¿Que pasó durante las tres semanas pasadas en Casa Guatemala?
Not sure where to start as a lot of things happen at CG within only a day…always feels like rather a week than only 24 hours but I guess that is normal given the fact that we don´t only have to get up at 4.30am every day but also have to take care of a lot of kids with all kinds of different wants & needs!!!
So first of all, we had a few special days within the last 3 weeks, and ¨El Día de la Independencia de Guatemala¨ was one of them: 15 September. Of course, everything was different on that day and we celebrated this special event…not only was there no school :) there was also lots of great food (don´t forget that everything is seen ¨in relation¨ :) :) :) We saw great performances by the kids - various dances which they all had rehearsed over and over again a couple of days again - and you could feel the pride in their own country when they were holding the National Flag while singing the National Anthem all together! THUMBS UP
Another special day was our monthly birthday party: every last Thursday of the month we are celebrating all the birthdays of the particular month with lots of music and dancing PLUS, and most importantly, cake (pastel) and refreshment (fresco) drinks donated by volunteers from CG, so ourselves…or sometimes, if we are lucky, there has been a recent donation of cake mixes and soft drinks :)
And of course, not to forget and above all special days, ¨El Día del Niño¨: 1 October. What a great and important day!!! Very emotional as well…the night before, Manuel and I blew up heaps of balloons (stopped counting after a while) and in the morning we got up half an hour early to quickly prepare - have a guess - FOOD, what else?! - for our kids: 37 toasts with Nutella and a glass of Nesquick chocolate made with milk!!! And they just looooved it…they were pretty much ¨jumping¨ at them when we finally woke them up with firecrackers pursuant to Guatemalan tradition :) on top we played a special song that was written for this day in Spanish and I was just really touched by the whole atmosphere and by simply seeing ¨my boys¨ being so happy!!! We gave them all, one by one, a deep hug and I can´t deny the fact that I had tears in my eyes…I love my Varones Grandes and I am just happy to be with them and share their life for at least a little bit :) the program of the day was pretty much just playing and doing whatever they wanted to do without having to complete any work, and of course, eating lots of sweet stuff including pancakes with honey in the morning plus cornflakes with warm milk - luckily we had a recent donation :) :) :)
Manuel is the other ¨Orientador¨ for the Varones Grandes that I am now working together with. He is from Spain and he has been here twice before already (once for a year in 2006 and then for a couple of months last year) so I can pretty much only learn from him…he knows the boys so well and I really like the way he works with the kids so it has been great working with him, especially given the fact that we always agree which only makes the ¨upbringing¨ of our kids a lot easier and smoother :)
What else is new? Ah, the magic box, ¨la Caja Mágica¨, that I implemented after having received this great tip by my lovely friend Mona, who is a primary teacher working in Sydney (thanks Mona!). I explain…every day Manuel and I write names of our boys on a piece of paper, or not depending, if they behaved very well, for example, if they have done anything special or helped us or anyone else at CG, taking his own initiative at school or at home or in general, just demonstrating an outstanding behavior and thus, setting a good example for everyone! So these papers have been accumulated over the last few weeks and we slowly filled our magic box until the ¨big day¨: every last day of the month, we identify the winner of the month by counting the names in front of everyone and the winner then gets a reward that, of course, mainly consists of FOOD, what else?! :) :) :) We made a little show out of it and it was great fun…so now we hope that we only motivate more kids to show its best behavior!!!
Finally, we also got a lot of new volunteers which is great as every position is now being filled twice making it easier when leaving for the break or for a night out etc…great mix of people and the volunteer house is finally being filled with life again :) Most of them are from Spain which is great as it only means that we have to speak Spanish all the time now and thus learn it quicker…well, that´s what we are hoping for at least ;)
We also had someone donating vegetables so for the first time at CG, we actually got to eat potatoes and carrots besides rice & beans - how AWESOME is that?! THUMPS UP
Then there was another big event that was both great and very sad at the same time… one of our boys got adopted to the States and had to leave us! Now obviously this is such a great opportunity for him and he had to wait for this many years due to the fact that this process, unfortunately, takes so unbelievably long! But even though he always knew that this is going to happen one day, it was still quite a shock to suddenly get told ¨you finally get to go to the States…you are leaving in 2 days¨!!! Can you imagine this? After waiting for years and years (I think 4-6 years in total), you suddenly have to leave within 2 days??? I was with him when he got told and he first did not show any reaction which is not too surprising, I think…he simply looked down and I could just see how all these thoughts and questions are running through his mind! Instead of saying anything, I simply hold his hand while Manuel and one of the teachers were talking to him. Afterwards, I just gave him a long deep hug and since then I always had an eye on him checking how he is doing…it was at bedtime when he finally realized what is actually going to happen and that he actually has to leave this place, which was his home for 12 years, and it was then when he started crying like never before. So I kneeled down by the side of his bed and talked to him for a little while before simply holding his hand and waiting until he would finally fall asleep…you can´t imagine how heartbreaking this situation was and it still gives me goose bumps by just writing about it! The final day came and he pretty much went through a lot of ups and downs with a lot of laughter and crying at the same time and it was just beautiful to see how his closest friend would not leave his side! He had to go to Guatemala city where he would meet with his new mother and I was the one who went with him…he was pretty strong during the trip and we spent a great night out at the mall, having lots of ¨illegal food¨, such as ice cream, coke and candy, and enjoying an action movie. How exciting that was for him…first time on an escalator - he was afraid so went together on ¨3¨ :) as well as the first time in a cinema…you can imagine that this made me think a lot about what we have and what other kids have never seen in their life before!!! Anyway, when we got home and it was bedtime again, he got pretty upset and again, it was just heartbreaking to see this little boy crying for his best friend, not wanting to leave and sobbing so heavily…again, I just hold him and waited until he would fall asleep. You can probably imagine how hard it was for me to leave him the next morning…one ¨son¨ I lose, one of my boys that I love muchissimo! The downside when getting too attached to the kids at Casa Guatemala…
Oh, before I forget, and this will make some of you laugh: guess what, I have a new nickname!!! Some of you might know that my Capoeira name is ¨Guarana¨ but we decided that this name is too long and we were thinking of a nickname for me at CG as there now is another volunteer called Anna. So what happened? I am standing in front of all my boys, making a ¨fila¨ one more time like every day, when an Iguana s***s on me!!! Yep, true story :) so my new nickname was born: GUANA :) :) :)
Summing up and coming to an end - the probably longest blog ever ;)
It is a tough but extremely valuable experience and even though it is not always easy and you are pretty much sitting in a roller coaster - going up and down, from one extreme to the other sometimes a couple of times within one day -I am simply loving it and i am enjoying every single moment of it!!! I learn so much every day and this is something so valuable that i would have not experienced as such otherwise...a constant learning process - i learn from ´my boys´ just as much as from staff and teachers, mostly Guatemalans, as well as other volunteers...and most of all, I learn a lot about myself and this experience particularly gives me the opportunity and enough time for gaining a deeper understanding about myself through self-reflection!!!
Thanks for all your positive and lovely comments guys...I very much appreciate that!
Miss you all heaps!!!
Love from Guana :)