Lauren here! This week has been a little odd. Saturday was our adventure to Le Pouce, which I just learned means “the thumb.” How accurate because the mountain is shaped like a big thumb. Our journey up the mountain started with excitement and confidence….which slowly dwindled to exhaustion and confusion as to how anyone could scale a pure 90 degree angle. I assure you the tourist we saw cruising down the mountain had not taken the same path. We then discovered that at the fork back there, we should have taken a right instead of a left. Bryan, Lincoln, and I were absolutely going to scale that mountain, but sadly 15 feet from the top we could go no further. We all returned to the bus stop sweaty, smelly, dead tired, and covered in mud. I will call that day “an adventure.”
Sunday saw our standard day at the beach. We brought a volleyball too so that we could stay entertained when we did not want to just lay in the sun. Then Monday came. This week has been extremely interesting, with little obstacles coming out of left field. The first one was Monday morning when Brittany and I left for our morning run and she promptly tripped over a rock, slow motion falling to the ground into a summersault, coming to rest on her back. I tried to pull her up and she said, “nope, I’m just gonna stay here for a minute.” We finished our route with a brisk walk and saw that her knees and hand had some skin removed.
Tuesday was my day to teach. I started off with an exercise where they had to stand on a sheet and figure out how to turn the sheet completely over without stepping off of it. They did a really great job communicating and working together! Then we tried back to back drawing to encourage detailed description and communication. I then talked about mental health and reviewed stress and relaxation techniques. I walked them through progressive relaxation and a kind of guided meditation and by the end they were really into it.
Wednesday we played Ninja again because the students requested it and really love that game. Then we played volleyball for the longest time because they did NOT want to stop! It was really fun to see everyone get involved. We then did the Great Egg Drop. I gave them toilet paper rolls, sponges, paper and tape and told them they had to create a package for an egg that we would then drop off of the roof. I gave them 5 minutes to create a plan and then handed out the supplies. I was nervous that none of the eggs would break from the look of the packages, and let’s be honest, it’s really no fun if all the eggs survive. I had every group name their package, one was even named Paul, and then we proceeded outside to drop some eggs!! The first one broke, egg juice was running through the newspaper. The second one broke too. I got nervous that no eggs would survive! That would be no fun either. Finally we had a survivor. Another casualty later and then another survivor! It was really great to see how excited the students got about the surviving eggs and I told them at the end of class if there were any activities they wanted to do again to let me know. I suspect this might make a repeat appearance.
Thursday night Brittany and I were indulging in a little donut treat that Kelvin had brought over. It was delicious, with a nice layer of chocolate in the middle. Brittany wanted to split another one so she headed to the kitchen when I realized what I was tasting was not chocolate, but Nutella. I was pleasantly surprised when I froze….Brittany has a severe peanut allergy. I yelled for her to come back and we looked at each other with apprehension and fear. She proactively popped a Benadryl and drank some water. It did not prevent her from feeling a little sick that night, but at least we didn’t have to stab her in the leg.
We are stoked for the weekend. I think it is going to be a lazy one. Beach days sound nice. I have been told I am developing a nice freckle covered tan. Bring it on! Until next week. Lauren out.
