Life with LIFE

Everyday that I go to LIFE, I get more and more comfortable and into it... This week I have gone to two different comedores...one called Los Angelitos and the other one la Union. Los Angelitos was very different than the other two that I had been to. It's all indoors, and the coordinator is much more organized that any of the other ones. She's this French chick who coincidentally lived in Bethesda, MD for 6 years. Anyway, at los Angelitos this little boy, Fabian (6 years old), came in...He was just the cutest thing in the world. He came with his 2 cousins, one is a girl who is 8 and the other is a little baby-girl who is maybe a year and a half. Anywho, Fabian explained to me that he's not in school anymore (I couldn't really get him to explain to me why he's not in school, but he just said that his Mom took him out). It broke my heart a little when he told me how he wants to go back to school. So we colored a little bit to start, because I didn't want to give him Math or language worksheets that he may not know how to do, because than he would feel embarrassed. So like I said, we colored for a while. I love coloring. Then he asked to do homeworks like the other kids were doing. Sooo, i gave him some basic counting sheets and he got so into it. Then I gave him a packet that has a page for each number, 1-10...and you practice writing the numbers, etc. He was so diligent working on this packet. At like 6pm, the kids are aloud to play with the jump-rope or the ball...but Fabian continued working. I kind of wanted to take him home with me. I hope he comes back next Monday..it was his first time at Los Angelitos, and he seemed to like it, but the kids can only come if their parents let them/take them.

La Union (where I went yesterday) was also really good. A TON of kids came...like 25, and I mostly worked with this little girl who is learning English in school. She was super into it and asked me to write out fill-in-the-blank sentences for her, preposition practice, vocab words, etc. She's really smart and really dedicated. And she specifically comes to La Union so she can get help with her English (because all the volunteers speak English).

Last night after we got back from the Villa, I went out with some of the Volunteers. All of them are doing like internships at the LIFE office...but are all pretty nice. It was 2 French girls, this Estonian dude, Mart..., and then two Brits--a chick from Manchester and a dude from Nottingham. Mart (the Estonian) is really interesting. He had this high profile job in Estonia working in PR..he was in like senior management or something, and he decided he wasn't super happy with the work he was doing, even though he was making bank, so he peaced out and applied to this European Scholarship program to come live in Argentina for a year working at LIFE. CRAZY. He says when he goes back he wants to start an NGO that works with integrating Russian immigrants into Estonian society. He said that the population in Estonia is 30% Russian immigrants....and the state is doing nothing to integrate them. So yeah...very interesting. Also..Estonian is one of the weirdest languages I've ever come across.

Tomorrow, I'll be going to LIFE again...probs to Laferrere (another Villa...different from Ciudad Oculta)...and then at night, I am going to have dinner with my host sisters! I'm pumped. They are the best.

Spring is starting here in Argentina...so lovely. All week it's been high 60s and low 70s. ABsolutely gorgeous.