The First Full Day

FIRST FULL DAY OF SERVICE!!! We have finally started what we came here to do. After a delicious breakfast by the retreat house cooks and picking up the police protection, we spent our first day with the kids in their classes and then we worked on the new addition to the school. At the beginning of this trip I was looking forward to working on the new addition and I was not sure if I wanted to work with the kids, but after my experience today with the 6th graders I realized being with the kids has been the most rewarding part of my day. Half of the team went to the nursery to be with the babies and toddlers and the other half went to the elementary school to be with the older kids. When my group got to the elementary school, we were split up into the grades by pairs or by ourselves. I was happy to be with the kids, but I really was looking forward to the work after school. I was placed in the 6th grade by myself. Walking into a room full of 12 year old, wide eyed kids brought me back to my elementary days when I had to give presentations in front of the class. Sweaty and nervous, I waved and said "hola" and was greeted by every kid in the room smiling, most likely because of my terrible accent and pronunctiation, and saying "hola" back to me. Almost as soon as I got into the classroom it was already "receso" where I was told by multiple and increasingly frantic hand gestures to run. I did and was soon captured by the opposing team, which I had no idea exsisted, and brought back to their jail. I was then, again by numerous hand signals, told to run after the other team. We played this form of tag for about a half hour. Luckily after running for a half hour with VERY energetic 6th grades, we played soccor. When asked by one of the girls who spoke a little English if I played soccer, I answered yes. I meant that I had seen the game and played once on my fourth grade team but they took it as "yes, I am good at soccer." So they took it upon themselves to humiliate me with every soccer move they could for the next hour. Battered and bruised, but still smiling,we went back to the school for math. They were learning division. I helped several kids with their exercises. During the class I was asked by several of the girls if I was single. To their dismay I am not and I showed them a picture of my girlfriend that I printed out before the trip and kept in my wallet. As all the kids were leaving we said good bye and did the hand shake that I made up with the other boys. What really moved me was almost the entire class asked if I was going to be with them tomorrow and after saying yes all of their faces lit up with a smile. After that, construction was boring. We leveled out ground for a walkway, moved sand and stone, and put in metal supports for the ceiling. It was boring because I always found myself thinking about my day with the kids and being excited to see them tomorrow. (written by Peter Krull) I was also happy to finally work with the children. I, unlike my friend, was assigned to the Nursery. Since I did not speak Spanish, I hoped to help the younger children who could not speak too much Spanish. I asked to work with the Kindergarteners. I went into the room rather shy and apprehensive, because to my surprise, everyone spoke Spanish. The children soon realized that I knew little Spanish after asking me simple questions that I later found out were, "What is your name?" or "Where are you from?". They then tried to communicate to me that they wanted help with their addition problems. Since I knew how to count to 10 in Spanish, I tried to help. We did problems such as 2+3 and 6+4 and used bottle caps to figure out the math problems physically. Many of the students were able to do the problems correctly and after a few minutes the students and I had developed a handshake to congratlate them when they got the right answer: We fist-bumped, high-fived, low-fived, and ended with a final fist-bump. The majority of students really got excited after that point and worked together on their classwork and finished early. The students who finished early then helped those who needed help and eventually everyone finished the worksheet. We then lined up for recess and all ten students asked me to either give them a piggyback ride, hold their hand, or just give them a hug. I was completley covered in overjoyed 6 year olds. Outside we played jump rope. They did not know how to time their rope with their jump. I helped a few with their timing until a student hit me on the back and said the Spanish equivalent of "Tag!" I ran after the student and finally tagged him. By this time the entire class decided to play and I was constantly tagged because the children wanted me to chase them, which I did accordingly. I chased the kids for a solid 15 minutes until I stopped to take a break, when the children decided to all hug/attack me at once. All the girls hugged my legs and the boys jumped on me. I eventually got myself free only to be chased by the children again. Soon thereafter, the teacher called the students in for lunch and I was called by Mr. Dane to leave for the day. I said "Adios" to the kids as I left and they all gave me one last hug. I then went to the main school for construction work for the next 4 hours and returned to the retreat house around 5 p.m. only to find that we could not play soccer as a result of the rain. That is beside the point, because I am really just looking forward to returning to help the children tommorow. (written by Austin Mack) Hasta manana, The SJJ Guatemala Team