Bonding

So, we went to church last weekend again and it was another great service. We are talking about pride and humility, and really going in-depth about it. It's great!

This is our last week working at all three jobs...next week it will be just the pre-school and the orphanage. I'm looking forward to that, even though I feel bad about missing the kids at the other school.

At the pre-school, we work with the babies...there are 15 in the class. We are there on Tuesday and Thursday mornings until about 1:30 pm. It's so interesting, the differences between American pre-schools and Mexican pre-schools. This is considered a very good school, and is run by the Catholic Church. The woman who runs is it Sister Leonor, a sweet and gracious woman.

I originally went to school to be a pre-school teacher, and spent several years teaching. I took a lot of pride in my room, having different areas for the children where they could explore their world without getting too overwhelmed...reading area, block area, home play area, etc. We had circle time and snack time and play time and nap time. We had units to learn basic concepts and weekly lesson plans that reinforced the concepts. I really enjoyed it, and was good at it.

The pre-school, on the other hand, is totally different. The rooms are basically plain...there really isn't a lot in them. In the baby room where we are at there are some cribs, a changing table and a few things to climb on. There are exactly 3 toys...an old, dirty doll missing an arm and most of it's hair. One duplo block (like a giant lego) and a small plastic horse. That's it. One toy per 5 kids! The babies that don't walk are mostly left in walkers or in their strollers. The babies that do walk basically just walk around. The wierd thing is the babies seem totally happy and content. The teachers are loving and responsive, but with 15 babies they don't do any sort of lessons or games or singing.

There are 3 rooms, all fairly narrow and small...one is the "outside" play room with a few climbing type structures. The other has the changing table and two cribs and is the smallest of all, but is where the teachers spend the most of the day. The third has 5 or so other cribs and is for the sleeping babies. The kids are often put 2-3 to a crib and the sheets are not changed regularly. All are fed with one spoon out of the same bowl. There is no sink in the room to wash hands so the teachers use that no-water type stuff for their hands.

The kids eat breakfast at 9 am, and then all get changed and play until about Noon when one teacher fixes all their hair. At 1 pm they eat lunch...the walkers go to the kitchen and the babies get fed. After lunch they all get changed into new diapers and new clothes and then get laid down for bed.

Sierra plays with one little girl named Esperanza...she is about 1 1/2 and is so cute. Sierra spoils her rotten...she carries her all the time and does whatever Espe wants! She can't stand to hear her cry or look unhappy, so she is constantly entertaining her. She loves to change her closthes and feed her and do her hair...she's even changing her diaper! It's really sweet.

There are a lot of cute babies...big brown eyes and lots of black hair - so precious! There is one little girl that I really want to love. She is disabled..she is 5 years old, but looks about 2. They said her disability is that she has cerebral paralysis, but I don't know what this means, really. Her eyes are set too widely apart and they don't focus well. She has the look of autism, and she doesn't have good motor functioning. She doesn't talk or really make much sound at all except she occasionally cries...even this is very quiet and sounds so pitiful. It's not a demanding cry, but a heartbroken one that pierces my heart. They generally leave her in the walker all the time, but I've been taking her out of the walker and holding her and loving on her. I think she could learn to walk with therapy, and even to communicate...perhaps by sign language. I've been working with her to get her to stand up and roll over. I feel like I want to just love her as much as I can and whisper God's love into her little soul. Her name is Itzel.

I'm glad we're at the pre-school. I think Sierra is learning a lot by helping out with the babies and it's great to see her fall in love with Espe. I feel like I'm doing something important by loving on Itzel. I think it was a good choice to stay there.