Day 9. 14-2-13, School program, primary school.

First alarm clock, 5:15, 5:30 getting up, shower, getting ready, help with breakfast, eating, washing dishes. I even put on some red today, that’s the dress code, Valentine’s Day… ;)

Today the students of Emil Weder could go dressed in casual clothing. Some are wearing red/white and some even wear their uniform. Everyone could write notes to someone and they would be read out, and there was music in the breaks, it was very fun, even though we couldn’t really understand what was said in the notes.

We went to the primary schools, we watched a lesson and we looked around. We have some more inspiration were to spend our money on too. There were kids playing bare footed, doing back flips and summersaults etc., it was very cool. One of the best ‘jumpers’ is also in the class (of 45 children!) we will teach in the end of the trip (I am together with Loïs, Anne and Laura). When we got home we celebrated Demi’s and also Lonneke’s birthday, there were three kinds of cake, I’ve tasted a bit of all of them. Marshmallow was super sweet and partly liquid, the cheesecake tastes weird here, different then in the Netherlands, and chocolate, which was nice!
After the party I went to the library with Lieven and Nienke and Nathalie, Yvette, Lisanne, Lonneke and Jeroen followed shortly after. I had forgotten my journal, it was so stupid… Luckily I already had day 1 till 4 in my mobile phone, so I’ve put these on internet and wrote Dutch translation with report 1-3, then our time was almost finished. I wished Rense a very nice birthday, because he was turning sixteen the next day, too bad I couldn’t be there! And later on I noticed I forgot to congratulate/ask him with/for Valentine’s day! Too bad, again.

I helped with the avocados and the cucumbers and after that I walked and jogged and ran with Nathalie in search of onions, without result, but it was fun. For dinner we had delicious tortillas with all sorts of things to fill it with, and delicious guacamole. That evening we had a very emotional conversation, just the realization of how bad these kids and people have it here, how unsatisfied we are… Even some boys cried! Mae-ling had great points, bad, but so true… It got through me this evening. Some find it hard, some feel bad… The group bond was very strong, there was a big group hug and everyone hugged each other, god it sounds like a rehabilitation clinic… The worse thing was, after that we needed to go to the school dance and nobody was in that party mood. Luckily we only stayed for an hour, there was some dancing, but not much.