First day of school

Today I went to my assigned school with Tracey, the GVI project coordinator here.  It isn´t really in a community, as the kids come from around the country side.  There are 20 children from 7 families.  I will be teahing the 1st and 2nd graders: a total of 6, although one boy often does not come.  Tracey did the lesson plan for today and tomorrow and then I will be doing my own. 

I have one first grader, a boy and four 2nd graders: 3 girls and 1 boy.  All were dressed in their traditional clothing, although some had warmer tops pulled on over their clothes.  They are quite small for their ages compared to US kids and are as cute as can be.  However, all had runny noses, chapped cheeks (from the wind) and worn/dirty clothes.  And all were eager to learn and participate in the activities Tracewy had prepared.  At the beginning of class, Tracey asked about their weekends, and one girl asked about breakfast at school (which is usually provided by the gov´t), because she said there was no food in the house and she had not eaten all weekend.  She is definately from the poorest family there.  (The gov´t provided food was not there, so we had nothing to feed them until the lunch was prepared with the food we brought.)

We did the calendar, the days of the week, numbers, matching, concentration game with numbers, recess after lunch, and then Jack in the Beanstalk reading and activities.  We also had them prepare folders for their work to stay in at school.  Number recognition was clear for 1 & 2, but hesitant on 3 &4.  We didn´t go further for recognition of the number.  Their color names are pretty good and their coloring was great.  One boy was a perfetionist, while one girl never stopped talking in Quicha.  (Spanish is their second language.) Another girl was shy, while I am not sure how much the other one was taking in.  The 1st grade boy kept up fairly well, but need a bit more assistance than the others.

The ride up to the school was interesting.  GVI has a van (same as is used for school buses around here), and not only did the GVI volunteers ride up to two schools, so did the teachers, and a parent with her baby.  Then on the way down two different mothers rode down with us.  From my school to get to town for them, they would need to walk at least an hour down to where they would hope to catch a bus --- but no gaurantee the bus would be running --- and then pay .50c for the hour bus ride. So, they don´t come down into Otavalo much, and pretty much live a subsistance life style. 
I will have to write more later as I am quite tired and have a full day of school, spanish lessons, and lesson planning for Wednesday. Jst wanted to get in my first impressions.