week 3: settling in (june 29-july 5)

casa san pascual: well the kids finished school a couple weeks ago, and now they are in a kinda of "break" period until they start the summer program next week. the kids that are struggling in school will go to summer school and the other kids participate in different activities in the morning and afternoons (led by the summer volunteers).  so this week we spent basically preparing for summer program and trying to keep the kids from getting too bored. i also got to go spend some time in san pascual (the special needs home i'll be working in). like i said, i have 9 main kids that i'll be working with, six that live in san pascual. i thought the best way to start is just to get to know the kids, so i can know more about their needs and what i will be able to do with the.  so, i spent one day just hanging out at their house... and it was completely overwhelming!! i had a few moments where i was like, "what am i doing here?!" there are six kids in this house and three tias and i have no idea how they do it. the kids are great, and i'm really excited to work with them, but they all definitely need one on one attention. you can't stop paying attention for one second. (i'll write more about the kids specifically later). anyway, they have a room in the house for therapy, but is an absolute complete disaster... and i quickly came to find out why. i took one of the kids in there and then two more came in and they were taking papers out and books and blocks and throwing them everywhere and wanting to paint and play catch and this room (that was already a disaster) looked like a tornado had gone through it after an hour! anyway, i left that day feeling a little overwhelmed, but i had a talk with anne (another volunteer coordinator here) afterward and i felt a lot better.  we decided that my first order of business would be to get a lock for the room and clean it so we can actually start working in it. then, i met veronica, who is a volunteer here from austria. she is a physical therapist and has been working with the kids for about a year and a half. it was good to talk with her and get her insight into the kids. also, on friday we had a meeting with the tias in the house and determined that we would put together a schedule for working with the kids one on one over the summer. (most of them will not be able to participate in the summer program). 

4th (well 3rd) of july: there are about 7 or 8 volunteers/staff members here from the states, and we were feeling a little blue about not being home for the fourth of july, so we decided to plan a party for thursday night (we couldn't do it on friday b/c we had planned an olympics day for the kids... see below). so, after all our work was done on thursday, we all gathered at one of the volunteer houses for a bbq. they have an old trash barrell that they've cut in half and put a grill thingy over it, so we used that to bbq. we bought hot dogs and hamburgers and chips and soda.  i made salsa too... all this speaking spanish has been making me seriously crave mexican food! we also cut up some watermelon and grilled some corn on the cob. it was really fun! the best part was we made s'mores! they were so yummy.  then we decided to try to sin some patriotic songs for all our non-american friends... it was pretty pitiful, but we managed to sing "you're a grand old flag", "this land is your land", and "take me out to the ball game". 

olympics: as sort of a "last hurrah" before summer program, some of the summer volunteers planned a day of olympics for the kids. it was basically like a field day, with different events for the kids to compete in... potato (well, rice) sack races, sprints, obstacle courses, suicides on the basketball court, long jump, etc. all the little kids competed in the morning (who were adorable btw!) and then we took a break and the older kids competed in the afternoon.  all the kids were in groups and were assigned a different country and they went around with their groups to compete in the events. my kids, from san pascual (team espana), competed with the younger kids in the morning. it was quite an interesting day. we weren't able to compete in all the events, but we tried! a lot of times we were just kind of running around and trying to make sure we didn't lose anyone. pretty much walking from one event to the next was enough of an activity for us.  we had fun though. then later that night we had the closing ceremonies on the basketball court and gave out awards to the winners of each event. afterward, two of the houses of older girls performed dances that they had prepared for us... that then turned into just a huge dance party on the basketball court. i normally hate dancing, but these kids love it, so it was really fun. 

el tres: after a very long week preparing for summer program and the olympics, i got to take a much needed break.  two of the other girls and i found out about this place called el tres about 2 hours north of here. we heard it was in the middle of the jungle... or forest... or whatever they call it here... and that it was really calm and relaxing... sounded perfect! and it was! it was just right off the road and about 3 km from this town called sebana de la mar, but it felt like you were in the middle of nowhere.... there were huge trees and beautiful flowers and random farm animals walking around... but it was so quiet and peaceful. there was practically no one there and we got a room for one night for a total of 800 pesos ($24... $8 each... crazy). and they had this really great restaurant with delicious food... and it was kinda just like you were at someone's house because there was no menu.  you just tell them that you want breakfast and they bring you whatever they are making for that day.  and i'm pretty sure the chicken we ate for dinner had been running around the place earlier that morning... but we go for anything that's not rice and beans when we can.  it was definitely a nice get-away... for those of you who are coming to visit me, we are going back there. 

another near death experience: well we knew our tranquil paradise couldn't last forever, and it definitely ended the moment we stepped on the bust to go back home. you can basically take a bus, or gua-gua as they are called here, anywhere you want and they are really cheap (like $3). but i don't know what's going on with these gua-gua drivers, but they certainly are in a hurry.  it's like how i explained before in the city, but when you travel further, the roads are even worse. i don't even know if you could consider parts of them roads... and there are these huge cliffs with no guard rails or anything and these bus drivers are flying around the corners, passing people on the wrong side of the road. the best way i can describe it is to imagine being on the indiana jones ride at disneyland... except that it's not a ride... it's real life! i literally just closed my eyes, because it was so much better not to look!

but again, i have survived yet another week! hope all is well at home!

"far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." - theodore roosevelt