Since I've been away, other classes have started at Ananda, and I'm keen to try the Argentine Tango, and the Cuban Salsa, so that's Tuesday night and Saturday morning sorted.
There is a sporting field about 50m from my home, and they have "Cardio salsa" classes every morning M-F 7.30-8.30 and every evening at 7pm, it costs about $8 for the week. That should take care of my aerobic fitness.
But most importantly, I have gotten involved with the KKIS project - Keeping Kids in School, an initiative for the local kids. This is what they told me:
The KKIS Project came about as a sustaining project after we made a donation at Christmas. We have found a very receptive elementary school in the Guadalupana neighborhood on the north side of Playa. Our goals are to help keep kids enrolled in school by: supplying uniforms, providing school supplies and backpacks, securing English language materials for the classroom and to provide volunteers for the classrooms to help students learn English.
We chose the Pelopides school because they provide financial scholarships to half of their students. Some students only need a little help and others have all of their tuition paid. This school also teaches English to all students for half of the day and they desperately need English language materials and volunteers to help students learn how to read in English. They are also willing to allow us into their classrooms to help students learn English by reading to them.
Most of these kids come from very poor families, many of them Mayan, and as they cannot go to school unless they have the necessary books and equipment, many kids just drop out, or else the books are shared by brothers and sisters who take it in turns to attend school. The cost for what each child needs is minimal for us foreigners, but almost unattainable for these families. We heard how some of these families are surviving (?) on the equivalent of $500 a year!
We are starting with a fundraising luncheon and auction, and from there hopefully there will be plenty of opportunities to make a difference in these kids' lives. A good education gives them more chances to find work, and fluency in English will help enormously with many jobs in the tourism industry.
If anyone is considering coming to visit me, we'd really appreciate as many children's books as you can bring - remember that coming to the US you can bring 2 bags of 23kg each.
I'll keep you posted about how it all goes. For now, adios!
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