Route Taxis Are So Much Fun....NOT

Obviously the route taxis are not the focus of my project, but they have become a huge part of my experience.  And to put in simple terms--I really don't like route taxis!  For starters they are not safe. They never have seatbelts, the cars are all falling apart, the drivers drive like madmen, and you place your trust into some driver that you don't even know!  One day I was in a taxi and it was packed, there was someone in the hatchback, 5 people across the back, two people in the passenger seat, and then of course the driver.  It is crazy!  But, that is how most people get around in Montego Bay, and I am happy to say that so far it has gone okay for me.  Another problem that I have had with these route taxis is that they hardly ever go up to where West Haven is.  This means that I am waiting for up to an hour for a taxi to come and get me...annoying!!

Anyways today at West Haven I was able to help out in the classroom a lot.  The teacher asked me to lead the morning routine.  I was at first a little bit nervous because I had only observed it for a couple of days, but once I got started it was fine :)  We started out by going over the days of the week and the months of the year.  Then we went over them in Spanish, which is always funny to listen to!

After finishing the rest of the morning routine the teacher went over the letter C.  The class thought of some words that started with C and the teacher wrote them on the board.  He also had the class sing the letter "C" song, here is a video of a portion of the song:

Oh also, that was Derrick laughing in the background :)

He then called selected students up to write/trace the letter C on the board.  Not every child received a turn, which was unfortunate, but it was nice to watch the kids who were able to try.

Here are some pictures of the kids writing the letter C:

After the children finished writing the letter C, the teacher then put the movie The Letter Factory in for them to watch.  It actually is a very cute movie and is very good at teaching the different letter sounds, it was created by LeapFrog.

I then helped out with lunchtime by feeding a few children.  I spent a lot of time with Crystal today, she is a very slow eater but she loves to talk to you.  Here is a picture of her eating lunch:

Tonight for dinner we had rice, plantains, salad, and chicken.   A classic meal :)

Also, tonight Ms. Dexter took Tae and I to a grocery store to buy some different things.  It was very similar to grocery stores back at home with many of the same items and a few different ones. It was a good experience!