My first working day back I headed to desayuno with my girls.
A lot had changed in my absence.
First off, twenty-one of my twenty-six girls in Grandes A had graduated from primaria and moved up to a new section, primeros de secundaria, the youngest of the three secundaria sections.
In US terms, this means they would be entering seventh grade in the fall. This move in section meant a change in dorm, a change in encargadas, a change in seating in the comedor, and a change in chores.
The girls were now responsible for cleaning a third of the comedor after every meal along with the other female secundaria sections and keeping a few gardens, or more accurately patches of grass, neat and tidy in the house.
Our Grandes A encaragadas had both left the house and moved to Monterrey where the university is, so they were no longer around the house.
Half the year of service kids had followed suit and a new batch had come in.
In our section, the encargadas were now Gris, a second year who I knew from before, and Luz, the newbie.
Both really sweet.
Our dorm room was now located on the second floor of the girls’ dorm meaning I would have to climb steps now in order to reach the girls.
Our comedor tables were now located in recessed alcoves of the comedor making seating a bit more of an adventure.
Bottom line: lots of changes and I was a little anxious about them all walking into the comedor that day.
But even with all that, there was even more to deal with.
As I said, Martina had left the Saturday I returned and that Monday the new volunteers arrived.
Volunteers’ was therefore in a bit of an uproar.
I was now rooming with all three of the new female volunteers, two of which I had not met before that day.
My worries were foundationless it turned out as both were very sweet and we got along well.
I had also missed the start of summer vacation and came back in time for the beginning of the second week.
This meant the schedule was completely different for everyone.
Now the kids were allowed to sleep in until 7am at which point they got up to do chores, 9am desayuno, 10:30am to 12:45pm activities, 2pm comida, 3pm to 5pm activities, 5pm to 7pm break/shower/chores, 7pm dinner, and 8pm to 10pm soccer tournament.
This was the schedule on all weekdays for four of the six weeks of summer vacation.
The activities were two in the morning and two in the afternoon.
Morning activities were less active and consisted of things such as spa, table games, painting (T-shirts, statues, etc.), crafts, and Zumba.
Afternoon activities were meant to keep the kids moving: soccer, volleyball, softball, etc.
Two of my girls enjoying their fruit break. Every morning between activites the kids were treated to some sort of fresh fruit. A healthy way to break up the morning!
Leslie, a visiting volunteer who had a few of my girls when they were in Medianas, with one of my girls playing table games during the morning activity.
Guess Who? I loved this game growing up and played it a little too much over the course of vacation. It was a challenge playing in Spanish. I had a lot of help.
My first day back was the first day that this schedule was enacted.
I met my girls for breakfast, they cleaned the comedor, and we headed to activities.
That afternoon, I was assigned to help with an afternoon activity: water balloon volleyball with Wesleigh and a year of service kid.
The activity went only so-so.
It was our first day and we went through the water balloons rather quickly.
Since we had the youngest sections that day, it was a bit of a problem.
After a quick shower, I was treated to delicious American style hot dogs and French fries at the despidida for the current visitor group.
They left the next morning.
At the soccer tournament after dinner my girls won their game against an older girl section and my team (I was asked to play with the year of service girls again) won theirs as well.
This day was basically repeated the rest of the week.
I would spend most of the day with my girls besides my afternoon activity period working the water balloon activity and basically each night my section and my team played in the tournament.
Monika returned on Wednesday from her Guatemala vacation and Saturday was spent hanging around the section a lot.
I gave a tour for the new visitor group that morning and we had a dance that night in the tae kwon do room. It was awful.
The room is basically a cave in the house, aka no air flow.
It was great for controlling the kids. The entrance/exit was carefully guarded, but there was no water and everything smelled to high heaven.
Sunday was again a little more relaxed.
The kids spent most of the day practicing dances for that night which they performed for our new group of visitors and the rest of the house.
It was just my first week back and already I was exhausted!
One of the cutest Matamoros kids at the soccer tournament Friday night. NPH has an extension house in Matamoros. It is tiny, only about forty kids, and they spend each summer at the house in Miacatlan. We all enjoyed having them around.
Two of my girls being cute in the section. The one on the right was a newbie for me. She had stayed behind when everyone changed sections. I was happy to have such a sweet addition to our group!
Through several high school art programs in the States, all of the kids in the home had their pictures turned into works of art by the US students. Apparently, this project had been in the works for a while and it was finally delivered and completed my first week back. The quality ranged a lot of course, but I think overall the kids were very proud of their portraits.
Our new dorm room. It's smaller than our other and therefore harder to play in, but it's also cozier.
The dance Saturday night. Like I said, it's a cave.
A bunch of my girls having a good time soaked in sweat.
Becca, one of the new volunteers and one of my new roommates, getting to know the kids at comida familiar on Sunday.
Me and a friend chilling in the patio. It was good to be back.
The dance performances that night. The teams were made up of kids from all different sections. This one in particular was very cute as the little boy up front was the only boy on the team and quite a good dancer. He kind of did his own thing up front while the girls performed a choreographed dance in the background.
