A perfect world

Optimistic right? Sometimes it feels that way here though. It´s wonderful. Preschool is going really well and classes are going great too. I´m even picking up two more english classes and I´m helping a bit with a baking class on Thursdays. I want to start another English class in Jalapa too because there are a lot of people who want it but can´t because they´re working during the day or live to far away. So I figure if I have one later in the day, either at my house or Alejandra´s, we can offer one more. It´s great to stay busy. Of course, we still have the weekends off, which is nice.

A Perfect Preschool

Okay, that´s an exageration, but it was catchy, so why not? The preschool is finished and beautiful! I love it. There are two teachers, Dina and Rena, who are very awesome and open to a lot of learning and suggestions. It´s just a lot of fun in general. We also have had verry successful English and Art classes every afternoon. Everyone is very excited to learn and expand their horizons. Hopefully we will be able to offer more classes later too. All in all, amazing!!!!!

Trabajando en el Prescholar

So preschool started without any problems (more or less) on Wednesday. It rocks, and is a lot of fun. I´m working with two fabulous women. We don´t actually have everything ready for the preschool at the moment, but we are going to pull it together and make it look perfect over the weekend. Gabe and I go to gather the last of the things we need for it this afternoon. So far we´ve just had class in the big chairs and it´s the cutest thing in the world to see these tiny kids with their feet dangling in too tall chairs.

Leah and I also started registration for our classes. I´m offering English and she´s offering Art. We got quite a few people, so it´s bound to be interesting at the very least. We regiseter again tomorrow for a lot longer. It´s good stuffs ^_^

Sorry!

I know I haven´t updated in a loooong time. Julio pointed that out to me the other day. The funds are check and operation preschool in Libano is a go. It´s aweeeeeesoooome! School stars on Monday or Tuesday and I´ll be working with one other woman in the preschool every day. We currently have 28 kids enrolled and I can hardly wait. I´ll take pictures what it´s completely done and post them when I return to the US, don´t worry. All for now, sorry it´s short.

Great news!

So guess what!?!?!? Even though we didn´t raise $15,000, it´s ok! We have altered our idea a little bit and now it is muuuuuch cheaper. There is an extra room we can use in the school, so we don´t have to build a whole new building. It will take less time and isn´t as hard, which means we don´t have to worry about labor as much either. Now, we just need like $3,000! How awesome is that?!? We are still a bit short but every penny will help.

We need: $3,000
We have: $1,461

Not too shabby right! Please donate, it´s for a great cause.

Estamos Aqui!

We are here!!! It´s awesome and beautiful and I just loooooove it! We´re still getting everything in order, but we arrived on a weekend, which is a bad time to start anything. Come Monday, I start work with PIEAT, we have our meetings, we get all that last minute stuff in order and we are good to go! I don´t get to work in the preschools until February 15th, but until then, we´re going to get everything in order to start work on the day care and prepare for classes when they start. I know I´m teaching an English class and a computer class as well as working in the preschool, and I´ll probably teach an art class with Leah as well. This place is so magnificant! The keyboard is kinda weird though. Some of the keys are in the wrong place :P

Night before departure

Today is my last day in Michigan! Actually, I suppose tomorrow is, since my flight leaves at nearly 8 in the morning. All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go! Our good friend Julio is picking us up from the airport in Managua tomorrow. I am so excited to be there again! I'm especially excited to see my host family: Ceyli, David, Kevin, and Johanni.

I also got the go ahead from the education department in Jalapa to work in a preschool, which is a big part of what I want to do while I am down there. School starts February 15th. Until then, we have plans to build some ovens for our host family as well as for Alejandra, a woman who will be like a mother to us while we are down there.

We still haven't raised enough funds for the daycare, which makes me worry. We are going to go ahead with the building of it and hope for a miracle I suppose. I sent Ty, the guy at AACC who deals with all the donations, an e-mail so that can learn the address as to where to send money. I can only hope it will all work out.

Funds needed: $15,000
Funds raised: $2,000 (estimate)
Still need: $13,000
People to donate $5: 2,600