Ni Modo (2/1-2)

As I mentioned in my last post, this week has been a little difficult.  Tuesday was Decision Day which I thought meant that we would talk to Daniela in the morning and then be with our new sections the rest of the day.  Instead, we essentially had the day off to catch up with Daniela and relax a little before our posts began the next day.  Daniela, our volunteer coordinator, is not just our coordinator.  She has about five different jobs with NPH and is based in Cuernavaca which means we only get to see her once a week.  It was great to catch up, to talk about things, to get her opinion and direction, but this also meant she was in and out a lot attending to these different responsibilities of which we are only a part.  So a good chunk of the day was spent waiting for her to finish this or that so we could have all our questions answered.  In the morning we had a meeting with the head honchos of the place which took up a good bit of time and a few of us did head out in the early afternoon to get food in the pueblo as well.  Not that the food here isn't great, but a change of pace is nice.  ;-)

Nice, Wesleigh.

It's a miracle!  Andrew's actually smiling normally in a photo!

Daniela took us to our sections shortly thereafter to inform them who would be showing up the next day and we were all pretty nervous.  Wesleigh, Monika, and I had become very attached to several of the groups and were worried about how they would take our "rejection" of them as well as what kind of reception we would receive at our new posts.  Reactions were definitely mixed.  It was impossible not to offend someone especially since there are so many sections and so few of us.  For the most part, people reacted positively and we had cena with our sections before heading back to volunteer central.  That night too, I went with the guys for a beer in town to celebrate our new assignments.  Don't worry, we were back by our 9:30pm curfew!

Wednesday was my first day with my girls.  I got up in time to make their 5am wake up call and then basically just sat there while they showered, dressed, cleaned the floor, tidied their beds, and found their school things. We headed to desayuno after which they prayed with the other older girls and were at school by 7am.  At this point I passed out until my next responsibility at 10am, helping serve and set up almuerzo, but this effort was interrupted by a workshop we were required to attend with the other head honchos of the house.  It was...interesting.  The point of this series of workshops is to help make us better caregivers by discussing things such as identity for the kids and positive reinforcement.  It was pretty long and only one of several we will be required to attend.  The points the women were making were good.  It was just hard to focus and it involved a lot of complimenting those around you who for the most part I didn't know.  Awkward.  The workshop ended just early enough for a few minutes quiet time before meeting the girls back from school.  After comida came homework during which I was mildly useful, chores in which I was completely useless, and finally, for me, Life Teen.  I had become very excited about Life Teen since it is one of the few formal ways I will be able to interact with the older girls, but I was a little disappointed when only a few chose to show up this week.   It was still fun.  We sang songs, read a bible verse, prayed, and ate candy.  Teresa was feeling pretty poorly so she left early leaving Monika and I to attempt to teach an English song that I didn't really know.  But all in good fun!  And we will definitely turn this around.  Okay, so after Life Teen was cena then reading time and bed.  Reading time is probably my favorite part of the day so far because it's one of the few times that you really see how young these girls are.  They still enjoy reading with someone else and kind of cuddle up to you while you switch off passages of the story.  Bed time for my section is 8pm.  After their lights went out, I hung out around our house a little and went for tacos and nieve (kind of like ice cream) in town with Dan and Andrew.  There are lots of little taco stands all over Mexico and, just like the street vendor in Chicago has the best hotdogs, the taco stands in Mexico have the best tacos.  I forced myself to go to bed once we got back.  Even though it was only about 10pm these 5am wake ups are no joke.

My days won't always be 5am to 8pm.  There exists some kind of system where you get off early if you do early wake up, but I haven't figured that out yet.  !Ni modo!  That means "whatever" and it's an essential phrase, lesson, and attitude to make it through this.  So !Ni modo! everyone.  Miss you all!