We began the day with the usual morning announcements consisting of our plans for the rest of the day. Following the announcements were the options of hard boiled eggs, bananas, oatmeal, and toast for breakfast, topped off with the choice of either tea or coffee. As a group, we then headed off to Colegio to begin teaching our designated grades. Today’s vocabulary words consisted of animals, ranging from ants to cows, and basic verbs: dance, swim, eat, sleep, and run. Before entering our classrooms, we convened with the children outside for their daily recess. We then dispersed to our assigned classrooms, saying goodbye to the children that we do not teach. The participation and focus from the children was much greater today because of the connection we have formed with the students over the past two days. Because we have had two separate times to perfect our teaching methods and lesson plans, most activities in the classroom went according to plan this morning. Our entire group then reconnected outside the school and walked together to the historical town clock tower for a quick debrief of the morning. Many of us agreed that today’s teaching was the best so far and gave shoutouts to those who we believed excelled in teaching. Lunch consisted of fried sweet plantains, vegetable salad, chicken with rice, and vegetables with rice. The usual “siesta” followed lunch, which was taken up mainly by card playing and lesson planning for the learning center that afternoon. Lesson planning for the learning center and tomorrow’s Colegio visit took up the whole afternoon until the children came at 4:30. The children showed up excited to learn and take their written tests. Many of us could see the improvement the children had made on their reading and ability to comprehend over just two days. After the goodbyes made to this group of children, we ate a delicious dinner of mashed potatoes, fried eggs, bananas, and vegetable salad. The time following dinner was packed with activities. We were introduced to an amazing woman who made beautiful jewelry and cornrowed many peoples’ hair. We participated in an extremely fun dance class consisting of the dances “merengue” and “buchata”, which we definitely counted as our day’s workout. Many of us then went to town to celebrate our dancing with ice cream and then came back to relax after a long and busy day of fun. –Kate Furr

Our day started with a breakfast of toast, oatmeal, cereal, and hard boiled eggs. Then we headed off to the schools for recess. Today the bubbles were a huge hit! The kids absolutely loved them and swarmed us to get their chance to pop some. Then we moved into the classrooms for the day’s classes. The subject of the day was animals, and we engaged in many different activities including flashcards, singing Old McDonald Had A Farm, and Simon Says. After two sessions, we had a debrief before heading back to the Outreach360 headquarters for lunch. Lunch consisted of rice, beans, chicken, and fried bananas. Fue muy sabroso! After siesta and more lesson planning, we began reading with the kids at the Learning Center and then moved into the classrooms to help the kids review vocabulary of shapes and parts of the house. We helped the kids draw their own houses, played hangman using the vocabulary, and prepared them for their written exams later in the day. While they were taking their exams, we all played an intense game of four square. After building up a sweat, we ate dinner which consisted of mashed potatoes, fried eggs, and tomato and cucumber salad. We burned off all the calories eaten with our dance lesson afterwards during which we learned traditional merengue and other partner dances. While doing so, many of our fellow bulldogs got corn rows. Somos muy guapos! Then we all headed to bed for some much needed rest after such an eventful day.             –Shelby Brown and Chelsea Worthy