El Ejército de Salvación

I am definitely using this train ride to play catch-up with my blogging!  At home I was too busy relaxing and getting ready, and the other train rides were spent napping a lot.  Now, I feel decently rested and keep thinking of those posts I never wrote so I will write them!  Unfortunately, I do not have wifi on this train so I will have to remember to post them after I get to the hotel in Granada.

In addition to the study abroad program I did with ISA, I did their ELAP volunteer program.  This consisted of some extra application pieces, such as my resume in Spanish and a Spanish phone interview, as well as an extra fee.  To participate in this program, you must already speak decent Spanish (I forget what level) because you work with Spanish speakers.  I chose to work at the Ejército de Salvación, or Salvation Army, in the daycare center.  I should mention, in case it isn’t clear, that this daycare center was for underprivileged families and was lacking in resources.  They do very well with what they have, but they clearly could use more.  Since I was only taking one 4-week Spanish class, I started working the week after the class was over.  As it turned out, my friend Jaclyn who had been in my Spanish class was also volunteering there at the same time.  Jaclyn, if I miss any highlights or kids please feel free to comment!

I want this posted because I want some record of the kids and people there, as well as some highlights from my time there.  I don’t think we ever had all of the kids there on the same day, so I do not know the exact number of them and therefore might forget some now and have to come back to add them later.  If any of them ever see this (doubt it since I was working with the 2-3 year olds), please don’t be offended, I love you all!

Mary: The main teacher in the classroom that Jaclyn and I chose to work in.  We liked her and so we got very worried the second week when she wasn’t there, but then she came back :)

That other teacher with the curly hair: Jaclyn, if you remember names, please let me know!  She was around sometimes and was also very nice.

Nina: A girl form Germany who was also in Costa Rica studying and volunteering.

Rifka and Janina: Two other girls from Germany who were only there for a week or two.

Isabelle: A girl from Switzerland who was there for a week, and then I ran into her on the bus back from Panama.

The fix it/cleaning guy: He was always there and helped out with the kids sometimes, but mostly he was around fixing and cleaning stuff.  However, when he did come by the classroom, the kids all loved him.  And he was Joseph in the Christmas show.

That boy with the glasses who wasn’t in our class: He may have been my favorite in the Christmas show, two left feet and all.  Jaclyn, you know who I’m talking about :)

Zayra: I think she was technically our boss, but I didn’t interact much with her.

And now for the kids from our class!  Well, and the older Jeaustin since he was in time-outs in our class maybe half the time we were there.  Actually, that’s enough for me to remember him by so I just have all the others.  Oh boy, let’s see if I can remember the Jeaustins/Jhostin right…

Aaron: Definitely the best behaved of the group.  However, the teacher had a knack of looking at him in the few moments when he was not behaving and so he would get in trouble as much as the rest of them.  He was also the only one who could color inside the lines and had some sort of fear of the play place we went to one day.  It had a structure like the ones at McDonalds, but he refused to go inside and got really quiet when he even had to take his shoes off.  Once I told him he could put his shoes back on and play outside of the structure, he was fine.

Jeaustin: He may have been one of the cutest kids there, but he was definitely a crybaby and a troublemaker.  If he was crying, it was most likely that he took a toy from someone and then they took it back, which is when he would start crying.  There was a day when he was telling me something and when one of the other kids came up to me, he put his arms around me and yelled, “ Es mio, es mio!” (she’s mine, she’s mine, though not quite correct since I am a girl and it should be mia).

Jhostin: Another cute crybaby who most likely started the trouble that led to his tears.  He was also a wildchild, both in looks and actions.  He had long hair and resembled a young Tarzan, and seemed to have trouble understanding how to share.

Jeaustin and Brittany: Siblings, and the sister helps me remember which Jeaustin I mean here.  So I don’t know why, but all the Jeaustins and Jhostin were the most difficult of the kids.  They all grabbed toys and cried when they didn’t get their way more than most of the other kids, but of course, that is only a little surprising since all little boys can be expected to do that.  However, this Jeaustin always had this smile on his face that showed he knew when he was doing something he shouldn’t have been doing.  Brittany did it too.  I remember a day when Brittany and some of the other girls all wanted to play with my hair.  They were actually pretty gentle so it turned out to be an easy way to entertain them while I could still play with other kids.

Aisha: Aisha must have been in the middle of potty training because she was one of the few kids in my class not in diapers but she was wet a lot.  One day we had to roll up the carpet because she peed on it, but no one really knew what to do with it so we just left it in a corner to dry.  I don’t know if we would have done something different if this had been a daycare center that actually had the money and resources it needed, but hey it was the best we could do.  Aisha was one of those kids who is fine with whatever she is doing, but then when someone else starts doing something new, she wants to do it too.  Oh, and she always had the cutest gloves.

Kiani: At first I thought Kiani must be one of the youngest ones because of how little she talked, but then I realized she actually knew what was going on a lot of the time, even if she decided to act in a way that went against it.  Yes, Kiani was a sneaky one, but she was adorable when it was dancing time!  She was sitting in one of the eating tables once (with straps so they were for time outs too) and was sit-dancing and singing so cutely I wish I’d had my camera that day!  Yet for some reason she didn’t do too well at the Christmas show.  I think once she saw her mom, that was it.  She went up for one dance and just stood there crying, head turned up and all.  At least she’s cute, though that might not be saying much since they all were :)

Isabella: Now she had to have been the youngest one we had.  She barely talked at all and always had a sock-blankie with her, usually in her mouth.

Steven: Oh Steven had this laugh that I could not get over yet could not get a video of!  It was this like almost evil sounding chuckle, but it sounded more like just some old fat guy laughing.  Gah I can’t describe it!  I hope I always remember that laugh because it is funny enough that I almost started laughing on the train when I thought of it.

Dennis: He makes me wonder where the stereotype of Asians putting up peace signs in pictures came from because here was a little Asian boy from Costa Rica who threw up a peace sign in one of my pictures.  He was a sweet kid, but very set on having things a certain way and not changing them.  When he got mad he would hit the floor or table right in front of the person he was mad at and made this mean face at them.  There was also this one time when he was crying and the teacher was telling him to stop and he was definitely trying, but the cries kept getting out and I was nervous he was going to choke on the effort to hold them in!  And now I don’t want to end this on the angry/sad note so just reminding myself how cute he was when he was happy :)

Saray: She was one of the quieter, well-behaved ones and was only there about half the time so I actually can’t think of any stories about her, but she was also a cutie.  Oh, I do remember her when we went to the play place after the piñata and she had a red lollipop that turned her mouth all red.  Which reminds me of Aisha and her yellow lollipop and mouth.  That was a fun day…

Dixian and Ethan: They were also not particularly badly behaved and only there about half the time so I don’t have many stories about them.  Ethan didn’t seem to like getting his picture taken at the Christmas show so I have a picture of him with his gloved hands over his face.

Victoria: A very pretty girl who often liked to play with the cars with the boys, but still was a part of the hair-playing day.

Kensley: I can’t forget Kensley!  He was my little buddy.  On the first day, the teacher told us that he was slightly autistic, but I think he might be a little more than just slightly autistic.  Anyway, he took a liking to me and clung to me most of the day.  I learned that he was fine when things were constant, but once they changed he would freak out until he got used to the new situation.  Some days he loved puzzles, others he didn’t want to touch them but would guide my hands to the pieces and where they went.  I just hope that the center and his family have the resources to support him in school over the years because he needs a little more help than the other kids.