Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Day 9 in Oaxaca: Field work at CORAL and Spanish Class
Well its day nine in Oaxaca and I would definitely have to say that it was the greatest day of my life! So I woke up for desayuno (breakfast) at eight thirty a.m to some tasty pancakes, cantelope, and yogurt. It was delicious as always and I can't wait for my host mom to teach my some of the tricks for cooking Oaxacan dishes. After breakfast me and my friend Ashwini took the bus and then motor taxi to CORAL. I must say that I'm proud of myself because I overcame my shyness today and spoke Spanish to the staff and children. My Spanish turned out perfectly and I didn't mess up too much with my verbs and tenses today while speaking. At CORAL I'll admit the first three hours were boring because all I did was organize toys and type on excel what books CORAL had and organize those by category. However, around 12 p.m things got exciting because I got to sit and observe individual therapy sessions with the staff and child. The one child that stood out to me was a little boy named Luis Jesus. The reason he stood out to me was because he not only had a hearing impairment but he also was mentally disabled as well. When I sat in the therapy session with his mother and the staff member he was such a happy carefree little guy. I'll admit I was scared that he would get some type of anxiety around me since I'm not from Oaxaca but he was fascinated by me. He was touching my hair and smiling every time I cheered him for building a mini tower. In the end he did cry because he didn't want to go home with his mom and he wanted to continue playing with me. I can't wait to see him tomorrow so we can bond more. Another thing I enjoyed today at CORAL was the group therapy session with luis, brenda, and alfredo. During this session the staff member instructed me Ashwini to build a house using sticks, glue, and confetti. I'll admit Ashwini's house came out much more organized than mine but I found the activity fun because it reminded me of when I was in first grade. I loved crafts and I always loved getting messy while making stuff cause I knew that meant I put in a lot of hard-work building the piece.
After CORAL me and Ashwini rushed to meet up with our group because we thought we were going to be late for Spanish class. We all ended up making it in time and the great thing was the staff at Amigos del Sol didn't get upset or anything what a relief! During Spanish class I couldn't help but feel proud and anxious to know what I would be learning next. I was proud that I answered alot of questions better than I did the first day and with fewer mistakes! I was also anxious to know what's next so that I don't mix up my tenses or verbs. My teacher Estaban is awsome and I wish I had a teacher like him in high school because the language teachers in my high school never really cared about the class. It was disappointing because in high school I wanted to learn italian but I had to teach myself since my teacher was aloof and disorganized. Overall, today was amazing and I can't wait to see what tomorrow is going to bring!

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