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Hi everyone! Today was so great. I started at a new placement where I will be Tuesdays and Fridays until further notice. I am working at Mariano Juvenil, which is a shelter/temporary house for abused girls who range in age from 9-16. Like I mentioned before the schools have a two week break so all the girls were there waiting for us to think of things for them to do. We were greeted at the door with the traditional Costa Rican greeting of a kiss on the cheek and a hug. They all were talking a mile a minute, of course in Spanish! They have two "Tias" that take care of them but they are responsible for chores which is what they started their day with. After that we did some coloring activities where they had to color certain parts of the pictures certain colors according to a number sheet (they want to learn numbers and colors in English). After that we showed them our pictures we brought from home. They wanted to know everything about every person in my photobook. They were giggling over my pictures of Nick and the other girl's boyfriend. I think they asked the most questions about him haha. Most of them seem mostly stable, but there was one girl who went in and out of fits of crying and being scared of things we didn't understand. We played Uno, colored pictures, and just talked. It was nice because I could actually have conversation in Spanish.
The best part of my day was at the end when our bus came to pick us up, the girls wrapped their arms around us trying to keep us there. They kept hugging and hugging and hugging. I thought I was going to have to bring them home with us! I think we made their day as much as they made ours. Today was a nice break from the usual :D Hopefully I can think of some other fun things to do with them on Friday.
This afternoon we went to see a local dance group perform their traditional Costa Rican dances (they told their folktales) and also a traditional San Carlos dance. These kids are going to Peru in a month to compete in a huge dance competition so we were an audience for them to practice in front of. We also got to try on the outfits and twirl. The skirts were really heavy, but fun to twirl :D
I am exhausted, so that's all for now.
Adios!
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