field day

I am completely exhausted. Not in a bad way, just in the kind of way you get when you run around with 55 kids in the hot Mexican sun all morning. We had a field day with the school kids this morning; we started off at school and walked all the way across town to the soccer fields - singing 'Jesus Loves Me', 'Our God is so Great', and the like nearly at the top of our lungs the whole way. It was actually a lot of fun and really heartwarming to see the smiles on people's faces as we passed by. The kids' enthusiasm was definitely contagious. That might have been my favorite part of the morning.

Before we even got to the field, I discovered that one of my main jobs for the day would be fixing pom-poms. We had a broken one before we left school, but somehow all the girls had two when it was time for their cheer (see the video below).

You also have to watch this one, even if you can't understand Spanish - they're just cute.

In addition to standing on the sidelines and encouraging the kids to cheer for one another, and of course the full-time job of listening and understanding what they're saying in Spanish, my other task was pulling out a tooth. I've had several students lose teeth in class now; you kind of forget that's what they do at this age. You should have seen the crowd around this little girl - this picture doesn't even quite do it justice. She would tug at the tooth and all the girls would cover their mouths and look away, and then all look again to see if it came out, and get grossed out at the blood, and whatnot. They all definitely wanted to see - sort of. It was cute. So anyway, I actually ended up pulling the tooth for her - a first for me. I'm glad I'm not a dentist. And I'm glad that when I was pulling my own teeth out at that age, I couldn't see what it looked like.

So as you can say, all my jobs were definitely super sporty and field-day related. :) Here are a few pictures from the day:

These feet belong to a kid whose shoes, I think, just kind of go with his personality. I don't know... I think you have to see him jump rope for it to really make sense. :) 

Hanging out waiting for games to start

I loved all their hats.

Ready to run!

I think this is the mayor. She came and watched for a while. 

Spectators

Give me a 'C'!

The 4th grade teacher and some of his boys

You have to love this kids' outfit. They all wore uniform but some of them changed to play soccer.

Lining up to make teams for soccer

The girl with one less tooth and her fan club

Tired after a long day of playing hard!

As a side note, my students have taken to asking how the baby is doing, which is kind of cute. Sometimes they say hello and good-bye to it when they come in and out of the classroom. And one of my students earned some brownie points this morning - she asked me how many months along I was, and then told me I look skinny. That was sweet of her. But I definitely wouldn't describe myself as skinny.

In other news... its November! Incredible. I don't know where time is going. That means we are coming home for Christmas in less than a month and a half, and that is just unbelievable. In the meantime, some of Grant's family is coming to visit, which we are really excited about, and after that we're headed to Barra Vieja for a few days to spend time with the believers there. We're not too bummed about the fact that it's also right on the ocean. :)

And finally, Feliz Dia de los Muertos to all those high school Spanish students out there. :) They really do make ofrendas here, and it really is like they tell you it is in school. I thought of all of you today.