July 16, 2009

My kids are really touching a soft spot in my heart. I feel like I'm starting to experience things from their perspective when I'm around them, and I should carry that perspective outside of my volunteering as well. There's a room that still needs to be remodeled, but we go in there anyways to have more space for running around. In the corner, there are two huge empty metal cylindrical things, of whose purpose I am most unaware, but the kids love to go behind them and wait for me to realize they're there, and then I tap the sides and make noises and chase them around it. They just giggle and scream and run all around and it makes me SO freaking happy. I've also started picking them up and making weird noses like an airplane while "flying" them around. They all push each other out of the way to try to get the next turn, and they'll stick my hands under their armpits to let me know they want a turn. After picking up ten kids in row I get prettttty exhausted, and that's when it gets rough, because they will force my hands around them and not budge. Yet I knowingly put myself in that situation every time because they love it so much. There was a long period today when I had their rapt attention - this is very rare. It was after a few rounds of ring around the rosie, which still thrills them all. They were just standing there staring at me as if waiting for a command. So I started giving random commands like "sit down" "stand up" "jump on one foot" "fly like an airplane" "run", and just alternated amongst all of these for awhile. Then we did bolo this bolo that. I just made up that name for it. Basically, you say bolo as a command for "speak", so I would go through all the body parts of "bolo eyes", "bolo shoulders" etc. I try to make it interesting and shake my shoulders and wiggle my ears and such. A lot of keeping their attention is dependent upon the tone of voice you use. I actually end up exerting so much energy just talking and moving with so much extra enthusiasm. It's totally worth it though when I get their enthusiastic responses. Today, the kids got a huge kick out of this whole act I put on of trying to touch a salamander. It was scurrying across the crack between the wall and the ceiling, and I was jumping up and down to try and touch it, and when I jumped up it would move a little. Every time it moved they all squealed and shrieked and cracked up. It was absolutely hilarious. Then they started pulling around this little bench for me to stand on when the salamander got smart and inched up higher. This went on for a very long time and eventually I just had to stop on my own accord.

Perhaps the greatest frustration for me is when they hit each other. I can say "ruko" firmly, which is "stop", or just "nahee" which is "no", but they still don't really listen to me. The teachers sort of encourage hitting, and smack the kids in the face if they do something wrong. It doesn't seem like a very painful smack, but it still freaks me out. And it's not like I can tell the teacher "don't do that". I've heard from the volunteers at the schools that kids get smacked and whipped all the time. It's definitely disconcerting.

A few older kids have been coming by, ranging from ages 8 to 12, and they know more conversational English, so that's a different sort of experience for me. An 8 year old boy drew me this really cute picture, and then him and this other girl came up to me and said "Ma'am, you are very beautiful". I get that a lot from the older kids, and they all call me "ma'am". I've had flocks of ten come over after school just to say hello and stare at me. I guess these sort of situations would usually be considered awkward, but I think it's really cute and amusing. I make a point to ask everyone their name and repeat it after they tell me, even though I worry I'm messing up the pronunciation half the time. One girl invited me over to her house today. A week ago, I was invited by another couple of girls for tea at their house, which was quite nice.

I love how well I know most of the kids at my day care now, and all their individual personalities. Gun gun (pronounced goon goon) is this adorable pudgy little girl who loves picking up after everyone, putting everything (especially chalk) into her mouth, and holding hands with me while we dance. She's also a huge fan of ring around the rosie and when she wants to play she yells "ringa ringa". Ayush is this quirky little boy whose really shy half of the time and really outspoken the other half. He likes to puff up his cheeks and then push the air out and make weird sounds - he'll just sit around doing that for awhile. He holds my hand and sits in my lap a lot. Nitu is a super intelligent child who can pick up on things in a snap. We've developed this game together in which he shouts at me "bato!" (which is sit) and points to a little bench. I sit on the end and pretend to not want to move, and then he picks up the other end and I fall off. This involves pretending as though he can actually lift me, when really I'm just standing up a bit and falling over. This game is a tricky one to get out of though, because once we start playing, I'll have to sit down and fall off a good ten times before he's satisfied. Vonsoo is a precious, doll-like girl who cries at random times, but has the sweetest personality. When she cries I hold her on my lap and try to think of things to distract her. The simplest things make her happy - like the other day I would hold her hands and she would stand up on a chair and then come back down and we'd repeat this many a time. She also likes when I toss her a ball, and she won't catch it on purpose, and then giggle while holding her hands to her face. Ahh she melts my heart this girl. These four are the regulars who I've gotten to know the best, and they're the youngest, not even three yet. I'll be giving more personality profiles on the other kids later.