mas de 30 niños

In my do-gooder way I wanted to volunteer. And in my self preservationist way i backed out today (although i had my reasons: lack of sleep, interview for a long-term volunteer position with housing and food). I will return tomorrow with a plan to prevent me from being trapped in a room smaller than my bedroom in Pescadero with the door locked and windows shut, sweating profusely, with more than 30 kindergartens screaming, jumping, hugging, hitting, squirming, and holding tight to my hand begging with my name for individual attention which I so whole heartedly wanted to give and just couldn´t for need of damage control. Upon arrival, after an advnturesome bus ride, I entered a busy concrete court yard with children of all ages playing. A band of 8 year old boys in school uniforms began calling me Karen, then grabbed me and told me they had a pistol. They informed everyone that they were taking the American hostage-as they guided me to the office. on the way children chanted "Hola, hola" in unison. When i informed them that my name was not karen, but Katie, the chorus "Kati (without the e)" filled the air. Finally they ushered me into the office and shut the door behind me, but then a small dirty hand opened it, snuck in, and grabbed my shirt. He just looked up at me for a while after i asked "¿Como te llamas?", and then was shooed outside. As the director introduced me to the people working there, a bell rang and the children were quite literally herded into rooms by age. I think they were supposed to have a lesson. I was assigned to help with the kinders, where the children spent thier time tracing hands and coloring pages from coloring books with a random and meager selection of crayons, singing, tearing up said paper and throwing it around the room, sitting on friends, making fun of adults, desperately seeking approval from adults, breaking crayons, eating crayons, and laying on the floor. The woman who was in charge of this group was largely ignored, and seemed to have given up long ago. Another woman got them to sing some, but the problem of that many little squirming bodies in such a small space is very hard to rectify. My poor Spanish, white skin, and brand new status made me little help. Today I am going to buy a decent selction of children´s books, and tomorrow i will take children out of that room in small groups- this i can do- and i do want to follow through with helping out, but it is hard to feel of any use in a holding pen. Maybe it was worth it for the monent when they were released, and i was able to have a conversation with two toddlers in the yard who pulled at their dresses and sucked out warermelon seeds as we talked.