October news round-up (with pictures)

We've already reported on the end of the school year, so we can just add that the marks were good for both boys, so congratz once again to them, even though the level was quite low (without any reason for it to be so, as there are all the physical conditions, as to number of students, facilities and material, to push for much higher), so we'll have to help them regain knowledge and skills they've been losing, but they're ready and willing and we're already doing something, though slowly, to let them recover after those 14 months...

Mattia tried to organize a post-school trip to the relief map with 6th grade, as he promised them earlier, but after the end of the lessons it was hard to keep in touch with many and some had left for the vacation period, so in the end the turnout was low, only 4, but José, Oswaldo, Joshua and Angel really enjoyed the map, the park where they played later with Michele and Sam (who also got to have a little cycle on rented bikes) the journey on many buses and the Italian home-made pizza which José cooked with Elena in our kitchen on the roof, at 6.00 in the morning. 

One evening we took another long trip (especially coming back, with two very tired kids) to the city centre, to enjoy a concert by an orchestra of wind instruments which includes, on sax, Pato, the boyfriend of one of the volunteer-teachers (who are by now all gone, after a farewell party on the roof with many women of the organisation, as you can see in October's pictures).

On a public holiday, with a family of the boys' friends, we went to a park with miniature replicas of national monuments, where the boys had a good time playing away from here, in a green space.

During the normal days, in the morning the boys have started to attend the library's reading programme (and to play chess or lego with daddy), while in the afternoon they keep going to the pool (unless they're a bit sick due to the windy season and the lower temperatures) or to join daddy's sport&games at the dusty football pitch.

As to our work, Elena keeps being quite busy with nursery kids, management help for the pharmacy, early age developmental checks and more, including a home visit, while Mattia every afternoon organises one hour of games&races for kids from 5 to 10 and the next hour trains a group of 8 older ones, who are now forming a good group and putting some commitment. At times he's joined by our dear friend José (when he's not busy with the English classes, he's recently launched with his wife Marlene), which is a very good thing as this way they can either split the kids in groups or the younger ones can then keep playing in a more organised way while Mattia trains the older group.