Friday was a tough day for me because one of my kids (I’ll call him Andres) hit me in the face REALLY hard. (This is not the kid who hit me before.) I was just reading him a book in my office and he hit me so hard that I thought my nose would start to bleed.
I took him back to his house right away. While we were walking, he hit me twice more before I could stop him. And then I started to cry. It was just too much to deal with and I’d been feeling homesick all week. (Next time, I’ll have his caregiver come with and it’ll be fine; I didn’t think it was necessary because he had never hit me before. But don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine.)
Luckily, my roommates are AMAZING. Six of us (plus Cassie) went out to Antigua on Friday and Saturday night. We had a really great time, and I felt so much better. I feel like we are becoming closer and that is really helping. Next week, five of us are taking a half-day off of work Friday (we get to do that once a month!) and going to the beach. I guess it’s about 3 hours away and really fun.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the death of Padre Wasson, the priest who founded Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (the name of the organization I work for). So, I’m not doing speech tomorrow. We’re doing something with the psychology department together – I’m not really sure what. It’s also my friend Cassie’s birthday, so we’ll celebrate that.
And, my boss started teaching us sign language on Thursday! (The class in Antigua didn’t work out, but she knows Guatemalan sign language, so this is working just as well.) I’m really excited! I was already able to use it and talk to the boy who is deaf in my section.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Ya
Blog
I can’t believe today is 10/10/10 and I’ve been here for 5 weeks already. It doesn’t feel real. It does, and it doesn’t. I do love it here – especially the kids in my section, the other volunteers, and the beauty of Guatemala. But the reality that I’m going to be here for a year is beginning to sink in.
A whole year. I know it’ll go by quickly, but still. Still what? I still miss my family and friends. I keep having dreams that I’m at my lake house. And I miss the kids that I worked with when I was a teacher’s aid. It’s amazing how attached I became to children in only three months …
And here, I’ll be so attached to the kids after a year. I know that I wouldn’t change and grow in the same way if I’d stayed at home than if I were here in Guate. This is my dream, and I’m living it – which feels amazing. But it is hard work. Last week, one of the girls in speech intervention SPIT IN MY FACE in the middle of the session. I know that she is testing me to see how strict I am, because she doesn’t do that with her tíos (cargegivers). So, after that, I decided that it was time to end the session. I didn’t really let it bother me after that, but it was slightly disconcerting. The incident made me remember something one of my speech pathology professors once told our class: “Get ready – you’re going to get sneezed on, spit up on, peed on, and PUKED on.” Hahaha – I’ve had everything except puke so far.
Also, I want to make sure that all of my 15 kids are getting the best speech intervention possible. And that may take awhile for me to figure out. I want to be patient and to be okay with the fact that it may take awhile.
Last night, my friend and roommate Ruth (I live with Ruth & Josh, a newly married couple from San Francisco, Jess – my roommate – from Long Island, Mona Lisa from Germany, Jonas from Germany, and Mike from Utah; they’re all AMAZING!) and I were talking about the different stages of culture shock. I’m definitely no long in the “honeymoon” phase in which everything is new and amazing. I still love everything and look at the mountains every day with wonder; but like I said, homesickness is also setting in.
I also want to make friends with people from Guatemala, not just the other volunteers (who I do love and am already close to some of them). When I was in Ecuador, I only got to know my host family and the 26 other Americans that were with us; so here, I hope that I’ll have some lasting friendships with other Guatemalans after a whole year.
Also, this blog website takes too long to upload photos, so I'll put this link to my facebook photos and hope it works: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056402&id=1146001044&l=4bd5000fb9
I can’t believe today is 10/10/10 and I’ve been here for 5 weeks already. It doesn’t feel real. It does, and it doesn’t. I do love it here – especially the kids in my section, the other volunteers, and the beauty of Guatemala. But the reality that I’m going to be here for a year is beginning to sink in.
A whole year. I know it’ll go by quickly, but still. Still what? I still miss my family and friends. I keep having dreams that I’m at my lake house. And I miss the kids that I worked with when I was a teacher’s aid. It’s amazing how attached I became to children in only three months …
And here, I’ll be so attached to the kids after a year. I know that I wouldn’t change and grow in the same way if I’d stayed at home than if I were here in Guate. This is my dream, and I’m living it – which feels amazing. But it is hard work. Last week, one of the girls in speech intervention SPIT IN MY FACE in the middle of the session. I know that she is testing me to see how strict I am, because she doesn’t do that with her tíos (cargegivers). So, after that, I decided that it was time to end the session. I didn’t really let it bother me after that, but it was slightly disconcerting. The incident made me remember something one of my speech pathology professors once told our class: “Get ready – you’re going to get sneezed on, spit up on, peed on, and PUKED on.” Hahaha – I’ve had everything except puke so far.
Also, I want to make sure that all of my 15 kids are getting the best speech intervention possible. And that may take awhile for me to figure out. I want to be patient and to be okay with the fact that it may take awhile.
Last night, my friend and roommate Ruth (I live with Ruth & Josh, a newly married couple from San Francisco, Jess – my roommate – from Long Island, Mona Lisa from Germany, Jonas from Germany, and Mike from Utah; they’re all AMAZING!) and I were talking about the different stages of culture shock. I’m definitely no long in the “honeymoon” phase in which everything is new and amazing. I still love everything and look at the mountains every day with wonder; but like I said, homesickness is also setting in.
I also want to make friends with people from Guatemala, not just the other volunteers (who I do love and am already close to some of them). When I was in Ecuador, I only got to know my host family and the 26 other Americans that were with us; so here, I hope that I’ll have some lasting friendships with other Guatemalans after a whole year.
Also, this blog website takes too long to upload photos, so I'll put this link to my facebook photos and hope it works: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056402&id=1146001044&l=4bd5000fb9
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)