Relapse

Oh, how naive I was to think I had gotten past the stomach distress. This morning around 5:30am my body decided to prove otherwise, with a new stage of the stomach bug. I’ll spare you the details, but with everyone in the volunteer house affected, around here we’re now disturbingly comfortable discussing all aspects of our bathroom experiences.

I did manage to get in one day of volunteering yesterday, which was great. It was sunny and actually warm enough to not wear a jacket for a change. The teacher had asked us to bring materials for drawing, so I was armed with paper, crayons, pens, pencils and even a few glitter pens (as can now be seen on my backpack and pants). The kids were totally absorbed for the first hour, getting up only for new paper, different colors, or to show me their masterpieces. Most of them learned the word “paper,” and I used the pens as tools to reinforce the English names of the colors.

After the paper ran out, chaos returned. One little girl wanted everything neat and orderly, so she would collect the used paper, pens, etc. and bring them to me, which worked fine until she started taking items straight out of kids hands as they were still using them. One boy had a bit too much energy though, so every time I would get all the papers stacked neatly, he would run over and spaz out, flinging it all every which way. In the end I had to give him a time out, which seemed to calm him down, even if he didn’t quite understand what it was about.

For the rest of the day we practiced the alphabet, sang songs and played Duck Duck Goose (which I’m guessing a past volunteer must have taught the kids).

Unfortunately, given the state of my stomach at the moment, even coloring and singing sounds overwhelming today, so Hannah headed off to volunteer by herself this morning, armed with frisbees and a soccer ball.

More photos at http://babas.typepad.com/photos/my_gap_year_3/.

Comments

[Jen Paco Nyberg]

Be sure to let all the kids know that purple is the best color ever...unless local custom says it's evil.

Seriously, you're doing good work and I hope that your stomach lets you get back to it soon!

~Paco