My work....

So... I finished my first week and 1.5 days of work and spent most of the time asking myself that infamous question, "What on earth have I gotten myself into?" I am one of three teachers (profis) working with 21 two and three year olds who have immense amounts of energy and knowledge of violence.
For my first day, my host mom rode on the micro with me down to my work (it took a bit over half an hour - much shorter than what we had thought it would be!) and she walked me right up to the door. I have an amazing host mom! I was rather nervous, but there didn´t seem to be much to do, but kiss the cheeks of both my co-workers (in good Bolivian fashion) and dive straight in! The kids were just putting away their toys and getting ready for song time. Not such an easy task as it may sound. They put their toys away easily enough, but it was next to impossible to gather 21 energetic little kids and seat them against the wall and have them remain there. It is a constant battle of pulling one kid off of another and racing after kid #1 while seating kid #2 and having kid #3 running off from where you had just seated him. This continues for the entire day. There is a lot of crying; there is a lot of chaos; there is a lot of hitting, kicking, spitting, biting, pulling hair, and screaming....there are a lot of tired profis at the end of the day.

My days go like this:

Stretch #1 - Get up at 7:00... eat breakfast at 7:30... leave the house at 8:10... catch micro at 8:25... arrive at Guarderia Moises at 9:00

Stretch #2 - Song Time with the kids.... craft time with the kids...refrigerio (snack) time at 10:00... play on the concha or with legos or something that occupies the kids so that one profi can clean the classroom.... 12:00 lunch..... change the kids from their food-dirtied clothes and attempt to place them all on mats for siesta... lie down with kids and try to put them to sleep.... 1:30 hopefully all kids are asleep.... read or wander or do some sort of task, or possible escape for a short nap (I´ve already learned from experience that it is a rather stupid idea not to rest during this time... one gets rather completely worn out by the end of the day otherwise)...

Stretch #3 - 3:00 kids get up.... get kids changed... possible teeth brushing (now, that´s an adventure).... 4:00 refrigerio and the disappearance of one profi to her home... the next two hours are spent playing with toys or reading books and exhausting oneself playing "mommy" with a plastic dinosaur until all the parents have come and collected their children.

Stretch #4 - 6:00 (or so) leave to catch micro... 6:18 hopefully the micro stops and picks me up (it gets SUPER full)... 7:20 arrive at home and collapse on my bed for 5min.... eat dinner... read or study Spanish... talk with my host family (hopefully!)... take a shower.... go to bed

REPEAT! (warning: schedule may change without warning, although meal times shall remain constant)

It´s tiring and draining and exhausting, but it´s where God wants me. I spent quite a bit of time my first week asking God, "This is some kind of joke, right? What am I actually going to be doing?" But, it turns out that when God says go, I end up blowing noses and breaking up fights between 2-year olds. Not exactly glamerous.
I didn´t enjoy my first week, but I began to see perhaps why God had placed me here. All 21 kids are from very poor families, mainly with a single parent. Their home lives aren´t the greatest and they have had to learn to stick up for themselves. There is an awful lot of violence in my curso (class) and there is always revenge - which begins a nasty cycle until a profi steps in. I think that maybe that´s why I´m here. I need to be an example of non-violence, of love and forgiveness instead of revenge, of calm instead of chaos. This is definitely not easy in this kind of environment, but I can do it and it definitely helps by giving me a sense of purpose. I´m not exactly sure how to go about being this example, but I´m starting to try. I encourage hugs and kisses and already I can see the beauty when one child puts their arm around another who is crying and asks them what´s wrong.
It´s fantastic to have a goal. My goal is to teach these kids about love and forgiveness. I´m sure it´s going to be exhausting - at least for the first while - but I think it´s going to be so rewarding! I have a chance to shape the next generation. I want these kids to look back and remember Heidi as someone who never hit them, who was gentle and who loved them. I think this is why God wants me here. I think He´s going to shape me quite a bit here. I´m going to learn patience and discipline and work ethic and how to love those who don´t know how to be loved. It´s going to be an amazing year. ... but it´s not quite enjoyable yet (thank goodness for an absolutely amazing host family!!).
I really like my co-workers. They´re fun and everyone is really nice and friendly at the Guarderia. It´s a little difficult to communicate because my Spanish still isn´t very good, but it´s getting better and I still manage to communicate pretty well. The grounds are gorgeous and green! There are hamocks and cows and pigs and dogs and totoises and lots of trees! It is so nice to work in such a beautiful place.
Anyway, that´s a bit of a summary of my work. Thank you for all your prayers and encouragements, they mean a lot to me.

Chau!