Sweat, Tortillas, Dirt, and Tears

It´s hard to put this place into words, but well worth it.

Doña Claudia spoke with us this evening, showing us pictures of some of the children (and challenging us to say what their names were) and telling us their stories. When I first came I had a vague sense of their backgrounds, but hearing specific struggles of children that I´d played with or watched today made their stories much more heart-tugging. And then when she was done, that group of children was waiting for us outside, and we were suddenly overwhelmed by tiny, smiling faces and little bodies reaching up to hug us.

Enough to make a girl cry, really. :)

I´ve gotten to know a few of the kids: Jose, Sisi, Wilmer, Christian, Lindsey. Wilmer and Christian helped us shovel dirt into wheelbarrows and push it up the hill to where we were building a water-drainage incline behind the new dormitories. They had tons of energy and made a tedious task suddenly a lot of fun. They buried unused shovels, raced and crashed the wheelbarrows, looked at us like we were a bit dense whenever we tried to speak Spanish, and giggled at our sad attempts to pantomime what we wanted. It was great seeing them so happy, especially knowing now where they came from.

It´s been fun being surrounded by Spanish, my first real immersion since I took it in high school. I understand about 1 word in every 15, which makes me pretty much useless. Church was a bit easier, where the pastor spoke more slowly and stayed on spiritual topics. I even managed almost completely to understand the last few sentences that the pastor spoke in his sermon.

Work done: painted 4 dormitory doors white, painted a section of wall bright red, shoveled dirt, pushed it up the hill about a half-dozen times in a wheelbarrow, shoveled more dirt, and hauled wood.

After we finished the work for the day, I sat in the school courtyard and watched six boys playing soccer. They were beautiful, athletic, funny, and totally committed to the game.

In other news, I´m getting used to the constant honking of the horns on the street and to learning way too much information about my teammates. Suffice to say I´ll never be able to pass them in the hallway at work again with a straight face. It´s been awesome.