Life here in Colombia is relaxing and peaceful. There are beautiful views, good company lots of new things to learn. I have met a few of the neighbors and we ate dinner with a family the other night. The people here are quite kind and warm. They have been open to me talking to them in my broken spanish and the elder woman of the household even will correct me (thank gosh!) the neighbors have a bunch of coffee trees and sell the beans to M&D who then have them processed to get a thin but difficult coating off of the beans and then Dieter roasts the beans himself. You would think - Colombian coffee would be everywhere right? Guess again. All the coffee beans get exported out so we are fortunate to have neighbors who grow the beans.

Today we had our 2 english classes for the kiddos. I enjoy helping them pronunciate the words correctly. After the second class, Marcela helped one of the older girls with her English homework - it was insane must i say. The 14 year olds were asked to translate this article from English into Spanish. It was hard! I just hope it does not discourage a lot of the children from trying. The public schools down here are really pushing English language but are expecting all the teachers to teach it, regardless of whether they know, want to know or even can promounce the words of the English language. therefore the students are doing a lot of rote repitition and worksheets for homework. AARGH! So while Marcela was helping this child with her homework, the other kids and I played outside. We played tag - but a version where you can only tag a person who is wearing the color of the moment (of course we had to use the colors in English to help them practice) and Hide and Seek. Man I have not run so much in quite awhile but it was fun. The kids are super sweet and really look out for each other :-)

I also got to go to the elementary school today with Marcela. The kids all wore uniforms - girls in dresses and boys in slacks. The students all sat at desks and had similar environmental decorations - days of the week, months of the year, student of the month, painted pots made out of plastuc soda bottles with plants in them etc... There was just less of them, as compared to schools I know, but somehow seemed calmer. We went from class to class and gave a mini English lesson to the children (and teacher's as well). The kids loved it and were quite interested in the visitors. The 5th graders swarmed around us during their recess - asking lots of questions such as "What is my name in English?" One child wanted to know how to say "garden" Two boys came up and asked "What is f--- you?" I was quite shocked. Not something I really would have thought of children throughout the world knowing.

It was really fun. The teacher's were open to us and I hope to go back daily while I am staying here. I can learn a lot of Spanish from the students and the teachers! I have to meet with the director on Thursday to organize what it will look like. In the 1st or 2nd grade class, there is a child with special needs, who was not there today, so I am hoping to help out with her as well. It was really quite cute seeing the kiddos from M&D's english class at school - some were really excited and I think it helped create more of a bond with the kids (not that running around and chasing kids doesn't do the same thing!)

Tomorrow M&D and I are going to travel into Medellin. It's about an hour away via public transportation and has about 2.5 million people. Stay tuned :-) Love you all!!!!!