Ultima dia!

This is the first thing I see when I get off the bus from Guatemala city. And this is standing in the same place but aiming the camera more to the right.

I spent the morning at Colegio Maya, a private school which scholarships have been provided to a couple of the safe passage students to attend some of the time. Two girls Dalila and Alondres spent the morning with a group of about 15 to 20 kids from around the world. Many of these childrens parents are wealthy business people or diplomats. Almost all of them speak english and spanish very well, as well as another language.

The school is SO big, especially with regards to the size of the student population. It has students from grades k-12. The first thing that the girls joined in was a game, kind of relay race. They had to carry a wet sock to a bottle of water and squeeze out the sock and then hang it on a line. Whichever team filled up their water bottle first won.
They then played some other games in one of the fields.

The students then went into class which is taught in mostly english, but the teachers are (at least) bilingual as well. They were studying countries from the middle east. When the teacher began talking about camels and the difference between one humped and two humped camel one little girl piped up that one humped camels are called dromedary, even the teacher was impressed. The girl then said she only knew it because her family owns a couple camels in one of their other homes. Whoa. I think it is good for all the students involved to create a link between colegio maya and camino seguro.
The students then did an art project about camels. Below is Dalila's rendition of a dromedary arabian camel, from Egypt.

The girls were still really shy, and kept a bit to themselves. When they took out a string game and started playing another girl was watching. I encouraged them to teach her how to play too, and hope that in the next couple days they begin to make friends.

Here is some of the kids playiing hot potato. The teachers were all really nice, and many had worked for or been involved with service projects in Guatemala if not directly with Camino seguro.

This was my last day with my afternoon class! I don't think it has sunk in yet. It was an eventful day. We had activities and games, as well as worked on homework and reinforcement assignments. However, a HUGE lightning storm rolled in in the afternoon with impressive lightning and booming thunder. Water was leaking in to many of the classes, and then the power went out. While my classroom has big windows and is very lucky, one other volunteer has a huge group of 5 yearolds in a class where limited light enters. They were, of course all very dramatic. The biggest problem (besides the flooding and no light) was the fact that the bathrooms were out of order. Try telling a couple hundred kids to "hold it". Yeah, no. I like to go out with adventure though.
It was sad saying good bye to the kids. They all told me that they wouldn't forget me so I better not forget them. Don't think that that will happen. And that is a good thing.
Tomorrow after working the morning in the guarderia I will be taking an overnight bus to Tikal, which is about 11 hours away. Hopefully the weather is good! I am looking forward to seeing all my mainers soon!
mucho amor y paz y un abrazo bien fuerte!