"When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude"

  I sat down yesterday, after a bad day, and began writing in response to this quote... A lengthy page filled with my thoughts on how little we take with gratitude and how much we take for granted: the little differences between my life here and life at home, what the people live here without that we don't think twice about in our regular day-to-day lives, that people come in to our lives and sometimes we don't realize how interesting they are or how connected and attached you've gotten to them- until they're not there anymore. Though I could (and did) analyze all of this, I opted not to (yes- i deleted the entire thing) in hopes that this simply just triggers your thought process... makes you step back...

  Too often we get caught up in our routines and it's only a big change (whether a death, traveling, a change in job or where you're living, etc.) that makes us actually look around...

A trip to the dentist...

  A small cement building in the corner of the church yard, no air-conditioner or fans, no nice sitting area with magazines to keep you occupied, no secretary to keep things in order, no educational posters on cleaning teeth that hung on the wall or advertisements for toothpaste, no filing cabinet that held the paperwork in folders for each patient- in fact, no paperwork at all, no smell of toothpaste or cleaning products from keeping things sanitary... but a small sign that hung outside: "Denista".

  Every Monday will be dentist day at 2:00, where we'll bring kids from Elba Zamora to get their rotting teeth pulled and the remaining teeth 'cleaned'/taken care of at the local, well-known dentist from Granada.  To have dental work done here, is a luxury, for most people can not every afford a trip their entire lives.  This, of course, explains why people are not ashamed of the silver (or sometimes gold) metal that lines their two front teeth when they smile. So on Monday, we took six eager and excited children, ages 8-10 years old, to the dentist for the first time.  Though I didn't expect something like my dentist's office in Maine, I was still shocked at the sight of this little building and the filth that covered the floors and counters.  With two dentist chairs in one room, one small cabinet on wheels for the tools, and a dusty fan blowing the hot air around the small space, the dentist went to work on all six of the children.

  Before even looking in their mouths, the dentist filed each other kids in to the room to give them not one, not two, but three injections of Novocain in their mouths just in case he would need to pull some teeth later. They sat there for 15 min., letting the inside of their mouths, cheeks and lips become numb... laughing at each other as they tried to smile, speak and feel someone else probe at their face. Next, it was extraction and cleaning time... yikes! The dentist put on a pair of gloves and, from each kid, pulled the baby teeth that were turning black and put fillings on the other teeth with cavities... all without cleaning a single tooth, without changing his gloves or exchanging the used tools for newer, more sterile ones for the next child. And he spent no more than 15-20 min with each child, 'examining' their mouths and doing whatever 'needed' to be done, not explaining to them what was happening...

  What started off as an exciting trip to the dentist, quickly turned in to nervousness and tears as they watched each other walk out of the room with a piece of bloody gauze in their mouths, dried tears on their faces, with their heads down. I spent the afternoon holding each child, comforting them and telling them how brave they were, playing tic-tac-toe with them in the dirt to distract them from the lingering pain in their mouths and telling them stories from home.

  On our walk home, we gave each of the kids their own toothbrush and small tube of toothpaste, gave them a lesson on brushing their teeth and informing them on why this was so important. Thankfully, these small gifts, put smiles back on their faces...

Though some days I feel unmotivated to go to school, to deal with the chaos that each day brings, there isn't a day that goes by where I don't feel lucky to be here or appreciative for this wonderful adventure that I am living. Still, I get frustrated when I spend 45 minutes walking to school, only to find that classes have already been let out or that they'll be released in an hour, that the teachers never showed up or that I only have 1 out of 8 students who came to school... but I can always count on having these frustrations wiped away when I go to the community after school for reading group. 'Reading Group' is something that La Esperanza started doing in order to give children the opportunity to read outside the classroom. For two hours, every day, we bring books to the homes of some of the children who go to school at Elba Zamora.  For us volunteers, this gives us time to just hang out with the kids, play around and read books casually together, to meet the families and really become a little more connected to the community in which we work.  We have gotten rejected by some families saying 'we don't want the gringos coming to our house', but we also have a family who has really taken to us and makes us feel at home. This one family consists of 4 or 5 mothers, the grandmother and grandfather, one father and roughly 15 children... all living in 4 little shacks. When we arrive every day, we're greeted with 15 hugs and we're always given a refreshing drink and something to eat (which is huge since they have little money).  On top of that, we've been invited by them to visit their uncle's finca to collect mangos, avocado, lemons, oranges, bananas and coconut... and then this past Sunday they threw a going away party for one of the volunteers, in which they cooked so much food, bought a pinata filled with candy, they played music and we danced all day, they set up games that we played throughout the afternoon, and they sent us home with hand picked flowers. I feel lucky to be here, to be traveling, and feel even luckier that I have had the chance to meet this incredibly kind family who has really taken us in for it has given me a chance to really be part of, and see, this culture and a great opportunity to become close to some of the locals.

Clase de Arte

I finally have the art program up and running at my school; teaching the 2nd and 3rd graders every Friday and the 4th, 5th and 6th graders every Wednesday.  Though they know the schedule, they ask every day if they can have art and get extremely excited when the day finally comes that I say yes. For them, it's a break from the boring classes they are usually sitting in, something challenging but fun for them and a time to play with new, fun materials.

Last week, each student in my 4th, 5th and 6th grade class got a large sheet of paper with a circle drawn in a random spot on each piece (that I had put there), in which they needed to transform this in to something larger, incorporate it in to some realistic or abstract painting. I wanted to challenge their creativity, to get them to use their imagination. The only rule I had for them: no paintings of flowers or suns (because these are the only things they ever draw if they get their hands crayons or colored pencils). I went to class with two examples, an abstract drawing and a drawing of a frog in which i made the circle in to part of a design on the frogs back. I thought that this would give them a jumping off point to go in two different directions... but after explaining the exercise, I was given 25 blank stares. An art project that I thought may be a simple one, definitely wasn't. These 10-16 year were working hard, excited to be painting and so proud once they had finished... but their works of art looked like those of a 1st grader. Never before had I realized so much how these fine motor skills are something learned, something that takes practice in order to perfect, that creativity is something that develops with stimulation to that part of the brain. 

  I learned a lot about some of the children in terms of where their imagination went and how that transfered to their painting.  I'm realizing, through doing this art program, that Art Therapy may be what I pursue...