This whole leaving thing is very complicated. After my visit to Fronteras last Saturday, I went back to Casa ready to leave. I spoke with the volunteer coordinator the next day and told her that it wasn’t for me, and that I was out. She was great and said that she was surprised, and that I needed to do what I needed to do, but ultimately she hoped I would stay. And as soon as I told her I was leaving, and as soon as she told me I could go, I felt like I could stay. And so I did. I spent a week working in Kindergarten, this time not with little Dulce Maria. We played in the park and visited the pigs and chickens and made leaf rubbings. I gracefully handled a situation in which one of my students pooped her pants causing the other teacher to throw up. I discovered that counting down backwards from five is magic in Spanish as well (teachers, you’ll probably understand that a little better than most). It was a pretty good week. I started enjoying my time with the other volunteers a little more, and have even learned to flush the toilet cuando no hay aqua.
The kids at Casa Guatemala are really beautiful too. All kids are, at least to some degree, even when they are crapping their pants. I had activities with the big girls one day last week, and they spent the whole time teaching the little girls to dance, and I used my supercoolheadlight as a strobe light. I’ve spent more time with the boys the past couple of days, and they are awesome too. Two of the older boys built a raft complete with an anchor, a fishnet, and an oar made out of a stick and a ping pong paddle.
Of course there are the monkeys too. There’s a whole huge family of them that hangs out in front of the comedor including a momma monkey who carries a baby on her back. A family of monkeys!! Can you believe it! What luck!
My Spanish is improving too. I’m understanding more and more, and depending on who I’m talking to, am able to actually carry on a conversation. The kindergarten teacher is from Spain, and she’s wonderful and patient, and also just walked into the internet place as I started writing about her. Creepy. I’ve learned that chuca means dirty, culo means butt, and chula means cool, as do calidad and vale.
All of that being said, I think I’m leaving. I’m in Rio Dulce again, this time with all of my stuff. I do not regret my decision to stay another week. I feel like I am making good choices and giving myself lots of chances. Tomorrow I leave for Antigua to meet up with my original travel companions, who are looking for other volunteer opportunities. Technically I am on descanso, and am expected to return next Sunday. We’ll see. If I return to Casa, I will be working as an orientador for the little boys, working with an excellent volunteer. I might try it for a week. If I don’t, I don’t know what I will be doing. I need to see all the cards on the table. I have been vacillating a lot on all of this, and it’s wearing me down a little bit. It’s great though to come online and see the supportive comments and get the supportive emails. I know that I’ve got a crowd behind me all the way, even if I do ultimately wind up with the rats and the maggots again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Leah, now I know that someday if my kid is at your house and she craps her pants not only will you help, but you won't puke on her. Phew. That was a big concern I had. I am glad you are having a better time, do whatever makes you happy!
Do whatever makes you happy. Like coming back to the states!
I haven't commented in so long that I had to click "see older posts" to get back to the last one I read. Sorry! My computer had to be wiped and started over again and I lost the link to your blog. < - lame excuse
Oh Leah the contrarian: tell her she can go and she'll stay. I imagine the poop-inspired-vomit incident as being a lot more slapstick and hilarious than it probably really was, but in the hands of the right director, this could be a Borat-kind of thing.
Aren't you spoiled on monkeys by now? Are you over monkeys? Are they all the same kind of monkeys? On Survivor Guatemala, they got woken up by howler monkeys every day, and everyone was crabby about it except for Cindy the zookeeper.
I'm glad you Spanish is improving! I haven't been making much headway with my Chinese lessons, but I took lesson #1 for the third time while smelling vanilla extract (I heard somewhere you retain things better when you associate them with smells) and I think it might have taken! That could have more to do with the taking it twice before than the smell, but either way I think I might be ready to move on to lesson #2.
"I feel like I am making good choices and giving myself lots of chances." What a good feeling this must be!
"I know that I’ve got a crowd behind me all the way, even if I do ultimately wind up with the rats and the maggots again." Leah, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that crowd that's behind you-- it IS mostly rats and maggots. -M.
Post a Comment