Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Children can understand most of my Spanish!
I forgot to write about my change of rooms. The team members were so appalled at the smallness of my room that they requested I be assigned a new room. When I came back to the hotel after work, the busboy and I moved all of my things to the room next door. It is a better place! I can turn around without falling over the bed, there is no step up to the bathroom and I have a closet and a refrigerator.
Today was my first full day at PPA. At breakfast the three other team members “chewed” their coffee. They say that’s the best way to describe this liquid. I either drink black or coca tea. We usually have eggs and peanut butter and jelly rolls while Edith gives us the schedule for the day. Lulu, Laura, and I took our suitcases of donated items for PPA today so we had to use two taxis. I was in charge of making sure my taxi got the right place. I met the challenge.
I loaded up on puzzles, colored pencils, markers, paper, coloring books, and paper airplanes and went over to hospilito. There were six children aged four to ten. The first question the helper asked was whether I had had chickenpox, as one of the patients was thus inflicted. Yes, I had them for my fifth birthday.
The only thing in the room for the children to do is watch television. I turned it off immediately as I figured they had the rest of the day to watch. I introduced myself and they told me their names and ages. I read the kids El Castillo de Chuchurumbel and they were very attentive. I gave out the puzzles, markers, pencils, and coloring books and they happily went to the tables to entertain themselves. Several asked me to help them and I did, but the 100 piece lion puzzle was very hard and missing too many pieces. Jimmy and I agreed to put it away and do something else. All this time I was speaking Spanish and the children understood me! I could not always understand them due to a lack of vocabulary, but it was indeed gratifying that so much of the language came back so quickly.
I told the kids “Henny Penny,” “The little Red Hen,” and “The Tree” in Spanish. They were an attentive and participatory audience. Brenda with the broken arm insisted that I NOT tell “Little Red Riding Hood” but I have no idea why. Other big hits were the Styrofoam airplanes and the GI Joe types with parachutes.
We took a minibus to lunch. The bus was behind schedule. The ticket taker hurried us aboard and the driver lurched ahead before we were seated, much to our surprise. Today’s lunch was cream of corn soup (with gigantic white kernels,) and what seemed like pork short ribs with sweet potatoes and of course rice. Dessert was a caramel crepe with chocolate ice cream. We needed the walk back to help digest all this food.
Westin, the 22 year-old college student, went with me to work with the three year olds. Maria Flores asked him to do the pasting project I had failed yesterday. She was impressed by his artistry, so I cut the paper and he glued. Eight three year-olds arrived, a different group than yesterday. We did the same project. It really is amazing how much better they were at tracing and cutting after only 15 minutes of each.
When we returned to the hotel, the Wi Fi was fixed, so I was able to post yesterday’s blog and write and post today’s.
Tonight we will eat at the hotel.
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