L.I.F.E.

Hello all,
so yesterday was my first day with L.I.F.E. a volunteer organization that I joined here in Buenos Aires. I looked for quite awhile to find a place that would work out well with what I wanted to do. And my friend Nicole informed me that she had been working at L.I.F.E. for awhile and that she really liked it. I looked into it online and went to orientation the next day and Monday I volunteered for the first time. It was a whirlwind of emotions. L.I.F.E. is different then a lot of other organizations because you are literally volunteering in the villas (favelas, similar to City of God, basically the poorest neighborhoods in all of Buenos Aires). Usually there are about ten volunteers per area, but yesterday we were low on staff so only three of us went to Los Angelitos, where I will be a co-coordinator for the rest of my stay here. When we first got there a kid about fourteen or fifteen was sitting there, which is slightly older then the normal age groups we work with, but they are there for help on their homework. The coordinator asked him if he needed help with anything and he said that he didn´t, however then the ladies from the villa that run the soup kitchen said he was there for help. Apparently he was waiting for a man, George, who had been helping him for quite some time. None of us knew George, so he must have gone back to his home country. But this kid appeared so sad and lost without him. We all tried to help him with his matematicas, but it wasn´t going very well because George had a special way that he had taught him. Eventually he relaxed and began working with us and learning the way that we were attempting to teach him, which is the only way that we knew. Of course I haven´t done math in forever and have always hated it, so I was learning along with him. He broke my heart though because he looked so lost. But at the end of the day after working on some multiplication tables as well he asked if I was going to be there on Friday and thanked me for coming. I´ve never felt so honored in my entire life. The rest of the time when I was not with him though I was helping with the younger kids, they are all so adorable. But very pushy. Most of these kids get little to no attention at home which is why they come to our after school program. Plus it keeps them out of trouble, away from drugs and gangs. They did a lot of sheets of math or word searches, and then they get coloring pages after. Now that I´m co-coordinator though I have to start coming up with more stuff for them to do! Ahhhh!! Hopefully I will be a good co-coordinator... but I guess we will see!! Vamos a ver, vamos a ver...

Last night was a very comical dinner though. We were eating peaches with cream for dessert and Fran was making the cream, so we decided it would be funny to put salt on his peach. Oh boy was it hilarious! Fran kept saying ¨my peach tastes like salt? Why does everything taste like salt?¨ so we opened another can of peaches in hopes that those did not taste like salt, but Jose put even more salt on that peach then before.... it was hysterical! None of us could keep a straight face and we kept pretending that ours tasted like salt as well!! He eventually found out hours later, pobrecito! It was quite a laugh though.

Today is cloudy again, its supposed to be Argentina´s anual huge storm but there hasn´t been much rain. Although this weekend was magnificent! Saturday I went to frisbee practice, like usual. And it was so sunny out, I was roasting in shorts and a t-shirt. After that Katie and I went to the Recoleta Feria because we thought it was going to rain on Sunday. She bought a purse and I got my hair braid thinger, I don´t know what they´re called. Then Sunday ended up being nice as well so we wandered all though the parks which are closer to our house then we thought. We were going to paddle boat but were exhausted by the time we got to the lake to paddle boat in. So we just layed in the shade. I´m waiting for the sun to come back though, hopefully soon. It was being a tease coming for such a short period of time and then leaving again!

All for now though, off to class!! Blahhhh.... =)