia chose to show Toy Story 3 was that she was sure that the most of the children had seen the previous Toy Story movies. In fact, NONE had seen them and few have actually seen full length movies at all! Needless to say, the school will be seeing a lot of the new projector! There are already plans to start a projector “lending” project. Read more Entry>>

Many Donations Received

I have received many donations in the last few days. They are much appreciated by me and the schools:

Astronomy Posters – Jeff Lockwood sent a tube full of beautiful astronomy posters. They will look great on the walls of the schools!
Classroom Supplies – Victoria Swaby, a local English teacher, donated some great classroom supplies.
Laser Printer – Thank you Frank Day for the wonderful laser printer that will be going to Rincon de Mora. A huge improvement over the ink-thirsty printer that Shirley is currently using. Frank also gave a couple of older unused laser toner cartridges that I traded for a full one that fits RdM’s new printer.
Computer Projector – This is a projector that I bought a couple of years ago and hasn’t gotten much use. I “loaned” it to Xinia to use as she sees fit and she was thrilled to get it. Something that the schools have been asking for since day 1. Read more Entry>>

Big Day For Escuela Pata de Gallo!

Today was a big day for escuela Pata de Gallo and for Adopting Escuelas. My Subaru was loaded up like Santa’s sleigh. Andres, who I fondly call my tico son, and I arrived at the school with 4 boxes of student and teacher supplies ranging from pencils and crayons to backpacks to glue to coloring books. For the cafeteria we brought a complete new set of melamine dishes and plastic cups to replace the aging ones that the children were using. Some fun stuff, too. New basketball hoops for the backboards in the play area, a bag of balls and jump ropes. Also in the back of the Subie were 3 computers.

While the teachers sorted supplies Andres and I installed one of the backboards (we left the other one for the parents to install) and set up the 3 computers. Thank you, Frank, for all the help to resurrect these computers!

All of the children stayed after school as Aida, the principal, and Xinia, the English teacher, handed out some of the much needed supplies. The kids then proceeded to play with the new jump ropes and balls for over an hour!

All in all a very rewarding day. I feel truly blessed to be able to be of some assistance to this school and to Rincon de Mora. Very rewarding! Next week I start helping out in the classroom and I can't wait.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures but all I had with me for a camera was my phone! Read more Entry>>