Las Clases de Danza

I started the dance classes for the girls at the school and the home yesterday. Here's how it all went down: So it started to pour down rain at 1:40PM, but I just packed up all of my stuff in my bookbag, threw on my poncho, grabbed my umbrella, and headed to the gym. Two o'clock (the time for the first class) rolled around and no one was in the gym except me. I figured I would give them 10 or 15 minutes since it was still raining and since no one is really ever on time in Guatemala. Shelly came after she finished lunch to help me; that was around 2:15PM and there were still no girls in sight. I started to get a little sad and discouraged, but I tried to be hopeful. Around 2:25PM, Eslin (one of the girls from the home) came into the gym and asked me why I hadn't called the girls to come for the dance class; they were sitting in front of the school waiting. I told her that I didn't know that I was supposed to call them and that I was so sorry that they had been waiting. She went and got them for me and we were still able to have 30 minutes of the first class. There were about 6 girls in that first class. And thank goodness for Shelly. She was my translator. It is VERY hard to try to explain dance moves in spanish and also count in spanish while doing the steps at the same time!! Whoa....my brain was going crazy!!! The 3 o'clcok class started on time and ended up going very well, too. There were about 8 girls, including Delia (another girl from the home). I think the 4 o'clock class, however, was my favorite. This class was consisted of the older girls from the home so I knew all of them. And I'm teaching them a dance to the song "We're All In This Together" from High School Musical, which is just as big here as it is in the states, and the girls looked like they enjoyed it. The younger girls' class was at 5 PM. I was very tired at that point as you can probably imagine. The girls were being very silly and were being distracted by the other kids that were playing in the gym. I was getting very frustrated and didn't have much patience left in me, but I kept pushing on. Thankfully, Liz and Christy (2 of the interns), were there and helped me out. Caleb also helped to get the other kids out of the gym so we could have class. I had a really hard time coming up with things to teach the younger ones. I tried kicks across the floor and then decided to do some center floor stuff, like jazz squares, 3-step turns, pivot turns, and the grapevine, but they just didn't seem into it. I didn't think they would be able to do the High School Musical dance that I had taught to the older girls, but I decided to try it anyways because I couldn't think of anything else to do.....my brain was shot....and I really needed something to grab their attention. Even though they had a pretty hard time remembering the steps, they were definitely into the dance. They LOVE anything that has to do with High School Musical! :) I was planning on doing a 45 minute class with the younger ones, but stopped after 30 minutes. I think that was enough for them and me!!! I realized that I'm really going to have to think about what I want to teach these younger ones. It's a lot harder, for me, to come up with stuff for the younger ones and then try to explain it to them in spanish. I might still continue with the High School Musical dance, but just make up some much easier steps for them. So overall, classes went very very well!! Kara even told me that the girls were talking at dinner last night about how the classes were "chilero", which means "cool" in spanish, so that was really encouraging. Classes definitely wore me out, but I would love to keep on teaching if the girls want to keep learning!