Lau Lau and I arrived about about 8 and went straight to the cafeteria to sooth the crying children that I have come to expect. A lot of hugging and cooing and Spanish pep talks about how their moms are"getting to work" while they are getting to play in the sun with their new friends, and how they are always with their mothers in their hearts. Uncharacteristically corny stuff like that seems easier for me to say in another language.
Veronica, the relatively competent and relatively warm señora that I work with does a relatively good job of leading some morning songs. From then on, her direct interaction with the kids diminishes pretty significantly, which is sort of where I step in. It is amazing the difference a bit of exemplary enthusiasm and participation can make! It's the difference between dumping out the box of the classroom's (only) toy and giving orders from a standing position to sit and stop hitting and stop throwing the toys--and sitting down with them and beginning to excitedly connect these round hollow toys. The minute I do that, they swarm into order around me and start regaling me with bits to connect. It's then a matter of making sure they do it
themselves even though it is sort of impossible for some of them to figure out how the toys fit together. At this point, the ingredients are, in equal parts: let them struggle in vain for a little while and guide the toys in their hands together and exclaim at their success (instead of just showing them). Step three in the make-the-same-toy-interesting-day-after-day-for-hours-and-hours-process is to begin inventing (albeit) far-fetched objects that these connected plastic pieces could possibly resemble, and making the corresponding sound effects and goofy movements. The sound effects are my favorite part! hahaAfter these morning activities, they wash their hands and eat fruit. My favorite part of the day is the next hour where they play outside in the sun. Today i found myself on a soccer field with about 40 wee-ones and no other supervision. Nothing was planned, there was no equipment to speak of, and they were starting to mischievously wander off into dangerous situations. I ended up doing a sort of funny/scary monster growl and chasing them around for a while. Then, when I had them all cornered in a soccer goal, I would put on an expression of sheer horror and begin to run. They would take the cue and start chasing me in the circles I led them in. Eventually, they'd catch me and I'd fall to my death before resurrecting myself with another monstrous growl and beginning the cycle again. This went on for a while before two women lackadaisically appeared to sort of supervise around the periphery. Modeling interest worked its magic again, and soon I had about six kids inspecting the intricacies of grass with me for half an hour. They were really into it and made lots of fake soup for me out of clover.
Lunchtime is out of my power to enhance. It consists of a militant enforcement of soup eating for these tiny, crying 2- year olds. Force feeding and a general air of tantrums all about.
All in all, this guardaria has been a very mediocre experience. No--mediocre maybe doesn't take into account the intensity of both good and bad. In a way, I should be jumping at this opportunity to really make a difference--to fill this energy vacuum. But I feel like such a temporary addition to the center that unless I were to make some sort of longer-term contributions--like presenting a plan of activities or a stockpile of materials--all my energy output is a few drops in a long-term drought.
I hope I'm not putting too much of a good-guy/bad-guy spin on this. I actually had some good sympathetic exchanges with Veronica today. I can see that she cares about the kids' well-being. Partly, I think she's plum wore out. 26 years old with an 8 year old and a 5 year old, she looks a lot older than she is. Today she told me that she was bored and I realized what a vicious circle that must be. Tired and bored and alone with 13 kids, it's hard to muster the energy for activities...but that leads to more difficult kids and a general air of lethargy--all fueling her boredom and exhaustion. I think tomorrow is our last day there--we're going to try to work in an orphanage next week. I feel sort of guilty sampling these morning jobs and not really committing to kids who most need commitment. I'm glad, at least, that I've kept consistent at Don Bosco. Poor Lau Lau has come in just as all the volunteer centers are in transition, and she has had zero consistency and a lot of frustration.
For this we took a breather in between jobs today, lounging on the lawn of the Casa de la Cultura, laughing about the vocabulary arguments we always have. She just said with a laugh "we could write a dictionary of synonyms together" because we always dispute words, only to find out that we're both right.Today was my last day at Casa Amigos. In the last couple of days I've really settled happily in there--making jokes and jabs with the other teachers, really talking to the kids, giving coherent and complex orders. Day 2 of the mural project and we finished it!! I was so proud. We had five brushes and a little gloopy paint and about 25 kids at a time running and fightin
g and begging me to paint. Somehow I tactfully danced myself through this- mixing the little paint we had into new colors, rotating the 
kids in and out with relatively little resentment on their parts, coming up with new things for them to paint to keep the begging at bay. And I made them do it. It was weird--my coworkers apparently thought I was going to paint it myself and gave me dubious scowls when I insisted the kids were capable.It was sort of anticlimactic--this being the last time I'll see them. Lots of hugs and extended waves goodbye as my bus departed. I'm not sure whether to think it's a shame that I had to leave when things were just getting really good or whether to be glad I was able to end on such a good note.
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