Tuesday, April 14
This day turned out to be the longest day by far. We completed our morning, afternoon and evening assignments. Needless to say, by the time we were done, we were utterly exhausted.
Jozi spent the day at the hostal since she woke up nauseous with stomach pains and a fever. I was asked if I could join Dan (Jozi´s afternoon partner) with the occupational therapy project instead of working with my siblings Eduardo and Luis. I accepted as long as I was provided a moment to speak with the eldest, Luis, to explain the situation. I didn´t want him to feel as if someone else had just abruptly left him behind without saying anything after being told we would meet. I also had to get authorization to promise him cookies (volunteers aren´t permitted to make any kind of promises to the children).
Dan and I started with our individual kindergarten classes. Even though PPA has such limited funds and resources, the 5 year olds were provided with an array of classes which include computer lessons. During recreation Dan and I met again and juggled the kids of 3 – 4 classes. Dan spent it assisting the kids with the monkey bars, pushing them on swings and spinning the teeter totter. I taught them the hot potato with a plastic ball. The funny part was how my circle kept increasing instead of decreasing with the losers since the other kids in the playground were interested in participating….lol…too cute. The sad part is you notice the frustrations and anger in some of the children even during recreation time. More specifically with the new one´s who still need time to adjust.
After lunch Dan joined me in explaining things to Luis. Fortunately, it went well even though he appeared sad. I promised him that I would without a doubt pick him up the next day so that we may eat cookies and spend time with his brother. It was great being able to fulfil such a simple promise the following day.
Soon after we walked over to meet with the lady in charge of occupational therapy. When she finished explaining what we would be doing to develop the toddler’s motor skills Dan and I picked up the 5 girls selected for the project. It went amazingly well. We spent the afternoon creating numbers with beads and designs punching holes with small metal pens.
In regards to the others, Laura discovered a kicker but was grateful to have a fluent English speaking worker by her side. Lisa and Libby discovered Laura´s biter.
The entire group gathered in the afternoon to teach English to the high school girls and work with toddlers. We went in with no curriculum to meet with the girls….bad move. We split into 3 groups. Libby and I dealt with about 10 girls that just grilled her about who she was and what she consisted of. This was a bit awkward for Libby, especially since she doesn´t understand the language. After dealing with it for a few moments I decided to take them outside and have Libby teach them some of her gymnastics move. This has been such a hit with the girls. They gained so much respect for Libbly once we were done. Before you knew it all the girls were outside with us observing and many attempting to imitate her.
Soon after that was completed we proceeded with Dulce Sueños. This project consists of putting the toddlers to sleep. If you have a child, you could only imagine the difficulty of a stranger attempting this. Lisa was the first to throw her hands in the air and walk away after much rejection from the child she ended up with. Turns out she accidentally kept referring to the baby as a boy since the majority of them are. In actuality her child was a girl (all the little girls in PPA have short hair to avoid lice). Libby´s child wouldn´t sit still and kept bumping his head on the wooden bed; Laura had success singing the same song multiple times, Dan quietly sat by his child´s bed side and managed to keep him still and I managed to keep mine in bed while attempting to sing and story tell.
Overall, we all managed to keep each other sane and happy.
We ended with a quick and first/only not so great dinner.
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