final exams, a weekend in Salinas, and my comatose computer

This is from today!

It's been a really long time, but things have been really busy here. The first few weeks of November I was trying to fit in as many aula de recurso appointments as possible, because final exams were coming up. The exact starting date was a mystery for a good while. First I was told it was the 17th, then the 14th, then the 13th. Around the time they told me they'd start the 13th, the also announced that there wouldn't be classes the 7th or 10th (Friday and Monday) because Sunday the 9th was the elections in NIcaragua so the goverenment have given everyone those days off. I'm not really sure why... So that took two MORE school days away, so there was even less opportunity to work with my kids.

Because of the shortened time, Michelle needed to do some extra reviews, so I helped her with review sessions on the 9th. I quickly understood why she wanted help, 'cause the kids yelled "teacher teacher" and didn't wait very patiently at all. But I think we helped them somewhat, at least the ones that showed up!

Then when I got back to class on the 11th, the teachers told me that they weren't going to start exams 'til the 17th. The secondary school was going to start the 13th, but the primary kids didn't start so early. So I got an extra few days of classes. On the 14th I should have had descanso, but because of an event on the 15th, our descanso was changed to Sunday-Wed (just that once). So Michelle was giving her test on the 14th, so I offered to help out. Somehow she is supposed to give a test in three rooms simultaneously. I dunno how anyone ever manages that... The other teachers help to proctor, but still... kids taking tests usually have questions. So I took over first year. The kids asked a lot of questions, some legitimate questions about the directions, and some just "how do you say ____ in English". Nice try kids... but I'm not going to fall for that.

Saturday the 15th was a big event sponsored by ANF, America Nicaragua Foundation, or something like that. So there were a bunch of games going on all day, and we had a nice lunch and the kids from Casa Asis came. It was nice, but we were very tired at the end!

Sunday Michelle and I left for descanso. We went to Salinas to visit my host family. So we had a very relaxing descanso. We read books, watched movies, went to church, and corrected the English tests. We also enjoyed my host mom's good food. A lot of my friends weren't around (because it's final exam time, so those in University were still gone and those in secondary school were busy in school). But I saw a few people. For those of you who know Salinas people, I saw Agustin and his wife (Petrona) and their two month old baby daughter who's name I can't remember 'cause I've never heard it before. But the baby is super cute. I also saw Arelyz one night, she says hi to everyone. And I saw Alma, who invited me to her wedding on Dec 27. I don't think any of us know her fiance because he's in Costa Rica. He's an engineer or something... Anyway, and the family also sends greetings to everyone.

We left pretty early on Wednesday (the 6:30 bus) so that we'd have time to go to the grocery store and still catcht h 10:30 ferry. Michelle had to get back to meet with some kids that afternoon. We got lucky and met up with Shirley and some people she knows on the ferry, and got a ride back to NPH. It's always great when that happens.

Oh, and my computer... So before I left on descanso, I had realized that many times my computer didn't want to come on. The power light would come on, and the lights that indicate num lock or caps lock would too, but it wouldn't make any noise, and after like 10 seconds the lights would go back off. I was eventually able to urge it on, but it made me very wary of turning it off. So the weeks before descanso I was just making it "sleep" rather than actually shutting it off, and it stayed working. But I didn't feel like I should leave it sleeping when I left for 4 days, so I turned it off, realizing it might never come on again. Sure enough, when I got back, it did NOT want to come on, even though I pushed the on button many many times. So I decided it was probably dead. Yesterday I got tio Benito to let me in the Cyber, so I used a computer there. Today I decided to try it again, what the heck?!? Stranger things have happened. And what do you know, the first time, it comes right on! I don't get it. So I decided it was just a coma, rather than death. I just know I'm not going to turn it off again until I have to!! I'm hoping it'll last another 6 weeks. Then I leave NPH and go to Salinas, and I don't need it in Salinas. And then I go home, where hopefully there will be a nice new computer that my parents found in some Christmas sale waiting for me. And then I can pay them back with my nice grad school loan money. So really, it doesn't have to work for that much longer!!! If anyone has any tips for extending the life of an almost dead computer, I'd love to hear them!!

So today was the last day of classes. Monday is the quincianeras celebration (15th birthday party for all the girls who turned 15 this year). And then starts vacation schedule, but we haven't really planned anything yet... Thursday Michelle and I are going to cook Thanksgiving dinner with Shirley, and the other volunteers and the monastery workers are going to help us eat. And then Friday starts the Purisimas, which is something to do with Mary, but I'm not really sure what. But it's 9 days long, and we're responsible for one day. BUt they put us at the end, so we can watch everyone else and figure out what to do. So we'll see what's up with that!

Oh and my kids!!! Out of the 18 kids that I worked with this year (some I worked with all year, some I stopped partway through 'cause they didn't need it, and some I started partway through) 12 passed all their classes, 3 failed only one class, so they have to take an exam in January, and if they pass it with 60% they pass the year, and 3 failed a lot of classes and failed the year. Two of those it was because they didn't try, and 1 I think really has problems. Also, all three of those failed 5 classes or so first semester, so i didn't really figure they could pass. So I was pretty happy with how things turned out!!