Off to school!

Today is a big favorite of the trip, and one we prepare for for many months. Today we visited our friends at Gallon Jug Community School and bring them the goodies we’ve been collecting for them. The Brooks kids have been working on lesson plans with the teachers of the 5 classes (2 grades in each room), and today is their day to shine. This remote school so rarely gets outside visitors that even without the school supplies and carefully prepared lessons, our visit would be exciting. I love wandering from class to class looking at the eager little kids staring up at our kids who are valiantly trying to impart the information or experiments or projects they have brought. I watched Andrew and Allie disclose the Pythagorean theorem, watched Patrick demonstrate the Earth’s orbit around Sam’s head, saw Charlotte and Les try to wrangle the kinders, who are still learning English and enjoyed playing with magnets, suction devices and paper airplanes as they learned about force. SeoYeun and Ali got their kids’ attention with candy and PowerPoint, and Greg and Jenna tried to keep their young scientists from burning down the school as they learned that rubbing 2 sticks together creates heat…

After lessons we had recess and spontaneous games of volleyball and soccer broke out, as well as some ongoing physics experimentation on the seesaws.

My personal favorite part of the day was unveiling the 4 laptops we brought down for the kids. We had been working all fall to raise money to acquire 4 “One Laptop Per Child” laptops, and finally delivered them today. We couldn’t think of a better place to try out these rugged and funky little computers, and we know Mike and Jill will make great use of them to expand these students’ experience. By the time we left they were using paint, making music, mastering the Web cam and engaging the mesh net to text each other. No doubt the kids will figure them out before the teachers do! It was extremely satisfying finally delivering these computers after planning for so long, and Sam and Jake, who raised the money for 1 of them by themselves, were excited to finally get here.

After school Silvia fed us again, and some more of us rode while the rest went to Chan Chich to swim. Dinner was a feast at Chan Chich’s lovely restaurant, and we ended the evening with a final swim and catching up on some e-mail.

Tomorrow a number of kids intend to go back to the school, while others will ride and explore the farm some more. In the afternoon we will climb the Escarpment to admire the view, and return for a last-night BBQ with some of the villagers. Hard to believe this leg of the trip is nearly over!

Following are some guest blogs - SeoYeun's impressions of today and Jenna's reflections on cave tubing, a few days ago (better late than never!!)