Las Niñas

I completed my first week at the Villa. It was fun, scary, interesting, and discouraging at the same time. Monday and Tuesday I visited several of the casitas to meet the girls and just hang out. I played on the outside equipment, colored, and sort of chatted with some of the older girls. To be honest, those first two days were a little boring and discouraging, because we couldn't communicate well enough to "get to know each other" verbally. Moreover, one of the girls was upset about her family, and I could only partly understand what she was saying and I certainly couldn't offer effective words of comfort. I decided I definitely need to come armed with an activity or a plan for the day, or else it's too easy to get lost.

So Wednesday, I cooked pizza with the older girls. We made individual pizzas with store-bought crust, tomatoes, onions, and oregano. It was really fun! It was a concrete activity, and it encouraged conversation. One of the most interesting things was their reaction to the olive oil I brought to flavor the pizza crust--for the most part, they hated it! They said it was too strong, and they prefered regular vegetable oil. But, on the other hand, most of them did end up liking onions on their pizza, even though they had never done that before and thought it was strange. I told them that putting ketchup on their pizza was strange, so we were even!

Thursday was more mostly hanging out with the girls, but it was still better than Monday and Tuesday. I definitely felt like even after just a couple days, I understood them better and could communicate better. Next week I want to create for myself a schedule of which casita I visit when, because the hardest part is remembering who is who, who lives where, and trying to hang out with each girl approximately equally. The adventure continues!