White Sands Elementary School (and a Christmas Tree)

Apologies in advance, because December was so incredibly busy, I am more than a bit late on my blogging... So, the next few posts will be from a backlog of everything that has happened up until today--the end of my first semester here.

First up--my first visit to a rural school!

Just under a month ago, the fellows at Yali took a trip to see a colleague who had been working at a countryside school for the past semester. She managed to arrange time for us to interact with the students at her school, most of whom have never seen a foreigner.

"Looking in"

Since we only had about 40 minutes with each batch of students, rather than bore them with simple English lessons, we taught them a Christmas song ("Santa Claus is Comin' to Town!") with hand motions and played a couple of games. The kids loved it, we loved, and a merry time was had by all.

Dancing? Singing? No one really knows...

Teaching the kids a fun game!

On our way back from this trip, I joked about pulling over and cutting down a tree for Christmas. Soon enough, we drove past a few tree loggers. We backed up and asked if they would be willing to cut us a tree. They happily obliged, and we got a real tree for Christmas. Yayy. Just in time, too.

Our tree!