My Dear Friends and Family,
I know, I know. It’s
June. But I won’t waste your time,
energy, and attention spans on apologies and excuses. I shall instead dive right into content and
pray that you’ll pardon my delay in updating and that you’ve maintained
interest in my endeavors here!
In keeping with the theme of themed posts, I’d like to introduce you to the rest of my first grade class, that is, first graders headed to second grade as we recently completed our school year (more on the end-of-year fun and festivities later!). Though every single one of these kiddos is equally as special as Manuela, I can’t make every post as lengthy as hers or I’ll lose my readership, so I’ll strive to keep these short and sweet – just a blurb with fun facts! It was an honor to teach these students this year, who ended up teaching me just as much, so without further ado, I present to you all, the rest of the first grade class of the Makarios School 2011 – 2012:
Meet Martin Paulino, the winner of the “Most Respectful Student
Award” at end of the year ceremonies for first grade. This was well-deserved for little Martin, who
arrived every day compliant and mild-mannered, flashing his shy smile every now
and then to melt our hearts. Martin
lives in Tamarindo, the batey that surrounds the Makarios School, and spends
the majority of his time outside of school with his abuela, or grandmother. His
father works at one of our favorite local eateries El Garaje and is just as quiet and respectful as his son. Martin enjoys math and playing basketball at
recess, and his best friend is Alturo, who also lives in Tamarindo. He also possesses the remarkable talent of
having kept his pet fish that we gave him as a prize for good behavior alive
ALL YEAR! He faithfully feeds it oatmeal
every day.
Martin is pictured here with Profe Kelvin, with whom he
formed a special connection this past year.
Kelvin also grew up in Tamarindo and, noting Martin’s shyness at the
beginning of the school year, shared with him that he also, as a young boy, was
often nervous and shy in school but that once he was able to overcome the fear
of initiating conversation he made tons of friends that he still spends time
with today! This helped Martin to feel
more comfortable reaching out to first grade students from the other villages
Chichigua and Tamarindo (This photo was taken on one of our beach days - note
the moat to their castle on the left!).
It was an honor to teach Martin, and be taught valuable
lessons by him as well –lessons in patience, kindness, and being slow to anger
and quick to forgive. To support my work teaching Martin and our other unforgettable Makarios students here in the DR, please visit the following and click Sarah VanHoose in the field that says "apply my gift to": https://secure.etransfer.com/
