Mis Niños

Thug Life (Jorge and I); Luis and I

Cristian Chico; Cristian Grande

Cristian Chico, Luis and volunteer Luis playing chess, Toribio watching tv; Marcos

Cristian Chico and I; Manuel

Soccer in the compound; Luis and I

Jorge and Manuel; Cristian Grande

Uriel aka El Grande; Marcos and I

Adrian; Adrian

Luis; Cristian Grande

May 27, 2008

I can’t wait for the rainy season to start here. I am soooooo hot!!!! All I do in the afternoons here is sleep. I get home from work, stuff myself full of Sra. Sara’s amazing food, and go have a nice long siesta. Today I’m going to see if I can survive without a siesta… but I don’t have much faith in the plan. We have two new boys at the centre this week that arrived over the weekend. They are both 13 years old but are nearly as small as my 8-year-old host sister because of malnutrition and drugs. Their names are Jorge and Manuel (I love how ridiculously Mexican everyone’s names are). They are both really sweet kids. They took to me immediately unlike some of the other boys who are just starting to warm up to me now. I’m getting over my bout of culture shock already… yes my money is gone but I just can’t stay mad at those boys. They are far too cute for their own good. Marcos will be leaving on Thursday so tomorrow I will be taking my camera to get lots of photos to share with you all. I will miss that boy so much. Entertaining nine boys everyday is seriously draining work. By the end of my five-hour shift I just want to crash… and I usually do.

In keeping true to my word this weekend I did a whole lot of nothing. Friday night I went out with Jous and the other volunteers to a bar where there was a beauty pageant of some sort going on. One of Jous friend’s little sister was competing. As far as I could tell it was something along the lines of Miss Teen Guzmán. It was a bunch of high school students at any rate. There was a live band that started as drums only an evolved into a full-fledged banda party. We had a great time. Saturday morning, the other three volunteers (I guess I should mention that we have two new volunteers here from America Kristen and Tyler) went to Guadalajara for the weekend. So, I spent the day washing my clothes and trying to read my new book. That night Jous and I went to a bar called Pubb. There is definitely nothing pub-like about it but they had a delightful secret cocktail that I thoroughly enjoyed. Sunday evening I spent in the town centre taking part in the weekly cultural festival and ate my first Mexican hotdog: way better than Canadian hotdogs! So that was my exciting weekend. I’m looking forward to tomorrow… let’s hope my camera survives the day.

PS My camera survived. Best day ever taking photos with the boys today!

Culture Shock Stage 2: Hating everything

Mi familia: me, Farnanda, Gemma, and Fatima; Jous and I at the Miss Teen Guzman Pageant or something


Jous and the newest recruits Kristen and Tyler; 3am Tacos!!! yumyum

May 23, 2008

A couple days ago I was catapulted into the fiery depths of stage 2 when I discovered that 700 pesos was missing from my wallet. That is the equivalent of $70 Canadian. In the great scheme of life $70 is really not that much, it just makes me sad. Since the discovery of the missing money I figured out that the money was stolen at the rehab centre either by one of the boys or by someone who works there. If it was one of the boys there is a good chance they will recover the money, if not, well… too bad for me that money is long gone. The part that really makes me quite sad that someone I know took that much money from me knowing it was me they were stealing from (the first thing you see when you open my wallet is my ID). If it turns out to be one of the boys, I can understand. These kids come from the streets. They would steal from their mother if she left money where they could find it. But if it’s someone who works there, well… I don’t reckon I would work there anymore alongside people like that.

I didn’t go out last night with the other volunteers or go to the party that one of the girls from the centre invited me to and I didn’t go to work today. I took some time to myself to rest and remind myself why I’m here. I went down to the town centre today, sat on a bench and read an entire novel. And then I bought a new novel in Spanish to help me with my vocabulary. It’s called Memoria de mis putas tristes by Gabriel García Márquez. I don’t really know what it’s about… something to do with an old guy and prostitutes. Should be a good read. I reckon those are two ingredients of any good novel haha. The town centre here is really beautiful. It was good to just sit there in the beauty and breathe; tell myself that everything will be okay; that no matter how painfully I miss home, I’m here, and here is really not that bad. And I do miss home painfully. Summer is my favourite time in Saskatoon and this is the second year in a row I’m missing it. I miss my family and my friends and especially Alexis. I knew the culture shock was going to be bad here… I went through it in Australia too (and that was in an English-speaking country) but I got over the hating everything stage and had the best time of my life out there. So I’m telling myself it will get better here too. My host mum has resorted to writing things down for me because I can understand way more when reading than talking (stupid, useless university classes) and I had to bring Jous with me to the centre to tell them about the missing money and translate for me. This whole Spanish thing is becoming quite annoying. Anyway, I’ll be staying here and doing a whole lot of nothing this weekend seeing as I have no money. I think I will find the art supplies shop to get some paper and do some painting. That’s always a good stress reliever.

Photos!!!!!

I finally found some fast internet!!!! Here are a few recent photos from the top: Me at the top of Las Peñas; Mieke, me, Alex and Jous on Alex`s last night; The Plaza in Colima, Chavez mural in Colima; Me at the museum; paper dragon at the museum; cathedral in Comala; Gemma and Mieke relaxing in Colima; Me and Gemma relaxing in Colima; the volcano near Colima

Crazy Mexico

May 18, 2008

I would like to start off this post by mentioning a few of the things I have encountered in the country that I really did not expect. First of all, it’s bloody hot. It gets up to the mid-thirties everyday. Thank God it get’s quite chilly at night so there is some respite. I really can’t wait for the rainy season to start. It’s so dry and dusty here and there are like a zillion mini forest fires all around town so the air is full of smoke and ash. You can barely see all the mountains around town because the air is so hazy. Secondly, there is an amazing excess of shoe stores in this city. I have counted nearly twenty just around the centre of town. It’s totally insane. The lack of rules of any sort is also quite insane in this country; especially when it comes to driving. There are speed bumps absolutely everywhere in Mexico and most of them are totally unmarked. Stop signs are more of a recommendation than anything and stop lights function more or less like stop signs (stop then proceed with caution). Also, if you own a pickup truck, filling the back of it with as many children as possible and then driving as fast as you can and hurtling over unforeseen speed bumps is considered a perfectly suitable mode of travel. I am happy to say that I participated in this Mexican tradition and lived to tell about it. Also, motorcycles in Mexico are made to transport anything. This includes up to four people (none of whom wear helmets), the days groceries hanging precariously off the back and I even saw a man with a child’s car seat strapped to the back and his infant child in a blanket tied around his chest ¡¡¡on a motorcycle!!! Totally insane. I often forget that I am living in a developing country here in Mexico and it is usually something to do with health care that brings me back to reality. It’s quite interesting to see how they treat the common cold here. First of all you are restricted to a diet of warm food and liquid and meals of meat and beans are served to balance out your humours or something like that. I had a cold for a while and my host mum wouldn’t let me put ice in my drinks for the longest time. Also, you will often see people walking around with surgical masks and gloves on (not entirely sure why). Nevertheless my doctor friends here inform me that neither of these strategies will actually make any difference whatsoever. Finally on my list is the brilliant discovery of the yogurt stand. There are little street vendors all over the place from whom one can buy a dish of fresh fruit covered in yogurt and any variety of toppings (i.e. granola, frosties etc). I totally need to bring this idea back to Canada. I go almost every night to my favourite stand. Also, they have natural flavoured ice cream here which is like plain yogurt in ice cream form! It is soooo delicious especially when covered in chocolate.

So anyway, what have I been up to lately? Well, On Friday at work we took a field trip to a school where they had a proper soccer field so the boys could spread their wings. (The truck ride back was my trip in the back of the truck Mexican style) I had a good chat with Marcos and found out that he has passed the fourth and final stage of rehab and will be leaving the centre in a couple weeks. I’m going to miss him so much. He’ll be living and working in Guadalajara where they have set him up with a job and a place to live. We’re going to exchange contact info so I can go visit him and see how he’s doing. Friday was Alex’s last night so we all went out for micheladas (beer and clam with lime, chile and salt… yummy!) and then on an hour long hunt for quesadillas at about 1am. I am happy to report we found the most awesome street vendor in the Bermuda Triangle (they jokingly say all the dogs that walk through it disappear). Saturday, Gemma, Mieke and I went to Colima (a small city next to a big volcano about an hour from Guzmán) We spent a lot of time getting lost on buses but did a little shopping and saw a cool museum. We also went out to the little village of Comala and ate lunch at this cool restaurant where they decided what you want to eat and bring out several dishes for you. It was really cool and quite tasty. There wasn’t much else going on so we went back to Colima for a bit more shopping and some Micheladas. By the time we got back to Guzmán I was so exhausted I could barely stand. So after going for a walk to get some yogurt (some things are more important than sleep) I finally went to bed.

May 14, 2008

I’m taking the day off from work today to buy new pants. I have discovered that even though Mexico is the second most obese country in the world there is nowhere for all the fat people to buy clothes. Even I don’t fit into the sizes at all the normal stores. So on Wednesdays there is a little market that is only open from 10-2 or something like that (stores here don’t have actual set hours) and I am in desperate need of new work clothes. So, Sara my host mum is going to take me there shortly.

This weekend I decided to stay in Guzmán and just chill out. I slept in on Saturday then spent a couple painful hours doing my laundry by hand. It was Mother’s Day here on Saturday. It is probably one of the biggest holidays in Mexico. On Friday night all the kids pile into cars and go around to all their houses serenading their mums at their windows. All the flower shops were still open at 2am when I went home. We found out that you could hire a mariachi band for 1000 pesos for 9 songs or 1500 for an hour. It was pretty crazy. There wasn’t much to do on Saturday because most places were closed aside from restaurants and gift shops. I went on a big long walk around town in search of an open internet café and finally found one far far away. It was so hot out that afternoon I took fair advantage of the Mexican tradition of the siesta. I find myself doing that most afternoons. My body still hasn’t adjusted to the heat here. On Sunday Gemma, Alex, Mieke and I went for a picnic at Las Peñas (a famous rock formation in the ecological park that looks like two faces). It was really lovely minus the part where the boys from the centre came by on a field trip of sorts and saw us dinking beer. They have been giving me a hard time about that ever since. I felt pretty bad that they saw me drinking seeing as they are all recovering from alcohol and drug addiction.

That evening there was a parade in the town center with fire works, dancers, floats and even a marching band! It was quite the affair. Every Sunday there is a bit of a carnival in the town center to get everyone out having a good time. It’s so cool. Saskatoon totally needs to look into this idea. There are rides and stuff for the kids and all sorts of vendors set up. They have a stage too with bands playing all night. One group that night was absolutely horrendous. They totally shattered my belief that all Mexicans have rhythm. This was probably the worst band I have ever seen and there were soooo many Mexicans in the crowd just loving it; I mean like hundreds of people dancing and cheering… it blew my mind.

Monday I was back to work if you can call playing football/soccer all day and watching movies ‘work’. Yesterday was Uriel’s birthday and I found out that he is only 16. This kid is at least 6’2”, has the ability to grow a full beard and is so strong. I thought he was for sure 18. I’ve discovered that I totally suck at guessing the ages of Mexican kids. Little Cristian who I thought was about 7 is actually 12. Luis who I thought was 10 is really 13. These boys are way smaller than Canadian kids would be at their age.

I made my most hilarious Spanish language mistake on Monday. The boys were asking me about the scar on my leg from the surgery I had to remove the extra bone or whatever it was. Anyway, I confused the word ‘huevo’ which literally means egg but in Mexican slang it also means testicle, and the word ‘hueso’ which means bone. So I told the boys that I had an extra testicle in my leg that the doctors had to remove. I caught my mistake right away and corrected myself but the boys got a quite kick out of it.

For Uriel’s birthday yesterday his sister came to visit him and I saw him sincerely happy for the first time since I started working there. He loves to sing and was singing and smiling all day long. It was really great to see. I guess in Mexico there is a tradition that when it is your birthday you have to take the first bite of the cake without using your hands and as you bend down to take a bite you inevitably get your face smashed into the cake. I was wishing I had my camera with me; it was so funny. We all ate cake and Uriel got a few presents and got to talk to some relatives by phone. It was a really great day considering it was Tuesday the 13th which is the Mexican equivalent to Friday the 13th. My roommate Gemma from England did not have such a good day. She works at the public hospital in town and witnessed the death of two babies and a mother that day. One baby was stillborn but the mother was okay. The other woman was in labour for 24 hours before she haemorrhaged and bled out. The hospital only had one litre of blood they could give her and she had lost about three. Gemma told me that the doctors told her it was totally normal for women to die in childbirth and for the babies to not make it either. One of the medical students told her while holding the dead baby that she’ll get used to it. It was a really hard day for Gemma; she never wants to hold a dead baby and think it’s okay.

Apparently the pre-op room doubles as the ICU at this hospital. So, the same room where people are waiting to have surgery is where the dead baby was left on a table totally uncovered for over an hour and where the nearly dead mother was put to die. I have heard so many horrible stories about Mexican healthcare I am being really careful to not get hurt in anyway.

Up to date? Wow!

May 8, 2008

So my first day of volunteering was totally not what I was expecting. I got there and found out that not a single person in the entire centre speaks a word of English. I guess this is a good thing because it forces me to speak Spanish all the time but I have no idea what is going on the whole day because I’m still finding it really hard to understand the way Mexicans speak… especially the street kids who I work with. My first day was terrible. The volunteers’ “job” at the centre it solely to play with the kids. There was basically nothing for me to do the whole day. The pre-departure info Projects Abroad sent me told me that I was going to be mainly doing maintenance of the facility (mowing the lawn, painting, etc.) and with whatever time I had left I would get to organize activities for the kids. The past three days I have played a lot of soccer and done a lot of sitting around not having a clue what is going on around me. I experienced my first bout of culture shock that first day when joining in on a Bible study session for the two youngest boys (both named Cristian). The older one can read and write at about the level one would expect for his age (about 10 years old), but the younger one, who is about 8, doesn’t even know the alphabet. At one point, the teacher lady wanted the older boy to write out a prayer and then read it back to her. After only letting him write a few words, she grabbed the book and wrote the rest for him and then when he was reading; as soon as he struggled with a word, she took over and read the rest for him. In Mexico, religion comes first and then education. This woman had no interest whatsoever in helping this kid learn to read… she only wanted him to memorize this prayer as fast as possible. It made me so angry… he clearly wanted to read the prayer to her and she just wouldn’t let him. After that first day I was determined to change projects and go work in the school. I just felt so useless there. They had more volunteers there than kids and since I’m the only one with no Spanish, the kids would just go talk to someone else and I would just be bored not helping anyone. The next day was better; I just played soccer ALL day long with the boys. I was totally exhausted by the end of the day and had thoroughly sore feet but I had a good time. I spent some time teaching the boys bad words and how to pick up girls in English and French… they seemed to find this highly entertaining. This appears to be my job at the centre: teach English and play soccer which happen to be two of my favourite things to do in life so I’m having a good time. I’ve opted to totally remove myself from their other lessons so I don’t get so frustrated by things I can’t change.

The boys at the centre are really great kids. There are only 7 right now (we just got a new one today), but I’ve been told they are expecting to have up to 15 by the time I leave. Little Cristian spends most of his time getting into trouble. Today he got into a fight over a chair with one of the other boys that left him with a bloody nose and a bruised ego. Older Cristian is totally adorable and is quite determined to be the best soccer player at the centre and is always practicing. The oldest boy Uriel is about 17-18 and has been in the centre for a long time. He doesn’t talk to me much and usually has a really sad look on his face. He has a lot of anger inside of him. He throws stuff around a lot and every time he plays soccer (which isn’t very often) he will just boot the ball as hard as he can every time he touches it. Another one of the boys who they call Toribio, appears to has some sort of disability. He is short and stalky and has a lazy eye. Jous says that he has been at the centre the longest and has some brain damage from drugs or abuse or both. Another one of the younger boys Adrian looks to be about 9 years old. He is an incredibly talented soccer player… definitely my toughest competitor. He’s a bit of a trouble maker too. He’s the one that got into a fight with little Cristian today. Marcos is the boy I spend the most time with. He’s 17 years old. He thinks I’m cool because I know how to play soccer a bit and was my teammate all day yesterday. He is also very interested in learning how to pick up girls in other languages hahaha… he is in love with one of the other girls who volunteers there. The new boy I don’t know much about because he just arrived about ten minutes before I went home today. His name is Luis and he looks to be about 10 years old. He has lived at the centre before but I don’t know how long ago or why he is back. I guess it is quite common for kids to leave and then come back. They have the choice to come and go as they please so the ones with family or somewhere at all to go will sometimes see how things would go on the outside. Often it doesn’t go so well because they leave before they are ready.

Everything outside the centre has been going quite well for me. I still really love the city and I’m getting settled into life here. I did my washing by hand for the first time in my life today! I don’t know how well it went because my things aren’t dry yet but I fear not having rinsed out the soap well enough. But, I only washed underwear and socks today… sort of a trial run so it shouldn’t really matter too much. I bought a cell phone the other day which was quite the ordeal since I have never even done that in English before and my Spanish cell phone vocabulary is seriously lacking. I tried to put my Canadian SIM card in it the other day and it asked me for some password that I didn’t know. So now I fear having bough a nice phone with the intention of being able to use it in Canada when I come home and not being able to do so. I need to go back to the store and see what the deal is. I had asked if I could use it in Canada and the clerk said I could but there may have been some miscommunication there. My number is +52 1 34 1114-3614 if anyone wants to call me. Anytime after 1pm is good :)

Jous has been entertaining me, Gemma , Alex, and Meike (the other volunteers) each night showing us around town, taking us to all to best places to get food and even took us over to his house last night for some home-made ponche (pronounced pon-chay) which is the traditional drink of the area made from tequila and pomegranate juice. It is amazing. Tonight we are going on a bike ride around town. But we are leaving in an hour and I still need to shower so, it’s time to get going.

9 May 2008

The bike ride last night was so cool! I thought we were just going out in a group of like six people but when we got out there, there were nearly 50 people! I guess they do this bike tour around the city every Thursday. It was a really good time.

I went back to the shop where I bought my phone and apparently I will be able to use it once I get back to Canada, I just have to get a password from Rogers and it will be all good. So that is a bit of a weight off my shoulders.

Today at the centre I ripped a giant hole in the butt of my pants when I went to go sit down after playing football. All the boys found it highly amusing. I had to borrow a jacket to tie around my waist for the rest of the day. I found out that Luis had just gone away to stay with his family for awhile but he always had the intention of coming back. One of the other volunteers at the centre and I taught some of the boys how to play volleyball today. It was quite funny to see how good they are with their feet playing football and how totally uncoordinated they are with their hands. I’m really starting to enjoy working there and the boys are definitely starting to grow on me. Despite all the crap that they have lived through, they still have smiles on their faces every day.

In Mexico... finally

May 1, 2008
Hola amigos!!! Well I made it. I’m here in Mexico. The fiesta went really well. We had about 30 people come and made $380 thanks to the gracious donation of all the food by my parents. It was a really fun time and the food was awesome!!! Thanks Alexis, Lindsay, Antony, Mum, Hannah, Robert and Kenyan for helping cook and get the house ready. I also want to thank Patti Soltys and Jeff Wilkinson for their donations and everyone who came to the fiesta.
My flight to Mexico was long and tiring. I left Saskatoon at 1:30pm and flew through Calgary and LA before arriving in Guadalajara at 4:30am Saskatoon time which was 5:30am Guadalajara time. I had lots of long layovers. A young guy from Projects Abroad named Jonatan met me at the airport here and took me to the office. I was totally sketched out because it was still completely dark out and to get to the office you have to drive down all these dodgy back streets… well to be fair they are only dodgy in the dark. At any rate, the office has no sign or anything outside and has a rusty old gate of a front door. Anyway… I was certain I was about to be sold into some underground prostitution ring. But we went inside, turned on the lights and it was an actual office with signs and posters and stuff. I got to wash up and have a much needed nap until 10:30am when Jonatan and Gorge (a guy training to work for Projects Abroad) took me on a tour of the city. The office is right next to a beautiful cathedral called the Catedral Expiatorio. We looked at that and then went for breakfast at this awesome, old, traditional restaurant filled with old men and a mariachi was playing for us… it was sooo cool. We ate the traditional breakfast of chilaquiles (baked tortilla pieces in salsa topped with cheese). So delicious! Then we went and saw a bunch more cool places: the main cathedral in Guadalajara (bigger but not as pretty as he Expiatorio), some beautiful parks, some government buildings with amazing murals inside depicting the history of Mexico, the biggest indoor market in the Western Hemisphere, and the oldest bar in Guadalajara for my first Mexican cerveza. This bar never used to have bathrooms because women weren’t allowed in bars until the 70s or something like that. Instead of a bathroom it had a trough in the floor along the bar so all you had to do was unzip and let ‘er go… no need to even leave the bar!
It is so bloody hot in this country I don’t even know what to do with myself. Apparently May is the hottest month of the year and this is the hottest summer Guadalajara has seen in over 100 years. It get to over 40 degrees midday! I was not prepared for this. I was wearing jeans and two t-shirts for my tour yesterday. I was dying by the end. I have had a perpetual headache since I got to this city from the heat… and I have never drunk so much water in my life…. And the smog in this city of 6 million people doesn’t help.
I was supposed to go to Ciudad Guzman last night but the guys who runs everything there is on holidays until Monday (it was National Children’s Day Yesterday and Labour Day today). Anyway, this means that I’m stuck in Guadalajara with nothing to do until Monday which suits me just fine. I’m staying with a host family here and two other volunteers. The house is packed with people. There are three generations of the family and an assortment of other random lodgers here… I honestly have no idea who they all are. So far I have gathered that my host mum is the head of the house and her daughter and daughter’s husband live here too with their young daughter Valeria. There is also a cousin or something and today I found a bunch of stuff on the bed next to mine that is not my stuff so I’m assuming someone else is moving in too. Oddly I never actually see anyone besides the volunteers and my host mum around the house.
Today I went to the market with a few of the volunteers and got well acquainted with the male population of the city. The constant harassment women face in this country is ridiculous. I could not even count how many times we were beeped at, whistled at, boldly stared at (one guy walked right up to me and just looked me up and down for what felt like an eternity with his mouth hanging open… so disgusting) hollered at, and generally harassed… someone even took photos of us - as if we wouldn’t notice. It’s really quite humorous… they never try to grab you or anything so it’s all quite harmless, just rather annoying. I’ve learned to tell people I only speak French… that way even the ones that know a little English can’t talk to me… it’s really quite brilliant!
Wow, so this post is getting really long. I’m typing it on my laptop in my room right now and will take it on my USB drive to the internet café sometime soon. I don’t have internet in my house but there is a cheap café that only charges 5 pesos per hour (that’s 50 cents Canadian). I still can’t get over how cheap things are here. A bottle of beer at the bar cost 15 pesos! For those mathematically challenged that’s 1.50 Canadian!!! Well, I’m going to have a nap now. It’s salsa night tonight!

5 de Mayo
So today is cinco de mayo which is Mexican independence day. It’s a huge deal in the states with all the maxicans who live there but apparently in Mexico it’s not really a big deal at all. The kids don’t go to school today but that is all I have seen so far that would tell me this is anything other than a normal day.
Anyway, salsa night was really fun. I met a bunch of the other volunteers including my roommate in Ciudad Guzman, Gemma. She is so cool. She’s in med school in England and is here volunteering at the hospital. She was going to Puerto Vallarta for the weekend and asked me if I wanted to come. I figured I didn’t really have much else to do and was getting a bit overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of Guadalajara. So we left the next morning on the bus (first class and it only cost $32). The drive was awesome! It took like 5 ½ hours but its was all through the mountains and there was the most beautiful scenery. We got to Vallarta and eventually found a cheap hotel (500 pesos/night) with a pool, beautiful courtyard, satellite tv and a private bathroom! It was sooo luxurious. We met up with Jous the guy who runs the projects in Guzman and walked around town, visited a few cool bars and then discovered that you can buy 1litre cups of beer to go from some bar for like 40 pesos!!! You can walk around town with booze in Mexico. I’ve discovered there isn’t much for rules of any kind in Mexico.
The next day Gemma and I went down to the beach and worked on our tans all day… being the stupid tourist that I am, I got horribly sunburnt. I’m still in pain like 2 days later. That evening we walked all up and down the beach and watched the sunset. By that time I was in great pain so we walked all the way back to the hotel and went to bed.
The next day (Sunday) we had to bus it to Guzman. We caught the bus at 10:30 in the morning and barely moved for the first hour or so the traffic was so bad. It took almost 7 hours to get back to Guadalajara! The bus to Guzman from there was only about an hour so we got into Guzman ant about 7 pm. I love Ciudad Guzman! It is a little city with about 150 000 people. I think Gemma, Alex (the other volunteer here) and I are the only white people in the whole city. Little kids who have never seen white people in real life before come up to us and stare or point and say ‘Güera’ which means blonde. They call white people güera whether or not we have blonde hair. But the men here don’t harass us like they did in Guadalajara. They might stare but I’ve only been whistled at once in two days. It is so refreshing.
My host family is awesome! My host Mum is called Sara and her daughter is called Fernanda. They are both sooo nice. They don’t speak English which is good for me because it forces me to practice my Spanish. Last night Gemma showed me around town a bit and made me order ice cream myself. So far she had been doing most of the talking for me. It’s funny how useless the Spanish is that I know. I could have a discussion about the politics of Costa Rica but I can’t even order ice cream. It’s quite ridiculous.
Today Fernanda took me to the Pharmacy to try and buy some things. It was so entertaining trying to explain to the clerks what I needed to buy. Thank God Fernanda was with me so I could sort of get the gist across to her and then she could explain to the clerks in proper Spanish. It was a really good time. I have faith in my Spanish getting lots better in time for school in July.
I went to my placement today at the rehab centre with Jous. I am so excited to start there tomorrow. There is the sweetest little boy there named Cristian who is about 7 years old. He immediately ran up to Jous and me and grabbed on to us and told us that we were going to adopt him and we were his new mum and dad. It was so sweet. He has a ridiculous amount of energy and was running all over the place showing us around and introducing us to people. The rest of the boys were a little shyer than Cristian. They came up to me with curiosity and said hello but not much more. They all come from really rough places… little Cristian even has tattoos. The whole place looks a bit like a jail with high walls, curling barbed wire and guards here and there but they seem to be doing really good work there. I can’t wait to go back tomorrow and be a part of it.