June 18, 2008
Two more boys ran away over the weekend: Cristian Chico and Manuel. I’m sad to see Cristian Chico go because it really scares me where he will end up, and it breaks my heart to see Manuel go. He was definitely one of my favourites. He really loved to learn English so I had taught him how to say “How are you?” and “I’m good”. Then he wanted to impress some girls so I taught him to say “How are you, beautiful?” and then he got all confused so every time I would ask him “How are you?” he would say “Beautiful!” It was absolutely adorable. I miss him so much.
I learned Luis’ story today from one of the psychologists at the centre. It turns out that his mom is in jail for drug trafficking and his dad has died from alcoholism and his sister who is the only one left to take care of him is about 19 years old and has three kids of her own to take care of. So Luis was just living on the streets taking care of himself and getting into a lot of trouble in the meantime. Luis is my favourite boy at the centre. He has bleached his hair blonde so we are “Güeros Unidos” (blondes united) and he always says that he is Canadian and asks me if I will take him to Canada with me when I go home. He is always smiling and joking around (minus the times he’s getting into fights and whatnot) despite all the crap he’s gone through in his life. He is a great inspiration for me… all of the kids are.
This week the boys have discovered the joy of huge tickle wars. They basically involve me chasing them around for hours trying to tickle them till they cry. It’s absolutely exhausting but soooo fun. These boys have a never-ending reserve of energy. They never get tired. We will play soccer in the morning, then eat breakfast and have a lesson for half an hour or so and then play more soccer and then have tickle wars until it’s time for me to go home. I don’t understand how they don’t get tired. I’m also envious of the afternoon/evening staff who get the boys after I have spent all day trying tire them out. But I’m getting lots of exercise which is good.
In other news, I’m thinking I might be coming home about a month earlier than I had originally planned. I have been here two months already and while my Spanish has improved a lot I’m not anywhere near where I would need to be as an advanced student and thus receive credit for my courses here. I’m quite certain that another four weeks here will still not quite get me there. So anyway, it would be a big waste of money to take the classes and not get credit for them. Yes, my Spanish would improve but I have a lot more reasons to come home than to stay. And the entire motivation to come down here and take the classes in the first place was for fear that I would have a schedule conflict next year and not be able to graduate. But, the course schedule is up and even with the extra two Spanish classes everything will work out. There is one linguistics course I want to take that is not offered next year but I can still graduate without it and then just take it for fun later on. So I might be seeing you all around the 23rd of July instead of the 23rd of August. Thinking that I may have only five more weeks left here is a strange thought. It’s exciting but at the same time quite sad because I’m not ready to leave quite yet. But I figure that five weeks from now I will be more than ready to come home.
June 20, 2008
This week at work has been pretty crazy. I have been teaching thirteen-year-old Jorge to read and write. It makes me so sad to think that this boy barely knows the alphabet and doesn’t know how to write his own name but when I was thirteen I was reading novels and writing poetry and short stories (not good ones but I could still do it). Everyday these boys remind me of how blessed I have been in my life. It is so rewarding helping Jorge read and write. Every time he reads a word and every time he finishes an exercise he is just beaming with pride. It makes me so happy that I’m able to help put that smile on his face.
I was talking to one of the psychologists the other day about life at the centre and he was telling me that the boys are very much driven by the need to feel. This is why they are addicted to drugs and alcohol, and why they always want to hug and kiss everyone and why they love the tickle wars. But he also told me that the boys frequently try to rape each other. I wasn’t particularly shocked by this but the way he said it, like it was totally normal and there wasn’t anything to be done about it… well… that shocked me a lot. The youngest boy there, Chuy, is such a little sweetie but he never wants to play with the other boys and the others often take out their aggression on him. It terrifies me what is happening to this boy when none of the staff is around. Now I understand why the boys run away.
We got two new boys today. One of them is 14 or 15 years old and is called Choco. He has been at the centre before and finished his treatment but he relapsed and so he’s back now. The other one arrived just before we left for the day and I didn’t catch his name. He’s about 13 or 14, I think. I’m glad to have new boys. The place had been feeling pretty empty with just the remaining six. I can’t wait to get to know the new boys. I’m sad I’ll have only three weeks to do it before my time at the centre is up.
June 25, 2008
I just spent the weekend in the most delightful little mountain town called Tapalpa. It’s quite touristy and I can see why. This town is so beautiful. I fell in love immediately. I went with Brittany (an American girl who works at the centre with me) and my roommate Jess. We got there around 4pm and spent a little time walking around thoroughly enjoying the culture of the town: men riding their horses down the streets, children playing with firecrackers, amazing artisan markets and sweet shops. We found a lovely little hotel with a beautiful room for the three of us and guess how much it cost: 400 pesos! That’s less than $40!!! It was amazing. We spent the evening shopping and I bought a whole bunch of really beautiful stuff. Then we had some food and went and sat in the street and had some drinks (you’re allowed to drink in the streets in lots of places in Mexico). We decided that we should holler rude phrases at men walking past (give them a taste of their own medicine) and in the process met a really nice group of four guys who offered to take us waterskiing and wake boarding the next day. We jumped on that opportunity. They are all quite well-travelled and one of them had actually been to Saskatoon! It blew my mind! Usually when I tell Mexicans where I’m from they look at me like I’m crazy and there can’t possibly exist a place with a name like that. A couple of them spoke really nice French and they all spoke really good English. We had a great time with them.
The next day they picked us up and drove us out to the beautiful mansion of a country home that one of their uncles own to pick up the boat. After driving around for an eternity trying to find a suitable location to launch the boat, we ended up taking down a section of barbed wire fence and taking the boat down the steep slope to the water. It was hilarious but successful without too much drama. We were all very hungover so we never got in the water (I also didn’t have a bathing suit with me) but the guys had a good time wakeboarding and it was fun to watch. After a couple hours the storm clouds started to roll in so we headed back to the house to drop off the boat and then the guys took us out for lunch before putting us on the bus back to Guzmán. They were such genuinely nice guys. It was so refreshing to meet nice Mexican guys rather than the standard creepy ones whistling and hooting at us. This weekend we are going to Guadalajara to visit them and let them show us the sights. It should be a really awesome time.
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