4/9         Today I worked with Nora, and most of the children are Autistic.  I worked with a variety of different students, at different ages and levels.  At first we started out with drawing and coloring lots of different shapes. They got the hang of it really, really fast. After we finished reviewing the shapes and colors, we moved on to learning the vowels and vowel sounds. We played a variety of different games, including an easy competition. On a miniature white board I would write a variety of Spanish-English words and phrases from around the room. I would first say how many vowels there were in the word or phrase and they would say which ones they were and then their sounds. After the students begged me to have lunch with them, they dragged me into the lunch room where an interesting Spanish/English conversation took place. After lunch I showed Yimi and Royner how to kick a soccer ball and we played a little one-on-one game. It made me feel really happy and excited to teach them a great sport to play at the school. We played soccer for about 20 minutes until we were told to stop and go inside. After we went inside we had a play-dough session, where at first I showed the class how to count the dough and add using balls of play-dough.  During the afternoon Ty, Addison, and I went on 2 home visits, the children both looked healthy. The second home visit we attended was about 15 minutes away from the school. Hensiy is 11 years old and she was living with Brain Paralysis, being paralyzed from the waist down, and a valve in her heart is swelled. She was unable to talk, yet understood about everything we were saying. She could eat anything but really enjoyed rice, beans, and cheese. When she was younger she had attended Escuala Especial Maria Romaro but her mother had taken out due to her crying the whole time she was there. We are planning to take her to the party on Friday to introduce her to the students and teachers. Henisy has multiple pills and medicine, including a liquid medicine for her heart. She also takes different pills that cost about 13 American dollars per month. I learned a lot from the kids at the school. I learned to stand up for others, understand what’s right even when no one else is doing it, and always trust myself.

4/10       Today I worked in the classroom with many different intelligent students. They were learning about the same things we were learning at my school in social studies. At first Sophia and I had no clue what to teach, nor how to communicate with the students. We started off with a higher level classroom then moved on to a classroom more at the level of a 4^th grader. At first Sophia and I made the students in to teams and wrote simple 3 digit problems on the white board. Rosa, Juan, and Christina were really nervous to speak in front of us, but by the end of the day we were all communicating in sign language. At 10:00 the students went to lunch, Douglas, Ty, Sophia and I played basketball. I. Was. Ashamed. My shots were off and, I kept falling. Dad you know what I’m talking about. Today, I not only learned a lot from myself but from the students. By the end of the day Christina was teaching Sophia, Jared and I Spanish and sign language. Today I feel like I have so much more to offer the world, much more than my lame excuses and constant attitude. The students I worked with today don’t get to ride in a chilled van, and go home to a hot meal and air conditioned room. I feel like I need to stop whining, suck it up, and  take the frown off my face and put a smile on someone else’s.

P.S Mom and Dad,

I still have lice and have a boyfriend named Larry. He’s a bear.