Nunca Una Vez: Fall

Fall is going so fast. Less than six weeks until I'm home for Brooke's graduation from Texas A&M. School is going very well but keeping busy.

On October 1, Guatemala celebrated Children's Day. This consisted of a lunch party where our room moms brought in pizza and lots of sweets. The kids loved it of course.

Third graders and me.

Enjoying their pizza.

This weekend we celebrated All Saint's Day. Tradition is that everyone gets off school and work and visits deceased loved ones in the cemetery. They decorate their graves with flowers and wreaths and spend time honoring them. Families often eat Fiambre--which is a cold, traditional salad. It is a Guatemalan favorite. Fiambre means "cold meat," also meaning a corpse. It's cold so that they can eat it throughout the day in the cemetery. Because we were in El Salvador last year, I didn't really get to see this holiday celebrated. We visited the cemetery in Xela for the first time (first time for me) and it was huge and decked out. We spent some time flying kites and just hanging out. To my own surprise, it was a joyful celebration in and around the cemetery. People were not somber, but celebrating the lives of those passed.

My neighbors flying a kite.

We have been doing an earth science unit the last month or so in Science. It has been a blast to teach it and my kids have been loving it. I can't imagine having this much fun teaching earthquakes and volcanoes to students. My kids have been eager to learn how earthquakes happen, because they feel them so much. We talked about the Ring of Fire, and a student excitedly called out, "that's why we have so many earthquakes we're RIGHT BY the Ring of Fire!" I loved it. It was great actually using specific earthquakes and aftershocks they've felt as examples in their learning.

Checking out some rocks.

"Miss Ellsworth, it's precipitating!"

This is a simulation of how rain clouds form. They were surprised they needed about 100 drops of food coloring before it actually rained in the cup!

Building model homes out of toothpicks and mini-marshmallows. Then they were tested out on the earthquake to see who wins (a pan of JELL-O)

This last week a handful of teachers and me missed school and traveled to Guatemala City to apply for our missionary visas at the Office of Migration. Everything went safely and very smoothly. We should be getting them in about 3 months.

Thank you for your prayers. Life is good. I love this class and love being a part of this school. Please be praying for wisdom and guidance for Sean's and my positions here next year. The time is coming to start seriously thinking about that. God bless!!

The small things....