Work, Work, Work

The picture to the left is where I go to work everyday. Monday was yet another disaster day. As an activity, we decided that we would make piñatas with the girls. They were all really excited about it too. Of course though, it was yet another activity that ended badly. Towards the end of the activity the girls stopped listening to us, and began just playing with the paste, getting it everywhere. I started telling the girls that if they didn’t listen to us they wouldn’t get any candy, and that worked on all the girls but two. One of the girls I was really surprised with because she is always so sweet, always listens, and always behaves well. I was trying to get her to give me her mug (because it was filled with the paste), and to get her to go wash her hands. She kept threatening to throw paste at me, and I didn’t think she would actually do it. Yet again, I was wrong. She ended up flinging paste at me, so I went and grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her to the bathroom to make her wash her hands. I stopped being nice as soon as she threw stuff at me. She was giving me so much attitude. I have never seen that side of her before, and it made me so sad. Normally, she’s always so excited to see me, and always wants me to sit next to her during breakfast and lunch. I was just so shocked that she acted the way she did. While we were in the bathroom, she was still refusing to wash her hands and was trying to fling the paste that was all over her hands at me, and finally I said, “You are such a sweet girl with a great heart, why are you acting this way?” After asking her that, the floodgates opened and she started crying. She was telling me a bunch of things while she was crying, but unfortunately I could not understand her. Little kids are difficult to understand while they are crying and speaking English, let alone Spanish. Even though I couldn’t understand her, I still counted that as a mini victory because her whole attitude changed as soon as I said that to her. For a few hours she avoided me, and wouldn’t even look at me. However, right before lunch she came up to me and apologized, and wanted me to sit next to her during lunch. The rest of the day, and week, she was her normal sweet self.

Later in the day, I had some troubles with one of the younger girls. One girl started riding the bike and the younger one wanted to ride it too, but I told her she had to wait her turn. As soon as she heard me tell her no, something just clicked in her and she started acting out. I kept telling her to listen to me and to stop but she wouldn’t. The other girl on the bike ended up coming over and told her that she could ride the bike, but first she had to apologize to me. She said she was sorry, but was looking at the ground, so the other girl told her to look at me while she said sorry. So she looked at me and said she was sorry, and then the other girl told her to tell me why she was sorry. That was so great that the other girl came over to help me and made her say she was sorry. Later, while the same younger girl was riding the bike, it was time for her to get off and let another girl ride the bike. Of course she was not happy about that and would not get off and started pitching a fit. She obviously wasn’t going to listen to me, so two other girls came over to try and help out. At some point, she ended up telling me to shut up, and one of the older girls kind of pushed her and yelled at her saying that she does not talk to the Tia like that. We eventually got her off the bike, and the two other girls brought her over to me and made her apologize to me again. It’s definitely really frustrating dealing with the girls when they act out and do not listen to you, but I was really happy and surprised that some of the other girls helped me out. Yet another small victory for the day.

After lunch, one of the girls read a book in English to me. At first I helped her out with some of the words. She read it several times, until she was able to read the book without my help. It was so cute because she got so excited that she could read and “understand” English. After that, I helped her translate it into Spanish. Earlier we had read one of her books that is in Spanish. She read the first page and then I was going to read the next page (she was struggling a little bit with some of the words and wanted a break). However, while I was reading, I fumbled over a word or two and she would correct me and help me out. I didn’t even get to finish reading the whole page because she just jumped right in and starting reading out loud again. I think since she saw me struggle with a few words it gave her back some confidence to read again. Glad my struggles could help her out! Even though Monday was a really hard day, a few really great things happened that day. I try and focus on the good things that happen at work rather than the bad things, otherwise I would drive myself crazy.

This week was the first week the other volunteer came back to work (she took a week off for vacation during our first week of work). Isabelle and I work from 10-1 and Allison works from 1-7. At first is was really weird having her there. Things were just different (not in a bad way by any means). I am not going to lie, I am totally jealous of her because not only do all of the girls love her, but the Tias do as well. Now I know she has been working here for 4-5 months, which is significantly longer than my one week, but still. Hmph. I can only hope that I will be able to get close to the girls (and the Tias) like Allison has as time goes on.

On Tuesday we took the girls to the pool. I was relieved to hear that we were going to the pool that day because that meant it was going to be an easy day. Kids are perfectly capable of entertaining themselves when they have a pool. It was definitely a needed break from the day before.

Starting on Wednesday, we had three birthdays (two of the girls and one of the volunteers, Allison). It was so cute to see how they celebrate birthdays at our institution. All the younger girls made handmade cards (with help from Isabelle and I) for the birthday girls and wrapped their presents in shoeboxes and book bags. The presents were all the girls’ used toys. This was so precious and really sad to see. On one hand, it was adorable to see the girls giving up their toys to give to another girl, but on the other hand it was really sad that all the toys were used and old. Nonetheless, it was great to watch. We had one birthday on Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday. We had somehow ended up making three piñatas, so each day each birthday girl got to break her own piñata. It all worked out perfectly, and the girls really enjoyed that. So it looks like from now on, we might be making piñatas for the girls when it’s their birthdays.

Friday was a pretty interesting day for me. I got to leave the house with one of the other girls and accompany her to buy a present for Allison. I was a little nervous at first, because she’s around 15 years old and I was nervous about my Spanish, but I ended up doing a good job (I think so anyways, not sure what she thought about us talking ha). While we were walking around she would hook her arm around my arm and we would walk together. A few times she grabbed my hand, when we crossed the street or had to run to catch a bus. It was so cute! Even though she was leading me around, it was the first time I ever felt like an older sister. We were out of my work setting, going shopping, and I was with her helping her pick things out. As most of you know, I am the baby of my family (both my siblings are older than me and all my cousins are also older than me too). My whole life I have been the baby; I have always been the one looking up to my siblings and cousins. I know that this sounds kind of lame and I know she doesn’t look up to me like I do to my siblings, but it was still kind of a special moment for me. She ended up getting one of those heart friendship necklaces that says friends forever (in Spanish of course) for Allison. It was honestly the cutest thing I have ever seen. I hope the girls end up liking me as much as they love Allison. Later in the day, when it was Tia Allison’s turn to break her piñata, while she was blindfolded, the older girls poured water and flour all over her hair and cracked an egg on her head. This is not a malicious act; it’s actually a celebratory tradition. They do it Argentina as well. Once you graduate from high school or any school, you do this with your friends. It’s super messy, but looks fun!

This week the stricter Tia was working. Work is always so interesting when she’s there. The kids normally behave a little better when she’s around which is nice, but she treats Isabelle and I like we are complete idiots. (Warning, I’m about to complain a lot and sound really negative ha). One thing that Isabelle and I have noticed is that she changes the way she talks when it’s to us and when she talks to the girls. We understand her perfectly when she talks to the girls, but when she talks to us she talks much faster and never says things in a direct way. She seems to talk in a round about, complicated way. It’s frustrating and annoying, but oh well. One day during breakfast the Tia was telling Isabelle that we were all going to some park with a pool later in the afternoon, but instead of her just saying we were going to a park she said the name of the park. Obviously, we are not familiar with the park and do not know it’s name, so Isabelle asked where we were going (several times) because she didn’t understand what she said and she, very condescendingly, said the name of the park extremely slow in this exaggerated, demeaning voice, like we were babies. She never once said the word park or pool.

Then later in the week, on Allison’s birthday, she asked Isabelle and I if we brought a cake for Allison. For one, we both thought that that was a weird question because why would we bring something for her. If we wanted to do something for her it would have been outside of work. We didn’t bring the other two girls a cake when it was their birthdays, so why would we bring Allison one? That would just make the other two girls feel badly. Work is about the girls, and about the gifts they make, we don’t want to overshadow their hard work. That alone was weird, but the conversation just went downhill form there. She was trying to ask Isabelle if she knew how to make a cake, and Isabelle replied yes, but not without a recipe. However, the Tia for some reason kept going on and on about the cake and focusing on the fact that Isabelle didn’t know how to make a cake, how she didn’t know what ingredients to use. Isabelle kept responding that she did know how to make a cake, but not without a recipe. She loves to cook and has made a lot of cakes in the past just not without a recipe. However, the Tia just kept going on and on and making the conversation really confusing, so we turned to the other Tia looking for help and she started to say something to us and the other Tia just kind of laughed and made a side joke that she has her own personal translator. First of all, translators translate from one language to another. Someone is not a translator when they speak the same language you are (Spanish to Spanish…there is no translation there). Second of all, I don’t even know why she thinks it’s so funny. Clearly Isabelle and I understand Tia Genette perfectly, aka we understand Spanish, so why can’t she just try and work with us instead of talking to us in round about ways? So dumb ugh ha. Once she left the table, I asked the other Tia if they wanted us to make a cake for Allison, and she said oh no she was just wondering if ya’ll know how to cook one. I was so surprised that that was all, and asked her if there was anything more to that conversation and she was like no. That’s when Isabelle responded that she loved to cook, but didn’t know any recipes by heart. That was a rough conversation to watch.

For lunch that day we had some potatoes stuffed with meat and veggies. Isabelle is a vegetarian, so she just ate salad that day. All through out lunch the Tia was taunting Isabelle for some reason. She kept on asking her how she liked the potatoes and then would be like oh yeah I forgot you don’t eat meat. And would keep saying oh que rico que rico (how delicious – referring to the potatoes) and would look at Isabelle. It was so bizarre. While we were eating dessert (peaches covered with condensed milk), the Tia made this comment under her breath about how sweet the peaches were but that they were no cake, and she looked at Isabelle as if really saying, “We should have had a cake but this dumb gringa over here didn’t make/bring one.” Honestly, out of everything that happened that day with her, I thought that that was the rudest comment. I don’t think Isabelle heard her say that, but still, there was no need for that comment.

I kind of expected that the Tias would love that fact that there were volunteers around to help out. We are the ones who are with the girls the entire day, entertaining them. One of the coordinators at VE did warn us that some of the Tias are not as welcoming as the others. She told us that being a Tia is a pretty low-end job. You do not need any degree, and don’t even need to have graduated from high school. In other words, being a Tia is not really a chosen profession; it’s one of the few jobs that are available if you do not have much education. So sometimes the Tias feel inferior to these gringos coming in to their work, doing their job for free, have various levels of Spanish speaking abilities, and can speak English (and possibly other languages as well). Isabelle gets really frustrated with the Tia at work because she makes her feel really dumb with her Spanish (and she’s actually really good with speaking). The way I view the whole situation is that Spanish is the one thing this Tia has over us, and she’s basking in this power trip while she can (she kind of has a bully mentality to her personality too). She can stare at me as long as she wants to trying to make me feel dumb because I can’t understand her, it doesn’t make me feel dumb one bit. I’m here for 5 more months, and my Spanish is going to improve, and eventually she will have nothing over me. Nothing about her situation is going to change. Plus, I’m here to better the lives of these girls, I’m not working for her. If it makes her feel better bullying around a couple gringas then go right ahead and bully us, enjoy it while you can because it’s not going to last very long. Ok, so I know I just did a whole lot of complaining about this Tia (and got a little mean towards the end there), but she does have a soft side to her and you can tell she really does care about these girls. It’s really lovely to see that side of her, but man does she have an ugly side to her.

This week Isabelle and I started our semi-private Spanish classes. It went really well! I have never been so excited about learning about anything in my life. I’m kind of a really big nerd when it comes to learning Spanish. Learning anything for me is a little harder than for most people because it takes me a really long time to be able to retain information, so a lot of my Spanish learning is independent, repetitive studying. I have a mountain of flashcards on my bedside table that I am constantly studying.

Because Spanish is something that I am surrounded by all day long, that easily motivates me to want to improve. Learning Spanish is very relevant to my life right now, so I think it’s ok that I’m really nerdy about it. Also, some really exciting news…our teacher gave us a workbook to do activities in it for extra practice, and on the cover it says Advanced Spanish. I have never been in advanced Spanish before, so that was pretty exciting! Ha

Since I have come to South America, I have yet to find a really good pesto sauce. All the pesto sauces I have had in restaurants has been really dry and leafy. However, this past week I bought a package of pesto sauce that you just add milk to, and oh my goodness was it delicioso! It was so creamy and yummy. That was a great night!

Until Next Time,
Liz