September 17, 2008

On Monday Guadalupe and I visited mothers of some of the children that receive INNFA scholarships and live one the outskirts of La Misma. After Guadalupe finished with her questions I would interview them as part of one of my Peace Corps assignments. The houses are so isolated that the children only go to school once a week on Saturday or Sunday. In the afternoon, we met with the mother of two of children in our Adventura de la Vida program. She was a pretty horrible person and I really wanted to shake some sense into her. Her boy is 12 years old and can’t read and is failing school, but she couldn’t have cared less. She really doesn’t even want him to go to school. Instead, she wants him to work in the banana plantations. 12 years old! Her other child is pretty mentally challenged and the men around their house have been sexually abusing him. She is not inclined to stop them and the only reason I know is because the 12-year old told us. Guadalupe tried to help the 12-year old, but she can only do so much, especially when she doesn’t have the mother’s support. It was a pretty frustrating afternoon.

In the evening, Michelle, Dario, their cousin who has been visiting with us the past few days and I had an impromptu dance party with me doing all the ridiculous moves that I could think of and them copying me. It was so much fun, but I couldn’t help thinking about our Shibumi dance parties in Chapel Hill.

Tuesday morning I went with the librarian to the water plant because she wanted to show me it. It was pretty interesting to see and the guy in charge gave us a private tour. While we were walking I asked the librarian if I could give and art class/workshop at the library and she said absolutely. I want to start planning some kind of 4 week class and maybe aim to have it in November. I would like to have some overarching theme that teaches the children something. Perhaps a theme like ‘Why I am Special/Unique’ or I could incorporate stories from the library. Any ideas?

In the afternoon I helped Guadalupe out with Adventura de la Vida and afterwards I went to Machala for an aerobics class. It was pretty fun, but simple. I think I’ll stick to running as soon as my leg gets better (I think I have a shin splint and it hurts to run… though I still continue to run on it). When I got back, Michelle wanted to bake cookies like I had promised. I broke out the ridiculous cookie presser my mother sent me along with sprinkles and these edible markers and we made sugar cookies. I had (in all seriousness) informed Michelle that the first step to good cookies was music and an encore impromptu dance party broke out while the cookies baked. The cookies were quite scrumptious!