First Day of Children!

I didn't get to post yesterday because so many things happened. Trini took Sandra and me to Gotera to the market. The market in El Salvador is much like a flea market in the US except bigger and a lot busier. Everyone is bumping into one another, pushing people and going over top of everyone. Meanwhile, different people walk up and down the streets in front of the stands yelling about poisons for rats and coakroaches, selling undewear (2 for a dollar on Sundays :), pills that help with back pain, etc. The scrawny, mangy dogs run back and forth being shooed on everywhere they go, trying to find a scrap of food. Oh, and don't forget about the cars driving up and down the main roads that run through the middle of the market. If you do, you will definitely be runned over! You have to watch where you put your money and don't go out with a purse, they may cut it off at the straps. :) You will find some of the most normal things and some of the most out-of-the-ordinary things there. Starting at one end, you have to buy until you can't hold anymore and then go back to where you actually found a parking spot and leave the things in the truck, and go back out again until you have everything you need.

I think it took Sandra and I nearly 2 and 1/2 hrs to finish buying food and tables and chairs for the children. I think we made the plastic wares man's day. He was very sweet and very thankful that we purchased from him.

Yesterday was also pupusa day. I took Sandra and Trini out for pupusas at Christina and Esperanza's pupuserias. I think they are the best in all of El Salvador. Trini didn't believe me that I could eat 6 pupusas - I showed him! ;) Pupusas are 40 cents a piece there in the country. They are easily $1.25 a piece in the states. It was the first time Sandra had been to the pupuseria. I doubt she gets out much. Her husband, Javier, makes $9 a day and he gets up at 4am to head to work. Sometimes he gets home early, a litle after noon, but other times he is out until well after 5pm. He gets paid the same regardless. He was telling me that they have to work like ants here, plant there corn to keep them through the winter and work as much as they can. It's an understatement to say that life is very different here.

I keep getting bananas as gifts. :) I'm discovering that there are many different kinds of bananas! Sandra's mom sent me some (guineos - sp?) and Omar sent me some (bananas) and I bought some (plantains) at the store. I do have to say that Omar's bananas are pretty good stuff!

Today was the first day with the children. Omar came running down from his house all the way back in the mountains this morning just to help me haul some materials to the institute. You won't find a sweeter person anywhere. There were more than a few tears from the children when their parents left them, but they adjusted pretty quickly. It was a little troublesome at first because the parents were all very curious and wanted to hang around and watch some and that didn't help the children any. We decided mid-day today that it would be better for the children to have them picked up a little earlier. We changed the schedule from 3pm to 1pm because the children get tired and need to nap. They won't nap all together in the same room and there really isn't a place for them to sleep there. We can accomplish all we need to with the children easily by 1pm. They have to go from one activity to the next very quickly as it is.

We had 11 children today, 4 out of the 15 didn't make it today. 2 of them called to let me know, and one of the children was whisked away by his father because he had a little fit about not wanting to come in. I think he would have been fine after his father left though.

The children absolutely loved the blocks and legos, and they were fascinated by the felt board that I used for the Bible story. I couldn't get them to sing much today, only a couple of them actually sang. Hopefully they will get more into it as they start adjusting to the program and to me. The parachute and play doh were a huge hit! The children were pretty quick about picking up English, but they obviously didn't have a very long attention span and they got a little shy as we got into it. However, several of them left saying, "Hi, how are you?" That was certainly a highlight of the day and very cute!

Kember was out little troublemaker, always have to have one, right? He doesn't have a father and his grandmother cares for him while his mother works. I don't think he is used to playing with other children at all. He did everything the opposite he should have and was not good about listening at all. From what I hear, he doesn't get very much loving attention at home. I think he will get better as he adjusts to us. I hope that we can be of some help to him.

Well, I could be here all night, but I need to sleep. The children certainly wore me out today! There is the rain drumming on the tin roof again, lots of creatures singing outside - it's definitely nighttime in Meanguera. : )

The connection is slow, so it's hard to upload pictures, but there are some of the children. :)

Guillermo, Fabian, Jasmín, Cecia, Tania, and Iseyda from left to right.

The hair in the front is Allison's!