First week of school recap...

I can't remember the last time I was this exhausted. This week has been beyond crazy. Here is everything we have going on... first week of school... 2 mission teams both with about 15 people... 3 members from a church in Seattle who wanted to check out Salud y Paz for future trips... have I mentioned it was the first week of school? It was a CRAZY week, but I have realized this week how much I really love it here and working with Salud y Paz. I am going to try to summarize the week through these pictures. I really wish I had the time to write out and share everything that made this week so amazing (yet stressful). The first picture is of a little preschooler during recess time. During recess I usually stop what I'm doing and go out to the playground to play with the kids.

This is Jose the PE teacher. He comes to the school on Wednesdays and Fridays. He is great and you can tell how much the kids love him. They sing little songs which are cute and it was hilarious this morning to watch the little kids try to hula hoop with hula hoops bigger than them.

In case you haven't gotten enough pictures of me with Luisa Elaine here is another cute one from a few days ago. Just precious.

One of the mission teams here this week brought backpacks filled with supplies to all the students. Here is the first grade class with their new backpacks (which are for the most part almost as big as they are). This may be my favorite class because they have learned my name. When I walk into their class in the morning the students yell (and I do mean yell) Buenos Dias Kelly to me. Already knowing my name = favorite class.

The same team brought this parachute for the school last year, so we took it out yesterday morning to let them play with it with the students. The kids were obsessed with it, and their favorite thing to do was to try to get their heads through the hole in the middle. I couldn't get a great picture of it though because they were too quick.

They also LOVED running underneath the parachute. So much laughter and smiles.

The kids want to love on you all the time. They want to be picked up and hugged and snuggled with. They are adorable and hug so tightly.

I sat on the ground to take some pictures of the kids under the parachute and these cuties came to join me.

The kids LOVE to have their picture taken, but then I discovered yesterday that they also love to take photographs with my camera. I adore this picture and this little girl. Here I am teaching Patti (a first grader) how to take a photograph on my camera.

She took about 20 and this is my favorite one. It's actually a pretty cool picture, so I was highly impressed. Also most of the other pictures she took had her finger over the lens... precious and hilarious.

So tonight Heather and I had our upstairs neighbors down for sushi. When Heather said that she wanted to make sushi I just thought go for it because I had never made it before, but I was actually impressed at how easy and fun it was to make. Here is the first step... place seaweed on the bamboo wrap thingy.

Second step... spread out the sushi rice (Yes you can buy all this stuff here. I find it VERY odd that it is hard to find so many things from back home here, but you can find dried seaweed and sushi rice).

Third step... put all the fillings in the middle. I added carrots, green mango, avocado, chicken (weird I know, but it's what we had), and cucumbers.

Fourth step... roll the sushi using the bamboo rolling thingy. Fifth step... smile when your roommate says she's going to take a picture of you with your finished roll because she could probably tell how proud you are for making homemade sushi.

Sixth step... take a picture of your finished product then enjoy. :)

Tonight we made a fire in our fireplace for the first time. After such a long week it was great to just sit by the fire and be quiet for awhile.

So yesterday Wayne told me that he wanted to me go to Guatemala City tomorrow morning to pick up a new mission team and stay with them for the weekend in Chichicastenango. I am excited to start working with Wayne with the mission teams coming to Guatemala in addition to the work I'll still be doing in the school. I know this weekend will be a challenge for my Spanish. To be honest I am completely excited to be working more closely with the mission teams, but I am worried about my Spanish skills. I just have to keep reminding myself that the more I use it the more I will learn. Wish me luck this weekend.