A few things that made me smile

I think I've been away from Nicaragua too long. I seem to have forgotten some of the crazy things I see people do and say. Here are just a few examples from the past couple of days:

1. Yesterday Carey, Patricia, and I went shopping for classroom supplies for the teachers. Earlier in the day one of the teachers had asked me about a poster with multiplication tables on it, but I hadn't brought one down. While out shopping I saw one, so I put it in with our other supplies. When we got back to our house, Carey saw the purchase and said, "Oh no I should have told you to look for mistakes on it before buying it..." Only in Nicaragua :)

2. Today I had the teachers participate in an activity which they could do in their classrooms with students. The idea was that I would give someone a topic and they would have to talk about it without stopping for 30 seconds. They could say anything related to the theme, but had to keep talking. The first person to go talked about foxes. She proceeded to tell us about different types of foxes... "and then there's a skunk. A skunk lets off a horrible smell which is very good to breathe in because it prevents you from getting a cold..." Now that's something I didn't know...

3. Before beginning our teacher training today one of the ladies was telling us that her doctor told her to wear a scarf everyday for a month or longer. This was the prescription for her persistent cough. She's come in the last couple days with a warm fuzzy scarf and a sweater over her polo shirt because her doctor suggested it. Did I mention it's about 30 degrees here?

Tomorrow is my last day of teacher training in Matagalpa. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing and hearing ideas from this great group of teachers. The plan tomorrow is for everyone to teach a 10-15 minute lesson which I've asked them to prepare incorporating specific components we've talked about throughout the week. Following each lesson, the teacher will reflect on the teaching experience and the participants will do a peer-evaluation. The purpose of the activity is to provide a form of evaluation for the teachers to use in the future. I'm just not sure what the 10-15 minute time limit will actually translate to in Nicaraguan terms.... tomorrow is going to be a very fun and interesting day.