It’s Lauren and I’m back!! This week was very exciting. On Saturday we actually went on our adventure to the south of the island! We rented a van for the day and went to the Alligator and Tortoise Park. The park was not limited to just alligators and tortoises though, they had bats and monkeys too! The bats were my favorite, they are so agile and their little faces are adorable!! When we finally decided to leave the Park, we headed for the sacred lake called Grand Bassin, which is located in the crater of a dormant volcano. It was extremely peaceful there and it was really nice to walk around and see the temples. Then it was time for guava picking! I really thought guavas were bigger, but they are actually about the size of a cherry. That was really fun and the guavas were delicious!
We have come to reserve Sundays for the beach, but this Sunday was a little cloudy and less than ideal for the beach. Props to Kelvin and Bryan for making it there, but the rest of us spent the day at the house. Brittany and I posted up on the roof to catch a few rays and reminisce with some ‘90’s music. We also spent the day cleaning the house. Not just dusting and the occasional scrub, I mean we actually mopped the floors and swept the courtyard.
Monday brought Brittany to her knees with some sort of stomach bug. I can home early with her and she curled up in bed. Yet when I decided to venture downstairs to check on her, I found her on the floor in the hallway. There was an emergency trip to the hospital for some rehydration salts and she seems to be almost back to normal. As she wrote in her blog post, ohana has come to define our group. Thank you Disney for teaching us something new, besides the fact that radical alien experiments are incredibly cute and fluffy.
Tuesday through Friday brought about a new adventure for me as Steph and I journeyed to the Training and Employment Center for Disabled Persons. Their ages range from 17-36 and their disabilities range from mental to physical. I taught my program here for the rest of the week, talking about fruits and vegetables and playing games. We had a lot of fun and I will be returning there to visit the new friends I have made.
My class this week saw a physical football game, some blindfolded partners and some loose tennis balls. On Tuesday we did an activity where two blindfolded partners have to find each other on a field by communication. I did not tell them the trick, which is to make a unique sound or combination of words to make it easier to find each other, but they picked up on that right away. Two of the boys were crowing like roosters and were easily able to find each other. Just as Marco Polo, partnered words make it much easier, like peanut butter and jelly or batman and robin.
On Wednesday we worked on hand-eye coordination by learning how to juggle and playing some games where they had to pass and catch the balls. We also had a small anatomy lesson, learning all the important muscle groups and giving them an idea of the function and how to strengthen each one.
I must mention a couple random things. One is that my French vocabulary has been increasing daily, which is awesome! Two is that our diet here has us eating an absurd amount of eggs and beans. No joke, its like huevos rancheros in our house every day. I think we may go through about 60 eggs per week. We are curious what this bean diet will do to us in the end. I guess we will find out! Until next week.
