Ch-ch-changes

The Casita de Chocolate, our community center, is still here. (Why wouldn't it be?) But there have been a few changes of late. Be on the lookout over the next few posts for more on these recent developments.

For the past month or so, one of our after-school programs has been functioning out of the Casita itself.

The pending transition of circa 30 school age children to the Casita every single weekday afternoon caused a flurry of preparation and repairs. For one thing, the toilet was (somewhat) fixed.

For another, we did some touch up painting in the two classrooms upstairs.

I learned how to mix paint: one bucket of paint, a lot of water, and a little bit of glue so that it "sticks to the walls."

Teachers, kids, and parents all pitched in one afternoon. If they didn't paint, they found another way to be helpful.

Even little David did his part.

When he wasn't completely goofing off, that is.

Outside, some mother-daughter teams took apart and washed each and every plastic table and chair.

After which the people with muscles moved them all back upstairs.

(The term "muscles" is open to interpretation here.)

And now, every weekday around 12:30, the kids show up for lunch and homework club at the Casita.

This is a great opportunity for them, but because of the limited space in the Casita, the after school program has effectively dissolved the other youth groups - comprising kids who are not officially involved with our organization - who used to come regularly in the afternoons. We're still looking for ways to solve this, and I'm hopeful that weekends will afford an opportunity for the teenagers and children otherwise outside of the program to come and participate in extracurricular activities.

In the meantime, we soldier on with homework assignments, and I re-learn all the basics of adding and subtracting mixed numbers, plus a bunch of other things I never knew before.

What is two and seven ninths minus one and three quarters?
How many islands are there in the Galápagos?
Where in your body is the humerus located?
What is a direct object pronoun?
How do you say Chop up the bananas in English?
How do you say Spanish in English?
How do you say English in English?
How do you say my name in English?
How do you say your name in English?

Wait...who am I again?