English Songs and Uno

I took a walk to La Venta on Sunday, which is a "town" (perhaps settlement might be a more appropriate word) about 20 minutes from the Ranch. It contains 15 or 20 houses and 2 little shops where one can walk up to a window to purchase, pop, candy, bread, and phone cards. As I was rounding the bend in La Venta and about to head up the hill where the shop is located, I heard a kid yell "teacher" from a near by tree. I waved at him and recognized him as one of the kids in my class, but I couldn't figure why on earth he was hanging from a tree in La Venta. Just then, a whole herd of kids from the Ranch (the 2-8 year olds), started running down the hill on their way back home. They had gone to La Venta for a Sunday afternoon outing, and since it probably takes them about an hour to walk there, it is quite an outing. They walk incredibly slowly, so after I had made my purchases I caught up to their group in no time. Not only do the younger kids think that my name is Teacher, they also all associate me with the songs we sing in English class. I get such a kick out of it when they run up to me and start the songs from English, so the walk back to the Ranch was spent with kids in hand, singing songs about colors and days of the week from English class.

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I am now going on day number 3 of not having a voice. I woke up like this on Monday and though all of the kids keep asking me why I don't have a voice, I really have no idea. I haven't gone to school the past 2 days since it's rather difficult to teach when you can't talk and I finally visited the clinic yesterday afternoon in search of some help. I happened to have a deck of Uno cards with me at the clinic, so as soon as some of the kids waiting for the doctor saw those, there was no choice but to play. But I couldn't help but laugh because as I would tell the kids "you need a blue or a seven," they say back to me "this card?" .... also in a whisper. :0)