- La Guadería:
I am currently scheduled to work 3 days a week (Mon, Wed, Fri) in la guadería (day center/school). I have only been there 3 times so far because I was sick all of last week with a pretty bad head cold. The first 2 times were really good- I spent my first day there with the 4 year olds in the "Pre-Escolar 2" class and I got to teach a little boy, Luis, how to draw stick figures (the class was asked to draw their families) while the rest of the class went to use the computers. He is only 3 years old and hadn't yet learned how to draw shapes. I also got to read the class a story in Spanish ("Cenicienta" or "Cinderella"). After this, I was asked to help teach the English lesson! La guadería has an English teacher, Miss Geo, that goes from class to class but she is Mexican and is not exactly fluent in English so she was more than thrilled when she met me! She told me that I was an angel that was sent to help her learn English and she asked me to help her become more fluent and also to assist her in teaching the classes. This made me smile! Outside of the classroom, I watch over the kids while they run around like crazy and climb all over me on "el patio" and I also help serve lunch and clean up at the end of the day.
On my second day there, I got to be with the "Pre-Escolar 3" class which has 5 year olds. They were a bit more well-behaved and easier to work with. I went back to the 4 year olds in the middle of the day, though, to help teach English while the 5 year olds had gym class and were exercising to Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina" song- I couldn't help but laugh!
I just worked my third day yesterday and it was definitely the hardest! I was basically thrown into the classroom to teach the 4 year olds for the entire day by myself- no lesson plan, no preparation, nothing. The teacher who I usually help, Adrianna, had to help make a bulletin board which for some reason took the entire school day- that's Mexican time for you. It is a class of 20 kids, half of which have learning and behavioral disorders, and there I was alone with no teaching experience and only a conversational amount of Spanish under my belt. It was HARD! But I did get through it with just a little bit of improvisation and optimism since I didn't really have any other choice. By the end of the day, though, I was exhausted! Hopefully there won't be too many more days like that!
- La Comunidad:
In just the 2 weeks that I have been here, my eyes have seen a great amount of poverty and suffering. I have gone around with Sister Angelita, the main sister that has been taking care of us, to visit different people from the community and to see first hand what life is like here. Sister Angelita lives in the sister's house with 2 other sisters, Niko and Cesey, who are also really wonderful. Their house is a good 10 minute walk from us and is down the steepest hill I have ever seen in a neighborhood! Their next door neighbor, Doña Mari, has become one of my favorite people ever and has stood out among the many that I've met. She is the sweetest and most adorable little old woman (not as much as my grandma though!) that lives by herself and is always inviting us over for comida and cafecitos (food and coffee). I had a really bad day last week when I was feeling pretty awful and I saw her and instantly felt one hundred times better. Like many of the people here, she has very little, offers so much, and has so much love to give. I look forward to getting to know her better as this year goes on.
- La Parroquía:
The parish that we are working through is called Nuestra Señora de la Asunción and is about a 5 minute walk from our house. Padre Salvador, the priest there, has also been taking good care of us and is the reason that our house has been getting fixed up and painted all pretty. He is well-loved by the community and is very kind with a great sense of humor. He has his little "familia" there of people from the community who are constantly at the parish helping out with whatever needs to be done. The amount of faith and dedication to the parish that the community has is pretty unbelievable.
- Para Disfrutarnos (What we've done for fun):
On the first Saturday that I was here, we got to walk up to a market in Santa Fe and get some fresh fruit and vegetables. Mexican markets are always great and have so much to offer. Later in the night, Sister Niko took us into México City to participate in a march against violence which was absolutely incredible. The march started from the Ángel de Independencia and went straight through to the city´s capital, the Zócalo. There were millions and millions of people and everyone was wearing white and carrying candles. It was such a cool experience.
We headed back into México City another day last week- just Jessica, Carolyn, and I- to visit Jessica's host family from when she studied abroad in México City 2 years ago. They live in "La Condesa" which is a much nicer part of town and own a restaurant which we got to eat at. One of her old friends, Memo, met up with us for lunch and walked us around town and showed us the university that Jessica studied at. It was such a treat to be able to escape for a day and I really enjoyed meeting some new people and seeing Jessica so happy!
Before heading back home, we stopped in a café right off the campus where Jessica ended up bumping into one of her other old friend's, Javier, who has ended up being somewhat of a savior to us! We got to go out for a night on the town with him, Maddy, who was Jessica's old Austrailan host sister, and his other friend, Heraldo, last Friday which was a lot of fun. We were in "el centro" of México City and first went to see the boys' friend, Alejandro, play in his band at a bar called the "Beer Hall" (so Mexican, no?) and then we finished off the night dancing away until 5am at a really cool salsa club called "Meneo." They played all kinds of music- including a great song that has been stuck in my head, "Oye" by Sonora Dinamita (check it out!)- and I was able to sharpen up my salsa, cumbia, and merengue skills! Javier was generous enough to treat us moneyless missionaries to this much needed night of fun and even let us stay at his apartment so that we didn't have to worry about our safety going back home. And to make things even better, he was talking to us about all of the work he is doing right now and told us that he has been volunteering at a home for boy's from the street- it ended up being Nazareth!!! That same boys' home that I have worked at the past 2 summers and love so much!!! He said that he would take me there to visit one of these days and I cannot wait! It was definitely one of those "life amazes me" moments...
- Things to look forward to:
Well, very early this morning I went with Sister Angelita to have a meeting with the director of Yolia, which is the girls' home in México City that Scranton sends volunteers to each summer. It's a home that houses abandoned girls living on the street that need homes. They mainly take adolescents so it's an older group of girls. I had told Sister Angelita about both the boys' and girls' homes and she was very interested in seeing if I could do some work at them while I am here so she set up appointments with them for me. How exciting!?!?! The meeting went really well and it was nice to see the girls' home again and how much it has changed. I don't know exactly what I would be doing there, but it sounds like it would be something with counseling the girls because right now they have to be sent far away to talk with a psychologist and it would be helpful for them to have someone right there in the home. My appointment with the director of the boys' home (Nazareth), Padre Miguel who I already know and love, will be sometime in the next couple of weeks and I cannot wait!
Tomorrow, Padre Salvador wants to take the 3 of us on an adventure to climb the pyramids at Teotihuacan to solidify our roles as missionaries here. I have been to these pyramids twice already and it is one of my favorite places in México so I am very excited!
This coming Monday, the 15 de Septiembre is México's independence day which means days off from work and lots of celebrating this weekend. The 13th is also Carolyn's birthday so we are hoping to get to do something fun for that as well!
If you're from the University of Scranton, I am sure that you remember Oscar Torres, the screen-writer for the life-changing movie about the civil war in El Salvador, Voces Inocentes, that we invited to the U to speak this past October. Well, he hasn't stopped making incredible movies and has actually been doing a lot of work here in México City and it looks like I am going to get to meet up with him at some point! If you were fortunate enough to hear him speak, you know how amazing he is and I feel very lucky to be able to meet with him again. He also just recently passed on a link about a new movie that is going to be coming out in 2009 and looks pretty amazing. It's called The Shift and I recommend that you check it out and pass it on as well!
Alright, well that is all I`ve got for now. I hope to be able to "blog" a lot more frequently and keep you all updated on what's going on now that I am getting much more settled in here. Keep the e-mails coming (defilippisj2@ymail.com) because I love hearing from you and ask me for my mailing address here if you don't already have it so that you can write me letters!! :)
***I want to leave you with a great song that has helped pump me up while I have been here. It's called Viva La Vida by Coldplay.
Be well, happy, and healthy... MUCH LOVE ALWAYS!!!! <3
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