great day of school. whenever i stop worrying so much about every little detail and celebrate the things the kids ARE doing (instead of getting frustrated over what they're not doing) things go so much better. it's awesome to realize that my mood has a direct effect on every one of the kids in the class. if i'm stressed and trying to get through a lot of stuff and trying to keep every kid on task 100% of the time, they rebel against that. if i keep up the constant and direct positive reinforcement along with some space for constructed play time, everyone is much happier, and as a result, more work gets done. 4 years of teaching in the states has made me into someone i don't always like - always working with my back against the wall, with a schedule that i feel like i'll never be able to get through, and curriculum that seems overwhelming. gahh.

today at lunch, ted and renie stopped by to pull names for paychecks. this was a good sign - money came from somewhere, enough to put together part of a paycheck. they pull one or two names every two weeks, and this person gets their full two weeks of pay. everyone else gets less, because we never have enough money to pay everyone in full. well, renie pulled two names, and then kept pulling, and pulling, and pulling, until everyone's name had been pulling. we got two donations in the last 2 days that paid for all of our bills this month, including our entire payroll! what a miracle!

today i learned the word for cheater - tramPOso (say it with disgust...it's kind of satisfying hahaha). teddy, tonio, sergio, jose, and alex and i spent the afternoon playing hide and seek in the street in front of their house. it was so fun and by the last round they finally kept their eyes closed the whole time. little by little...step by step...changes are made...