Poco a Poco: September 2007

I know some of you already know this info , but i have been getting tons of emails asking me what exactly it is that I am doing here in CR and how I know the children ect. Soooooo.....for those who don´t know............

When I was first planning this trip I was told that for the majority of my time I was going to be working in a furniture shop where the family I am living with handmakes everything, and that I would also have the chance to work in a wildlife sanctuary if I wanted. I get here and find out that that is not the case! The furniture is not really hand made.....it´s made with lots of big scary machines and the man of the house didn´t think it would be a good idea for me to use said machines! So....I spent the first couple of weeks here basically vacationing. Exploring. Learning how to cook. It was really fun but by the end of the second week I really started itching for something more meaningful , productive. I asked everyone I knew here if they knew of anyone who needed volunteer help during the day and finally I found out that there was a little daycare about a mile from my house and the lady who ran it needed someone energetic to basically play with the kids all day! Anyone who knows me knows if I could have picked one thing to do while i was here it would be exactly that so I was obviously very excited!! So I started the next morning and everything went perfectly. I was gathering my things to leave that evening when Maria( the lady who runs it) stopped me to talk. She thanked me so much for helping her, told me that she couldn´t be happier that it was me who was going to be working there because the children really needed the love and attention. This struck me as odd because all of the children at first glance seem to be very loved and cared for. They all seem happy. So, I asked her what she meant by that and then she began to explain everything I didn´t want to hear. All of theese children have been abused, some sexually, some physically. She went on and on about how horrible all of the parents are. By that point I was really confused because all of theese children go home in the evenings with their parents¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿ I asked her why and couldn´t quite catch what she was trying to tell me because she speaks only spanish.....the only things i managed to gather from her responce were that it was a government funded day care for underpriviledged children. Why the kids go home to abusive parents every night I still don´t know, but I am bound and determined every single day to try and make up for everything they don´t have in the night, and during the day , they ARE happy and loved and payed attention to.......every one of them.We dance, sing, run, play, paint , get messy and dirty making mud pies, the older ones love for me to teach them english. They are really amazing. Very different from the children in the US.I wish you could all know them!!