Eventful Day

This morning, the whole group of us minus two went kayaking in a river. The river started out wide which was nice because my kayak skills are lacking. Yet, after a while the river became so narrow that we nearly got stuck. The worst was when we couldn't get our kayak out through an opening of two branches filled with crabs. Ick! I started to get a little chicken, but nevertheless I made it through still happy. Luckily, we did not have any encounters with crocodiles. :)

Next we found a pier and swam in the Sea for awhile. By that time we were hungry. Andrea and I came home to chicken, french fries, rice and plantoons. Very yummy! Then we got ready to go to our school. We first went to meet the principal who was very nice. Andrea and I then went to see our classrooms. My teacher was absent due to the flu. Originally my placement was to be 3rd/4th grade but the teacher got switched to "Infant 2" which is 2nd grade. The kids were so tiny. I enjoy teaching middle elementary, so this may be different for me. When I would talk to the students they would giggle because I sound so different to them. All of the students speak Creole which is broken English. It is very challenging to understand. When we visited a 6th grade classroom all of the students were chatting and I couldn't understand a word they said. So... this should be pretty interesting! The teachers really want us to break them of Creole though to speak more formal English. I've already caught myself speaking in Creole. I've also been speaking some Spanish because our host aunt, Tia,  really only speaks Spanish. She cooks our meals and cleans so I often have to ask her questions.

After meeting students, we walked around town and then headed back to our house. I was really exhausted from the heat but when the topic of runnning came up I perked up. Four of us girls went jogging along the Carribean with the other girls' host mom's son's friend (whew!). We made a plan to run every evening. We also might swim and walk in the morning before getting ready for school. I'll see about that though. My sleep may be more important.

I am excited but nervous to have my first full day in the classroom tomorrow!