We'll start with Monday. Field trip day! I was really excited about it... we had been learning all about communities, so we had planned to take a little tour of our own community in Xela. Which I was doubly excited about, because it also tied in Guatemalan culture which is something I feel they miss out on a lot in their American school education. So anyway, a trolley was set to pick us up and take us on this tour and we were going to make set stops along the way.
So, morning of the trip, I find out from the school secretary that one of the chaperones has just called to inform her that she "can't make it." And another mom that was supposed to come with us just didn't show up, neither did her son. Okay, so about 30 minutes before the trip I'm about 2 chaperones short. Wonderful. But I figure we are going to be on the trolley the whole time, and we still have 3 moms and a dad that showed up, so we should be okay.
And here comes the trolley to pick us up at school! The kids were so excited and all the mom's had a photo shoot with us on this trolley..
Well, we tooted our horn and pulled away from school, on our way! We drove down the big hill of our school, crossed the bridge of the river about 1 minute away from the school and then we stopped. Just stopped. Engine was dunzo. Well, the driver seemed to think he could fix the problem, so we waited. And I went into instant entertainment mode...we sang, we played games, etc. After sitting on the side of the rode one minute away from the school for an hour while the driver had tried to go get more gas and looked at the engine to no avail, the kids were saying "This is the worst field trip ever." And I agreed with them. The trolley experience was the anti-climax of the century.
So the parents offered to continue the field trip in their cars. We left the trolley and driver on the side of the road (and it was still there hours later when we returned to school....) So we drove around Xela, and then walked around Xela which was a terror. I was not mentally prepared to be responsible for 13 students roaming the streets of downtown Xela, where I almost get run over on a daily basis. Stressful.
First stop-- public library of Xela, where my class mom had arranged for the librarian to read a book to the kids. Well, we asked for the woman and she just wasn't there. Typical.
Then we went to the museum (which is ridiculous, by the way. There are embryos of everything you can imagine in jars. And a stuffed deer with two heads... its creepy). But we had to rush through because we got there an hour late and it was about to close. Kids loved it though.
Then we went to the municipal building where the mayor works. That was pretty cool. We got to meet the mayor of Quetzaltenango.
After that, we were way behind schedule and the kids were starving so we just skipped the rest of the tour and went to McDonalds for lunch. I was exhausted, but all in all the kids had a great time and it turned out okay.
But that crazy day was only Monday...stay tuned for the rest of the saga that was last week... A flooded birthday? Yup.
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