...change!

So, this week was my first week of not working in the curso I talked about last time. I have switched over to Sala Cuna or The Baby Room. I like it a lot better, but...


Is it too easy!? What about all my goals and what-not that I wrote about last time? I had thought God had wanted me in the other curso, but was I wrong? ... ... ...then again, maybe God wanted me in the other curso for the time that I was there and now He wants me in Sala Cuna.

Well... the Baby Room isn't all babies... there are a few (4-ish), but the rest are about 1.5-2.5 years old. There's still quite a bit of violence, but not as much as in my other curso. There are also only about 17 kids and 4 or 5 Tias (Aunts). So I find I have a lot more time for myself, to rest. The kids also sleep a lot more and I get a longer break for lunch and seista (2.5 hours... approximately). The other workers in Sala Cuna are really awesome. They have so much energy and a crazy sense of humour - I really enjoy working with them. They do try to be inclusive of me quite a bit, which I really appreciate because I can imagine it's hard to always be inclusive to the new, foreign girl who doesn't really understand too much of what you're saying.

That all said, it's not completely easy. I get tired... I get bored... I get to change dirty diapers. But now when I come home at the end of the day I can usually say, "I had fun today." - I think that's super important. I'm still teaching kids love and gentleness and I still hope to be a fond hazy memory someday in the back of these kids' minds.

On to other news... Yesterday I went go-karting with Kat (the other SALTer at the Guarderia) and 5 other girls from our work. I didn't want to go at first, but I was convinced finally and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I didn't imagine something very fancy - I imagined it being a little run-down... it wasn't at all! It was fancier than any go-karting place I've seen in Canada (although that's not to say there isn't any place fancier). We had special head coverings and cool helmuts and gloves and vests and there were flags and lights and races. It was pretty awesome. Afterwards Kat and I ate some ice cream and then went home. I was tired and my leg was tired (the one constantly pressing on the accelerator), but I was happy... that sounds cheesy, but it's true. It was a good time to connect with other people from my work and to see more of the city.

Yesterday was also halloween. I saw a few decorations for halloween around and some new stalls were up here and there with halloween stuff, but it definitely wasn't very big or popular. Not much happened. I saw a few kids around with some candy buckets... but there were no parties or big halloween advirtisements or anything like that. And, seeing as how I'm not a halloween fan, it was nice to nearly skip it for a year.

In still other news...
I have a pretty good weekend lined up. Let me tell you about it.

Tonight us volunteers (and some others) are getting together to make pizza and watch a movie and eat snacks and hang out. I'm pretty excited for that. It's nice to get together with friends every now and then and speak English and watch an English movie.

Tomorrow my church is going on a paseo (outing... not sure if I spelt "paseo" right). It's to some place about 20km from Santa Cruz. I'm also super excited for this. There's a pool and we'll eat and play games and talk and have a good time all around (so I hope... it might rain). I really love my church here. I can't really describe fully why, but it's awesome. The people are really friendly and there's a bunch of youth (with whom I still need to try and connect with... whew, not so easy). I'll have to blog at another time all about my church.

Monday is "The Day of the Dead." - a holiday where nobody (or nearly no-one) works. It sounds kind of morbid, but it's more of a Rememberance Day than anything halloween-y... if I have understood it correctly. I'm not really sure what happens, but I'm pretty sure it's more popular here than halloween (if only because one gets a day off from work). It also happens to be my Papi's birthday. So... a serenade will occur the night before at about midnight and the next day we shall have empanadas and cake!

Anyways, that's about all the news I have for now. I'll be back in a couple weeks!

Chau!

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!