Well this has been a rough couple of days with Mauro. Monday he wouldn´t talk to me. He served his detentions from Friday during break and lunchtime. Then at the end of the day, once again I had to write him 2 detentions. One for not doing his homework over the weekend and one for not getting his Friday detentions signed by his parents.

He has been getting detentions and never getting them signed, which automatically gives him another detention for the following day. He knew he would be in trouble at home so he wasn´t showing his father.

He cried every time I tried to talk to him on Monday. At the end of the day he just looked at me and walked away as I was trying to talk to him. Again Tuesday the same thing. He wouldn´t talk to me. He did give his parents the detention slips on Monday evening, and Wilmer his cousin and friend, told me his dad hit him bad with his belt. :(

He didn´t get any detentions on Tuesday, so that was a good thing!

Today I decided not to try to talk to him but to give him space and let him come to me when he is ready. He did kind of joke with me at lunch time and then asked if I could help him with his Science Pace that afternoon. As I was sitting with him in the Learning Center, he said "Miss do you think I was angy at you?" I said yes. He said "I wasn´t, I was sad." I was so glad that he talked to me and shared with me. He is a great kid! It´s funny the kids that God ties my heart to. Yesterday Sara, one of the missionaries here, said you have a heart for all the kids who are terrors, you love the kids who are hard to love. I hadn´t really thought about it, but it is true.

I pray that this will be a turning point for him. His detentions are typically for not doing his homework. When he doesn´t do his homework he gets further and further behind. When the school year is over we always have a few weeks for the kids who didn´t complete their grade to come to school and try to finish their Paces, they also do Vacation School during December for them to complete as much as possible. I know Mauro and Wilmer will be those kids again....but if Mauro would do his homework every night he could get close to completing 5th grade.

Anthony, my 2nd grader, hasn´t been at school this week. I am worried about him and hoping he will be back tomorrow. He told me on Friday that he was going to Tegucigalpa on Saturday, but I haven´t seen him all week. His mom has been threatening him to take him to dad´s house to live if he doesn´t behave. I am hopeful that he hasn´t been sent off somewhere ...