Saturday started at 8am instead of 6 which theoretically should have made the day easier, but there was no school so no official break for the encargadas. I spent the day with chicas, first and second graders, who were perfectly adorable. There are only 10 girls in this group instead of the usual 30 or so, so it was much easier to learn names. The youngest groups, chicas/chicos and kinder eat most of their meals back in their section instead of the main cafeteria with the older kids so the day was an interesting mix of isolation and chaos. We spent the morning playing in the backyard of the girls' dorm with me largely being bossed around from home to store to school to home again to the neighbor's...you get the idea. After a few hours of playtime, we had a snack break of a frozen treat which I found nearly impossible to eat and had to work on for several hours much to the amusement of my playmates. I also helped collect all the meals from the cafeteria and bring them back to our room.
The day took an unexpected turn when I was informed I was 15 minutes late for a meeting I hadn't been told about. This meeting consisted of a bunch of encargados from all the different groups planning the activity periods for the kids over the weekend. Apparently, this meeting usually happens on Friday and is used to fill in any gaps in the kids' schedule. I was pretty tired and wasn't really following the discussion too closely, just going where they sent me and agreeing at the right times. After the meeting, we returned to the chicas where I ate quickly. The group then headed out to play time with the rest of the house where I had fun playing Twister for the first time in years. Such a classic game! After playtime, the girls showered and we got ready for mass at the beautiful chapel. Mass was followed by brief plaza play time, dinner, shower time again, and some quiet time watching a pirated Spanish version of Tangled, the new Disney movie. My movie was interrupted to head out with another encargada to set up our activity for the night.
I was still confused about what exactly was happening. We set up a kind of obstacle course on the soccer field that was supposed to be a partner activity. One partner was to be blindfolded while the other talked them through the course. I soon learned that activity time theoretically consists of all sections rotating through a series of different stations set up for them by us. It was a little frightening to be a part of. What really happened was that the kids were let loose to interact with each other as they willed which, considering it was one of the few times both sexes were allowed to do so, resulted in...chaos. With a film of control that no one really paid any attention to. But I survived and was finally allowed to go to bed! Longest day here so far.
