Like a Child

February 24, 2010

For a few moments today I felt like a little girl again as I skipped down the sidewalk with one of the seven year-old girls to move my car closer to La Casa. We “raced” to the car and she won. I enjoy such moments. Currently I am sitting in the living room of the girl’s home multi-tasking as I watch the El Salvador vs. USA soccer game. It is more fun to watch it amidst the screams of teenagers than alone in a house. I am trying to cheer for El Salvador (who is winning) but I find myself excited when the USA almost scores goals as well. I guess that I am in a good place – no matter who wins I will be happy.

This week I have had the opportunity to go with the staff to pick up the children at their schools and so I have gotten to see more of San Salvador. The children are spread out among at least four schools since some of the students need special attention. Going to the one school which is right near where I live helped me to solve the church mystery. On Sunday morning I ventured out of the confines of my street to run in the direction of a church I had heard and seen the night before. The worship had sounded good and I wanted to see if there was a church within walking distance from where I live. My run did not prove fruitful as far as finding the entrance to the church, but I did enjoy the freedom of running outside of the gates of the fence of the neighborhood park. What I discovered today is that the music I heard came from the church connected with the school and though geographically the church sits just above my street, you actually have to wind around to a street that I would not feel comfortable walking on to get to the entrance. At least I solved my mystery and I may just have to drive there to visit the church services.

I have also had time this week to dedicate more energy to the youngest boys who are both about 15 months old. I want to work with the tías to help them with the goals that they have for stimulating the boys’ development and see what resources I can find to help them out. As I continue reading the book Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and John Townsend (in Spanish), I am both learning about the different ages and what the boundaries should look like. I think that I may try to put together a presentation of some of the ideas for a childcare training (every Friday morning we have one with all of the childcare staff). I had been sharing some of the information with the tías of the youngest boys and girls this morning and they were very interested. The book is also challenging me personally and I wonder why I never got around to reading it before.