Sports Day

Last Tuesday I got to go on a field trip to the Irazu Volcano with the 1st-3rd graders. It was fun to have a break from teaching, while getting to spend time with the students. The kids had fun seeing the green lava water and also getting to play in the volcanic ash that felt like sand. Afterwards we visited some ruins in Cartago that were from a giant Catholic church that was destroyed by an earthquake before it was even finished being built.

The ruins in Cartago.

The first graders eating lunch at the park.

Irazu Volcano

The second graders on the way to the volcano.

The Tepeyac Christian School doesn’t have any school sports teams, so I’ve decided to try starting a basketball team. Basketball is not very well-known down here, so I thought it would be fun to introduce it to the students. So far we’ve had two basketball practices, and there are about 10 guys that are interested in playing. One of the local schools is having a basketball tournament in May, so I’m hoping we’ll be ready to play by then. Some of the girls are interested in playing, so maybe we’ll be able to start up a girl’s team also. Yesterday was Sports Day at the school, which means that the students got a day off from classes and got to spend the morning playing a variety of different sports. The younger grades played games like pop the balloon and water balloon toss, while the high school students spent the whole morning playing soccer. I got assigned to supervise the high school students, and I ended up getting to ref some of the high-school girls’ soccer games. Each of the grades brought different snacks to sell, so after the students were done playing, they were able to go back to the school to buy drinks, nachos, hot dogs, cake, snow cones, and other stuff. Then at 11, all of the students got to go home, while the teachers stayed at the school for a teacher’s meeting.

On Wednesday nights, I’ve started going to a Bible Study at the RP Church in Los Cuadros. The Bible Study is led by Bill Green, pastor of the Pacto de Gracia Church, and we are studying the book of Genesis. It’s a really good study, and I’ve thankfully been able to follow most of what is going on. Each week we have homework that we are supposed to do, and then we have a test at the beginning of every study. The tests consist of memorizing a few verses in Spanish, finding locations on a map, and then answering various questions about the chapters that we studied the previous week. I’m finding that it’s a real challenge to memorize things in Spanish, but I’ve learned a lot from the study.