El Olam English Week Day 2

 

Due to a protest blocking the road we were not able to get from Chiquimula to Jocotan for a few days.  That really messed up our plans of having the whole week at the school to teach English classes.  We missed Tuesday and Wednesday and had to make alternate plans for those days (which I'll post about next).  The protest paused for several hours on Wednesday night which allowed much of the border traffic to pass. We took a detour and drove several hours over the rough mountain road so we could be at the school on Thursday. It was a lot of effort but so worth it to get to spend that last day with the kids.

 

Here are some photos from Day 2 at El Olam school in Jocotan-

 

Arriving

We were very excited to be there and also just excited to be out of the vehicles.

 

We jumped right in to English classes.

 

 

Ben

 

We ended the elementary school day with music, scripture reading, testimonies, and a devotion.

 

 

 

Isaac sharing scripture.

 

Bella sharing her testimony.

 

Trey sharing his testimony.

 

Olivia sharing scripture.

 

 

more time of worship

 

 

 

 

 

At the end, our students lined up and all the precious little kids passed by to hug and thank them.

 

We kicked off the middle school class day by practicing English greetings when the students arrived.

 

We then spent the afternoon doing English classes and review with them.

 

our group with the El Olam middle school students

 

 

Here is a video from both of our days at the school.

 

 

To get back to Chiquimula we had to take that same two hour mountain road detour.  The views were gorgeous.  We stopped along the way to take a few photos.

 

Isaac

 

Melanie is right.  Thumbs up for an amazing few days of being on mission!!!

El Olam English Week Day 1

We spent the first week of the Summer Sojourners three week term in the Department of Chiquimula.  We had plans to do an English Week at El Olam school in Jocotan.  What started out as a four day plan ended up only being two days because of road blocks that prevented us from reaching the school.  I will share about those two wonderful days in separate posts due to the large amount of photos I took.  Here is a look at Day 1-

 

Arriving at the school and ready for a fun day of teaching English classes.

 

Our morning schedule for the week.  

We taught the preschool and elementary students in the morning and the middle school students in the afternoon.

 

 

Trey, Bella, and Olivia

 

We began the morning with an assembly.  We sang songs, read scripture, shared testimonies, and ended with David giving a devotion. 

 

Isaac sharing scripture and Melanie translating.

 

David giving a devotion.

 

Olivia, Karsyn, and Mollie

 

We then split into groups and started teaching.  Each group was assigned a grade. Karsyn, Mollie, and Cruz had the fifth grade class.

 

 Olivia and Trey taught the fourth graders.

 

Isaac, Bella, and Melanie taught the sixth grade class.

 

The time with the preschoolers was extra fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We taught the lower elementary classes outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ended the morning with more songs.

 

 

 

Goodbye hugs from the sweet elementary kids.

 

After an hour long picnic lunch break at the school, we welcomed the middle school students that afternoon.  We split into three groups.  One group reviewed numbers, one group reviewed vocabulary, and the other group was for conversation practice.  The three groups rotated between the student teachers.

 

reviewing numbers

 

spelling and vocabulary review

 

conversation practice

 

 

 

We ended the afternoon with a time of song and devotion.  Here is David sharing with the middle school students.

 

There is a large mango tree on the school property so the students enjoyed a fresh mango snack before we drove back into Chiquimula.

 

 

Here is a video from our fun day at school.

 

This was on Monday.  We did not get to return to the school until Thursday.  I will share about that day next.