So I suppose I´ve finally started to settle into a real routine here, although with all the new volunteers that have arrived my schedule has been a little different every week.
At first I really struggled with working part time at Nazareth, not because I don´t love the boys, but because it´s not quite the same go go go tiempo as at Solomon - and aside from the hour of computers and hour of homework help, I felt almost unneeded. But as I´m there more and more I start to feel like I have a bit more of an important role in the house. My favorite part being watching some of the youngest boys light up as they accumulate points on the Math games - boys Hermana Katy has told me were written off as special-needs and potentially incapable of processing much when they came to the house to begin with. And it´s also nice to finally feel like I know how discipline works and to feel a bit more respected. Although the boys new me from before, I´d always just come to play and eat sopa de mani, and had never really been an authority figure before - so it´s been a bit of a challenge attempting to switch roles, but so far so good.
Although really my heart will always be with my babies. I don´t think I´ll ever get tired of Martin or Christopher poking their head up from outside the window and screaming "Mami Katyyyyy!!". But my current mission is Edson. He has always been old for the sala, but he will turn 4 in December and is in a group of 1-2.5 year olds (with the exception of Jose Carlos and Julio who are pushing 3). It´s probably the thing I´ve noticed the most since coming back, that he has both advanced incredibly in both the sense of how much he can speak and how much he understands and at the same time become incredibly more frustrated. He throws more crying spellings than he ever did before, each time with less and less reason. Last week he decided he didn´t want to eat and then once he finally started eating I said "Muy bien, Edson" and he burst into tears and refused to eat again for another five minutes. It just breaks my heart to see him making such strides, but knowing he could be making so many more if he just had a bit more stimulation.
I actually had a really good conversation with the Psycologist today about it. I wanted to talk to her because I wasn´t sure who to go to about really pressing the issue of moving him up one or two Salas - Ive never quite pinned down who makes those decisions, although she informed me today that it´s mostly the nurses and Emma. But we had a great conversation about the possibility of getting Edson and Jonoton (one of the boys from Sala 2 who was in my sala but also has been held back by being put with younger kids and could benefit from more stimulation) into the Montessori in the mornings. They had been talking about doing this when I was leaving in May, but the problem is that there aren´t any volunteers helping in Montessori and it would be too much for the teacher to take on herself. I´m looking into exploring some options of changing around some of my work placement (because we have a new volunteer coming next week who could potentially work full-time in my sala and then I would be free to help in the mornings with Monetessori). There is still a lot of work to be done, but it really gets me excited to think I could really be helping two (or more) of my kids advance in ways they wouldn´t have the opportunity to do without me there. That´s what I love about being here.
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