1/27/09
I forgot to add that we found out about how many people the local minibuses can cram in. In a minibus made to seat 12 people we had 23 +-1. This is normal for the minibuses that run all over town on their routes. They have a driver and a purser/yeller/crammer, this second person usually hangs out the door yelling out at each stop where the bus is going and takes your money when you get off. He is also the crammer as he is responsible to make sure the minibus is full to capacity. One of our students said he did not know how someone in back could get out at their stop or even let the crammer know you wanted out. We had a large group so it was easier to tell them we wanted off.
Saturday we studied on the roof in the sun, then went out for lunch. We went to a Chinese place near here then walked back the opposite direction to the mall that had a cinema. We got to the mall about 2 pm and found that the movie we wanted did not start till 3 pm so we walked around and sat at the mall for an hour only to find that the movie we wanted was in Spanish. There were other movies in English but they started later and we were worried about walking back in the dark. We stopped at the little zoo on the way home. It’s a free zoo with a few animals and birds, they are all in small cages. That night Jared got sick and was vomiting all night. We think it was food poisoning from the Chinese restaurant. Our host told us on Sunday that there have been problems there with the meat. The rest of us were ok but we had different plates. The place seems popular with the locals, but our host will not eat there. Anyway Jared stayed home from church on Sunday and from school on Monday, he is feeling well now.
Alicia and Shannon walked to the parque central on Sunday afternoon and amazingly made their way home after.
School is going better at least I am not totally burnt out every day. We are congregating verbs (I call them scrambled verbs) every day and getting more and more of them daily. I never heard of a scrambled verbs before Leah told me about them before we left home and I did not understand what she was talking about then. I can’t believe they can nearly make everything into a verb and then scramble it. The regulars have some order to them but the irregulars are all over the place and you just have to try and memorize them as I should be doing right now. A scrambled verb is when you take a verb then change it to go with I, you, he/she, we and us. You have to do these with every verb then you get past and present tense of the verb which Alicia is doing now ( she is ahead of the rest of us) I cant wait to get there. They can even scramble the word wood. I don’t know how you can think of which scrambled verb to use in a sentence when you are talking with that many scrambles, but I guess we may get there some time. There is a reason that 60% of the population does not understand the grammar. The kids are doing well at school Shannon likes her teacher as she is not tough. And Jared seems to like his.
We have another field trip on Friday to a glass blowing place. On Saturday a day at the beach is planned with a stop at a historic site. We like our Friday field trips as they are during school and the teachers go with us. Also Monday we will go to a town near here where there is a Mayan festival and our host will be playing the marimbas there. pictures tomarrow