I have been here for a month; the first week was full of getting ourselves orientated to La Ciudad., the second week we jumped into language school and our roles in the “pabellones” (the houses of kids) and the following three weeks were a total rollercoaster. Now not just the simple rollercoaster that you can ride at the county fair but the big deal ones that drop you from heaven’s door to earth, upside down and sideways, then you do it all over again backwards. So I am thinking that now I have a pretty solid idea of where I fit in here.
I am in La Familia San Antonio. In the Pabellone I am a “tutora” or in basic English a Tutor. By definition it sounds pretty calm and relaxed. A tutor is someone who helps with the studies and can answer questions, I got that down. I am actually a little more than just a tutor, I am more like a house mom. My duties can include any of the following: cleaning, running study time with my specific group of five boys, meal services, shower time, reading stories at night, and visiting their teachers. They fluctuate from week to week, however there are a few that are a constant. We will begin with a rough outline of what my schedule for the first month looked like.
Across the board I would wake up between 5/5:30 each morning and arrive at the Pabellon about 6 to help wake the boys up in the morning. We have breakfast at 6:30 and they leave for school at about 7:40 ish. I would begin my cleaning duties for that week at 6 when I got there (with the help of the boys or sometimes lack there of ) and after breakfast we would return to the pabellon to finish cleaning. I would have to leave for language school at about 8 and would be gone until lunch at 1:30/2. Eat lunch and head to the Pabellon for a little break before starting homework at 3:15/3:30. During that time after lunch I would try to complete my homework. We have study time from then until 5:30 when it is time for showers. We head for dinner at 6:15 and Monday through Thursday we have “Capilla” at 7pm. After Capilla we head back to San Antonio and the little guys head to bed unless they have homework that they haven’t finished in which case they finish and are all in bed no later than 10. Normally the bebitos (my little guys) are in bed normally no later than 8:30/9. I head back to the apartment to finish my homework, head to bed and set my alarm for the morning.
Each week the three of us tutors rotate “servicios.” The Servicios are one of three things: dormitorio 1 and laundry with the little guys, dormitorio 2 with the big kids and lastly the two living rooms, patio and meal duty with a variety of the boys.
“Capilla” is at 7 pm every night Monday-Thursday. During this time one of the Brothers, either Brother David or Brother Polo, leads worship songs with all the boys. The songs all have little dances that go along with them and gestures which is a lot of fun. I still don’t know the songs :p, I can’t really understand what they are saying so I just stand on the side and copy the dances . The youngest boys are a riot to watch, they are all about 3-5 years old and love the music. The only thing better is watching them on Sunday evening mass when they, bless their little peapicking hearts, all fall asleep on each other.
During study time I have the five little guys that I work with. Their names are Daniel, Luigi, Marco, Freddy and Max. Each day is an evolution. In the beginning I was struggling with being a novelty and had almost no authority over them. This was a problem when a week later I would learn that they hadn’t been taking their notebooks to school, turning in assignments and receiving incompletes on their work. They were very good at “forgetting” they had homework. That was difficult, I had no idea what kind of homework they normally had, what classes were each day or the rules and structure of correcting assignments. That was an adventure, when do I believe what they tell me and when do I call them out? I had to learn not to let my feelings get hurt when they would act like they are mad at me for making them do their homework or not letting them copy one of the other boys’. My respect for teachers just keeps getting greater. I am not sure that I would be able to control a room full of these little guys; five is hard enough :p. I have only been working with them for a month and I already am invested in their success, what will it be like come the end of the school year and we see final grades?
I was finally able to implement a sticker reward system, each time that they finish an assignment they get to scratch it off the list and when they finish all their homework they get to put a little star on that day to mark that they finished everything. I wasn’t sure how it was working at first, or if it was at all. Then one day I was late for study time and Hermana Flor, the head lady of the house, told me that they boys didn’t want to work with any of the other volunteers because they were worried that they wouldn’t get their stars . That made me feel good, I have done something right . Each day I am learning something new and ironing out the wrinkles.
Alright, well that is a little run down of what my responsibilities are here. My next blurb I will talk more about some of the adventures and fun things that we have experienced. It isn’t all work . Miss you all tons!
