"There's a dog swinging on a swingset!"

Well, today was officially the first day that I went to LIFE and left feeling a little bit down. There were soooo many kids today, and it was incredibly hard to give everyone the attention they needed with the 6 volunteers we had. And then there was this one girl who was probably around 8 years old or so and didn't know how to read or even write numbers. I did a math worksheet with her which took sooo long because she just didn't understand simple things, like 1+5 or even 0+1. I explained to her over and over that "nada mas el numero es SIEMPRE el numero que tenemos. Por ejemplo, si tenemos 8 y necesitamos añadir nada, que tenemos? 8!" (Nothing plus the number is ALWAYS the number that we have. For example, if we have 8 and we need to add nothing, what do we have? 8!) I explained this to her about 15 times, using my hand closed to signify 0 and using my other hand for the numbers. She simply didn't get it. Then I explained "cuando tenemos cualquier numero mas 1, la respuesta siempre sera el siguiente numero." (Any time we have a number plus 1, the answer is always going to be the following number.) She could not understand. And even if she did know the answer, she didn't know how the number was written. I don't know...maybe she has a learning disability but it didn't appear so to me...it only appeared to me that she hasn't been given enough attention and now she's too far behind to understand.
The place was bouncing off the walls with children and we didn't have enough supplies. Also the kids lose interest so quickly in things that it's really hard to get them to sit down and do an entire worksheet. I think that I want to ask to be a coordinator not this coming week, but the week after, because I think having an actual lesson plan would make everything go much smoother. If the kids can't pick whether they want to do math, color, or learn english, then they won't be as crazy. Like if I say, "Today we are going to learn about the 4 seasons," then they can't choose something else and they won't go nuts.
Yesterday was much better. It was Ryan's last day, which was incredibly sad, but it was still a great day. The kids were well-behaved and they were focused. I prefer El Ejercito (one of the comedores where we work) over the one I went to today. But I'm going to keep going to La Unión every Friday in order to keep consistency with the kids. We saw a dog on a swing set on our way there. Probably the funniest thing I ever saw. Someone was pushing it. That day, I jump roped and played soccer too. Ryan was really sad to leave, and I was sad it was his last day too. At least I will have this weekend with him in Mar del Plata. Ryan was one of the first people I befriended here and I went on basically all my trips with him, so I will miss him greatly.
Tonight is Cosi's birthday celebration, so I am going to dinner with her and her friends at Inka, the Peruvian restaurant. Very delicious. Then they are going to a boliche afterwards, but I'm not going because I have to be up early tomorrow to leave for Mardel and also because I don't want to spend my money.
Yesterday I discovered that one of my professors lives on the same block as me! I happened to see him as I was closing the door of my apartment building, and we exchanged numbers, and he told me about this cool bar a few blocks down where a lot of literary people like to hang out. We are going to go out for a drink sometime next week and discuss politics and literature. I'm excited because he was a really good teacher, and I really enjoyed his class. I invited Sara to come along.
The US embassy decided to give LIFE some supplies and shoes because they were impressed with what they saw on Tuesday. Hopefully they actually come through with that because as I see it, it's a struggle everyday to have what we need for the kids.
Oh, Tuesday I went to Uruguay with Kate. We didn't even go to the historical part of Colonia, just the artesan shop and bought gifts for people. We also drank a lot of sangria. It was a good day and now I can stay here another 90 days.
Anyway, that's all for now. More to come after Mardel!

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