festival of arts day

hello everyone! it is another more than warm morning in dangriga. yesterday was a great day - we went to the beach for the morning and it was wonderful. we went to the beach that is right behind vals (internet and laundry) by a little park. the water was very clear and we walked out probably 50 yards and were still just wading about up to our knees. it felt really good. i got a hot dog from a stand on the street for lunch and it was very tasty - the traditionally put cooked onions, ketchup, mustard and one other sauce on it, but i got her to just put mustard on mine yesterday since i tried it the authentic way a couple days ago. she thought i was really funny for just wanting mustard.

after lunch i went to tutor Dylan at Christ the King, since his family could not come on monday. he was so sweet! we got to sit upstairs in the shade and with a breeze which was nice, and we read together. he is 8 and has the most trouble reading than any of my other kids so far. i think i will try to go back and work with him every other day or so to see if he can get a little better before i leave. that is what makes two more weeks seem like a very short time. he had a wonderful attitude though and kept insisting that he was having fun with a big grin. so even if i was boring him to tears - he was still kind enough to make me feel good about it :) he also is very good at math, and he showed me some of his math problems after we got done reading.

last night our other tutoring sessions got cancelled, which means we showed up at 4 and the principal ms. young told us that it was the night of festival of arts, so most students and families were preparing for that all evening. (no one really uses calendars here or anything like that, and everyone kind of flies by the seat of their pants...and sometimes half an hour late, which i guess is what makes for the relaxed atmosphere!). anyway, we got to eat a lot of the catered snacks and frozen juice ourselves and took some back with us. ms. young also invited us to the festival of arts.

a big group of students went to the parish hall for the festival, and we stayed for probably an hour. there were dance performance by whole classes, there were poetry readings, songs performed, plays - everything. it was so great! the kids were so cute and you could tell they had worked so hard! we also got to see some of our kids from school.

we are off to make up our reading sessions from last night, hope everyone is doing well and that the rain has stopped maybe!

i will be going to Caye Caulker this weekend, which is where the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world is and we are going to snorkel through it. yes i will wear sunscreen. lots.

love to everyone, hill