I spent today working with the babies again! I arrived to Proyecto on my own with no complications today for the first time, which was awesome. Thank goodness. Anyway, when I walked into the nursery room, many of the kids were already there. There was a tiny one in particular who was sitting on the floor crying, and when I went over to comfort him, I learned that it was his first day and that he was only 9 months old. He was adorable, but seriously would not stop crying. I know that I was the same kind of child, so I can't say anything, but I spent much of the day holding him and walking him outside - he seemed to like that a lot.
The kids actually eat quite often. They have breakfast, snack, lunch, and then another snack - and I left at around 2:30 today, so they might even have had more food afterwards. It's nice because I get to eat with them for free when I'm working at the nursery, so it saves me from having to prepare and buy food myself - 100% a great benefit that I didn't expect.
The classroom I work in has an interesting dynamic because it's informally subdivided into the babies that are more self-sufficient (can walk, eat by themselves) and those that are not. Even though they are all 2 or younger, I started to see the ones that were more self-sufficient as ones that were more mature - they don't cry and can really manage themselves. It wasn't until mid-morning when we brought all the babies out to the courtyard to watch the older children play (they were maybe 3-5 years old) that I realized how young all the babies were. Even the ones that I had seen as "more mature" were only 1-2 years old, and it was so interesting to see how quickly I had categorized the babies - based more on their differences than their similarities. All of them wear diapers, for goodness sake!
Overall, volunteering was pretty fun. I spent most of the day with the babies, and they took a lot of naps, which lightened my load. They thing is, though, that the two official employees/teachers are much more short with the babies than I expected - making them sit down all the time rather than stand, and reprimanding them lightly when they do things that babies do (like spit up food) - and tend to treat them more roughly. The babies sleep wrapped up in a large cloth, which is tied to the side of an empty crib - why they don't just sleep in the crib I don't quite understand and don't have the Spanish capacity to ask and know the answer. However, if they cry when they're wrapped up, they are rocked by grabbing one side of the blanket and moving it quickly side to side. I feel like the movement should be more gentle, but I have very little experience with childcare and maybe I'm just adopting an American view of the excessive fragility of babies. Who knows?
Anyways, it took me over an hour to get home today because we went through the main market, which was in full gear - like on every Wednesday and Saturday. They sell everything and it stretches several blocks in width and length, so I was glad to get home. I started Spanish lessons today. I was a little skeptical because that's my instinct, but I think having someone to hold me accountable and walk me through thinking about the words I need for daily use is going to be good. We covered a lot in the two-hour lesson, and I'm a little overwhelmed by the vocabulary that we went through - it must have been about 100 words. We'll see how much I can really learn and interact with, but I'm excited to see what I will be able to do in the next month or so of lessons!
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