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.