Last days in Tunja

I'm so sad to be leaving Tunja tomorrow morning for Bogota where I'll stay until I fly out Saturday to Peru. I can't believe how fast 3 weeks have flown by. Some of the students have been brave and talked to me which I love even though it's been hard to communicate, but a smile and a laugh says it all.

Monday morning I was able to help with the preschoolers and kindergartners. I helped them during snack time with opening their snacks, urging them to eat, and cleaning up after them. There were two girls that took the longest imaginable time eating and every time I talked to them (telling them to finish), they just cracked up laughing. It was adorable. After snack time, one of the teachers asked me to watch her class while she helped half of the students wash up in the bathroom. The kids were good for a bit with me in the classroom, but soon a couple of them got up and started running around and before I knew it they were all up running and uncontrollable. Oh my, it was a sight. I'm trying to say "sientesa" which isn't even spanish, but the closest thing I could come up with to sit (sentarse). It was hilarious but not at the time when I could just imagine the teacher coming back wondering what I was even doing. Thankfully after herding a couple of them to their seats, the others followed and it was just in time as the teacher returned with the rest of the students and we all acted like nothing out of the ordinary happened.

In the afternoons, some of the girls are waiting for their parents to pick them up and we've started talking a little although it's been a challenge...between pen, paper, and the spanish dictionary on my phone we can normally get the gist of what we're trying to convey. Julia stopped by to say hello and helped with translations as well which was a nice break.

Here's a picture of Sharon, Paula, Valentina, Lorena, Julia, and me

Yesterday afternoon, Sister Barbarita let me sit in on her religion class with the seniors. I snuck in a minute video of her talking, but as you can imagine, I have no idea what she's saying. :)

After class, we went for ice cream. Yay!!!

I've been meaning to add the picture of two other english teachers that were wonderful to me in Tunja. I believe I've mentioned them in this blog as they helped translate for me and, overall, were great company when I needed someone to talk to. Below is Gladys and Juan seeing me off.