First day of school
Since the end of October 2013, the children had more than 3 months of school holidays. In early February, we bought school uniforms and notebooks for everyone, which, of course, is always very time-consuming; every child needs two daily uniforms and a sports uniform for organizational reasons. We also have to buy all the notebooks and books ourselves and label them with the name of the student.
On February 10, the new school year finally began. Everyone was looking forward to it and on that day, nobody found it hard to get up at 5.00 a.m.
This year we have 37 students; 2 in kindergarten, 4 in introduction class, 5 in the first year, 1 in the second year, 3 in the third year, 1 in the fourth year, 8 in the fifth year, 9 in the sixth year, 2 in the first year of high school, 1 in the second year of high school and 1 in the third year of high school.
As we think education is very important, the children have to do their homework or additional special tasks in separate classes every afternoon from 1.30 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. with a teacher. We are convinced that a good education is the only way to open the children’s doors for a successful future.
New volunteer
Rita Knuchel visited us for a few weeks during her Central America travels. She taught our children and cooks how to make braided bread and we enjoyed freshly braided bread for breakfast three times during her stay. Once we even had braided bread with Nutella and on the remaining days with mashed beans and “Mantequilla” (similar to sour cream).
She helped our second-grader Danielito with his homework every day. Since he is a very hyperactive child, he would benefit from these private lessons very much and he made great progress in only a few weeks.
Circus
Rita invited all of us, children and staff, to see a circus performance. All of the "yo quiero ser ..." members occupied almost a quarter of the seats already. From the smallest to the oldest, all have watched the whole performance with great excitement and everyone enjoyed it. The program included various acrobatic performances, clowns, the Smurfs, animal performances, motorcycle artists, etc. Although it was not a professional circus and the entry cost only 1 Dollar per person, everyone came home happy and they still talk about the circus today.
Visit of the school Seran and families
Some students of the prestigious school Seran came to us with the idea to bring joy to our children, but in the end it was the other way around, because they did not want to go home, as they liked our home so much. They had prepared different games for every age, gave everyone a schoolbag filled with different school supplies and enjoyed lunch with us.
Two well-known families decided on a Sunday afternoon to spend time with our children rather than to go out for lunch. They bought a small gift for every child, prepared different games and there was even a dancing contest. Everyone enjoyed the afternoon and they promised to come visit us again soon.
Chicken soup
We have a small chicken farm here at our home, which provides us with eggs and sometimes also chicken meat. We had too many chickens, so our cook Maria Elena slaughtered five of them, prepared them and cooked a delicious “Sopa de gallina india” (chicken soup) on our open fireplace. Some of our children refused to eat our pets, so they did not eat the soup and received only rice instead. However, most of them liked it.