Mi primera miercoles.

My day started around 7:30 ish, which is when my alarm went off. I then allotted myself the normal fifteen minutes to actually get out of bed and started getting ready sometime around 7:50ish. I finished my routine sometime around 8:20ish or so before heading down for a quick breakfast. (It really is difficult to only give one bathroom to three girls, not to mention the fact that the boys across the hall only have two beds and a significantly larger bathroom. Seriously, do they really need all that?)

I had a quick bite of some bread and butter and jam, I didn’t want anything too heavy before going to work. Around 8:30, a few of us left together to head towards the Maximo, which was the general direction of my work anyways. It was either me still adjusting or the “shortcut” that the boys were showing us, but I was so incredibly out of breath that I opted to fall out of the pack and take a taxi to my work. I got there right on time, which I was pretty surprised but happy about since I was anticipating a very long time on the stairway.

My first day of work just cannot stand to be described in only a couple of words. On one hand, all of the kids are incredibly adorable and you just can’t help but want to hug all of them, all at once.( It’s a good thing that this is a day care and not an orphanage, it means that I can’t try and take a kid home with me. =] ) Still, the condition of their day care is just so incredibly unstructured that you’re left speechless. I knew coming down here that the conditions wouldn’t be necessarily that of a private Montessori or anything, but it still doesn’t hit you until you’re actually there in the moment, trying to help out in whatever way you can, aware that there’s no particular rhyme or reason to the way things work at the center.

A majority of the time, I just played with the kids and kept them from roughhousing with another. The phrases that I know best now are probably “No pele!” , “No llores!” and “Está bien!” (Don’t fight and don’t cry and It’s okay!) The kids are super amazing most of the time, though there’s definitely a range in their personalities. Almost all of them are welcoming of the volunteers, but only some are confident or brave enough to come up and play with me. By the way, I noticed that the majority of the kids that clung to me more were the little boys who enjoyed playing toy cars with me. I also had this one little girl on my lap almost the entire day, because she was under a year old and still cries for her mom the whole day. Her name’s Lucero and we had a hard day together because of 1) her separation anxiety and 2) she had just gotten over a cold and was not eating or drinking at all.

The feeding was definitely a more challenging point of the day, because it seemed like all of the kids that I was assigned to help feed just simply had no appetite that day. They spit the food out or tried to take the spoon and ended up spilling oatmeal all over me. I felt like it was my fault that these kids weren’t eating, was I not being authoritative enough? Had I already pinned myself as the pushover teacher? The other workers there assured me that it was simply the luck of the draw and my kids just so happened to be feeling sick and had no desire to eat.

One thing for sure though is the fact that once I get back home, I’ll be collecting whatever old toys and books I can or any monetary donations to send back down to the center. A lot of the tension between the kids comes down to the fact that they don’t have a lot of toys of their own so this is their only chance to play. However, though there are a lot of little toys like cars or plastic balls, the kids always fight over the “higher-end” toys, such as ones with electronic sounds.

Another thing that just broke my heart was their lack of clothing. A lot of these kids come in without any diapers or underwear because they simply don’t have any. So when they wet their pants, there’s no choice but for them to stay in the soiled clothes. One of the girls wet her pants, and had no other option but to put on a pair of wool leggings.

It was tough to see, but I still would not trade my placement. I’m hoping that just another face to play and try to understand them will help them follow the normal path of child development more easily.

Afterwards, the volunteer that I work with, Valerie, and I went to grab a quick bite to eat at this restaurant at the Plaza de Armas called Balcones. Their niche was the fact that you can sit on the balcony and watch people in the Plaza. I had an Alpaca cheeseburger which I still don’t know how to describe. It was almost rubbery, and definitely not like chicken. I can say I did it now, and that’s that. I don’t’ think it’ll be something I’ll go and seek out again. I then spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the sidestreets and found myself an Oxford Spanish-English dictionary for 15 soles (5 bucks) in a little sideshop versus the 30 soles (10 bucks) they’re trying to sell it for at the school. My phrasebook wasn’t enough to help out in my Spanish class, which is why I needed to make that particular investment. I also went looking for a notebook for class, and found a really great little store where I bought it for 2.90 soles, whereas another shop recommended by my teacher tried to sell it for 30 soles (10 bucks for a notebook? NO THANK YOU.)

I then went to class, which wasn’t too bad. Not as tough as the day before, so I think my Spanish is slowly getting there. Afterwards, I saw Matt who had just finished his class, and we walked back home together. I’m so glad too, because I actually didn’t have enough small change for a taxi ride. =] We did our best to be obnoxious Bay Area kids by dropping random Bay Area rap lines and throwing up the Thizz sign and other Hyphy movement things.

Later on in the night, we went out to Trivia night and club-hopping because it was Bridgette’s last night and Matt’s birthday. Trivia night was SO packed at Real McCoys. You seriously had to step over people to even get somewhere. The trivia was pretty difficult, too. Do you know how many omelettes you can make with one ostrich egg assuming you use two eggs for an omelette? Bet you don’t. I know I didn’t. 10 omelettes. Crazy, yeah?

Oh yeah…the winning team? OURS! Go “Yo llama’s so phat…” Trust that this sparked a whole bunch of Yo mama jokes with the llama spin throughout the night. After trivia night, we hit up about three different clubs, Uptown, Mythology and Mama Africa and danced our faces off. Bridgette and I (who’s from the Bay Area and goes to Santa Cruz) had fun being the only ones getting hyphy on the floor. “Seriously though, I’m not dancing unless I’ve dislocated a limb by the end of the night.”

It was a long night, but super fun and a great time for bonding. Adios for now, as I’m going to try and rest before class. =] xxoo