The penniless peasant & Open Veins of Latin America

The belly dancer came on Friday, but she was late. I was waiting for her while Dorothy read to the kids. When she finally arrived, the kids were excited. At one point she let the kids dance on their own, and they had a lot of fun. I left after story time because there wasnt anything to do at the library. On Sunday Nancy, Alex, and me took the Spears out to eat because they were leaving to Alaska for three weeks.
On Monday, they showed us how to clean the pool and water their plants. We had the magicians come to Chesterfield. They had a story about a powerful sultan and a penniless peasant where they used kids to play the characters. The kid that was the peasant was supposed to say "I have a big heart" when they tapped his shoulder. At the end of the show, they found out he had had a heart transplant and it was his first time coming back to story time. They sent him an award the week after, but he hasn’t come back yet. After story time in Chesterfield, we went to Harvest Daycare. As soon as we got there, one of the kids started talking to us. He said he was from Guatemala, and when he introduced himself he proudly included his two last names just like we do in Latin America. There were 13-15 3 year olds in the room. Apparently the boy from Guatemala had taught the other kids new words like "awesome" and "cool". They all repeated those words every time something happened in the stories we read. Dorothy dropped me off at Walmart, where I met Nancy and Ben. We wrote prices for different products that Nancy needed for her recipe book. Then we shopped for groceries.
On Tuesday, I saw Noemi and Josue again! They were still shy but they liked the magic show. Noemi even volunteered for a magic trick. Their dad is the pastor for a Spanish Baptist church. He said they are building an actual church, since they've been borrowing another place. And with that excuse, he asked me if I could watch out for his kids while he went to the construction site for some materials that had arrived. I kindly reminded him that he wasn't allowed to drop his kids off and leave and that he had to stay until the program ended, but I told him that it was ok if he came back as soon as possible. I noticed Noemi looking for her dad a little scared, but she was quickly entertained with the magic tricks. Their dad came back after 30 minutes, but the program ran longer than expected and was still going when he got back. He was getting impatient and ended up leaving and making my day pretty sad. He could have waited ten more minutes, I feel story time could be very beneficial for the kids; they were starting to like it and to open up. I wished it could be different for them, maybe if their dad valued more that time. I was somewhat upset for the rest of the day and on top of that when we dropped by the Pageland Library, the man was on one of the computers. I don't necessarily like to judge people, but he could have stayed instead of taking the kids out of story time. When I see Josue and Noemi, I remember exactly how it felt to be the kid that didn't speak English. "Como mosca en leche" you'd say in Spanish, and being in the position that I am right now, I'd do anything to make them feel like they belong. Sometimes I feel like I personally have a stake in whatever happens to them, and usually I need to hold back on wanting to overprotect them.

"Latin American children obstinately continue getting born, claiming their natural right to a place in the sun in these magnificent lands which could give to all what is now denied to almost all."
- "Open Veins of Latin America" Eduardo Galeano

On Wednesday, I was a First Steps working on the resource directory. I was very distracted but got to finish most of the work. I called a lot of different agencies; some people thought I was weird, asking all these questions. They wanted to know who I was, so I'd repeat the long story cut short about being a Duke intern, and finally they'd answer a simple question or give me a fax number. Charlotte was visiting, so all the interns in Chesterfield went to eat lunch together. I didn't feel too good after lunch. I kept thinking about the nacho cheese they put on hot dogs from concession stands, the grease, and the heat, all together making me feel like puking. Nancy, Ben, and I went to the pool after work.

Thursday was an interesting day and deserves a whole new post.

Magic, belly dancing, and pleasant surprises...

"Sin brújula, sin tiempo, sin agenda
Inspirado por las leyendas, por historias empaquetadas en lata
Por los cuentos que la luna relata, aprendí a caminar sin mapa
A irme de caminata
Sin comodidades, sin lujos
Protegido por los santos y los brujos."
- "Pa'l Norte" Calle 13 & Orishas

On the second day of the Summer Reading Program, my supervisor's father in law passed away. As soon as she got to the library, they called her to tell her the news, and she had to leave. I got the library at 9:15am to find out that I had to run the program for the rest of the week since Dorothy would be out until Monday.

Drusilla, my other supervisor, drove me to Pageland, the watermelon capital of the world, where we have story time on Tuesdays. We have story time at a fellowship hall across the street because the library is so small all the kids won’t fit. I set up the room and practiced the story I had to read. Dorothy had selected 5 books on quilts, because the activity of the day was to make a quilt with the kids. One of the books talked about a slave girl who made quilts and as they sold her family away, her quilt tradition was passed down to her kids and grandkids. When Dorothy saw it, she quickly rejected the idea and looked for another book, explaining slavery to the kids didn't seem like a good thing to do. I spaced out for a minute, asking how could a place like Cheraw, SC could be so afraid of telling kids what slavery was. And still I thought that it is cruel to expose a kid to that, how do you do it? But how can you keep them from it? She chose another book at the end, which was also the one I read on Tuesday; I was not ready for the whole slavery dilemma.

Dorothy's mother in law had let us use one of her quilts, which I put out for the kids to see. Fifteen minutes before story time, the SouthPoint kids came. They were a group of 15-20 3 and 4 year olds. The teacher seemed to be very strict with them. She told them to sit quietly, to not move, or talk, or laugh. I couldn't understand how she could expect them to be that quiet for 15 minutes, doing absolutely nothing. I began to talk to them because I was really bored and the teacher seemed annoyed at my questions when I tried to make conversation with her. They were outspoken and excited. I made them get up to touch the quilt, while their teacher almost had a heart attack, but they sat back down eventually.

More kids began to get there, when we had around 60, I began the story. I made up half of it because the book was longer than the kids' attention span. They listened quietly. I looked up a couple of times and only saw hundreds of eyes focused on the pictures of the book I held in my hands. I noticed I was reading/talking pretty fast; I knew it because it happens every time I get nervous. When the story ended, we distributed the paint to make stamps on pieces of fabric that would later become a quilt. It was messy and fun; though the SouthPoint teachers only let their kids do one stamp per piece of fabric per child. Some of the kids put so much paint on their stamps that we had to wait hours for them to get dry.

After story time in Pageland ended, Drusilla took me back to Chesterfield. I went on the computer and wasted the afternoon watching youtube videos until it was time to go. I would have tried to go to First Steps, but Shannon was already gone by the time I got back, and there wasn't anything for the Library that I needed to do.

Because I was supposed to go to First Steps on Wednesday and Thursday, Drusilla called Karen and told her about Dorothy's family emergency, meaning that I would stay at the library the whole week. I was happy I didn't need to dress up for the rest of the week since I wasn't working at the office. On Wednesday, Dorothy had scheduled a clown and magician to come to the Jefferson Library. Jefferson is very small, their library is in a white house with three rooms that only opens two days a week. Jennifer, the only other librarian besides Dorothy who has kids, drove me to Jefferson. The clown was almost late and we were nervous when it was about 10:55 and she still wasn't there. The clown ended up being two ladies, Nana Belle, a senior lady, and Joy, her granddaughter. Their performance was good and the kids enjoyed it. They did magic tricks, jokes, and got the kids dancing. We left once they finished and went back to Chesterfield. I walked over to First Steps and worked on the readiness checklist that Karen wanted to do. I read all of the South Carolina Early Learning Standards and other information on how to prepare kids for school. I only had two or three hours to do that, and I wished I had had more time.

Nothing exciting happened that day at the house. My cooking is getting better I guess, and I did math for while. I missed Dorothy, especially because it was the first week of Summer Reading. On Thursday the clown came back, this time to the McBee library, which is in the Railroad Museum. The show was the same as the one from the day before, less funny and less entertaining this time. Jennifer came with me to McBee, but after the show we went back to Chesterfield. There, I thought I'd have time to go the First Steps, but Drusilla had all the pieces of fabric from Pageland that were dry. We spent over an hour attaching them to each other with ribbons of extremely annoying colors. The quilt turned out good, though I doubt any kid recognized the piece of fabric they had stamped. Then, we put together the Chesterfield quilt. My back was hurting from sitting on the floor looking down on the quilt. I didn't get to go to First Steps, which was bad because I had a lot of work to do.

I was glad Jennifer got the clown to come to Cheraw on Friday because they had a large crowd. There were a couple of kids who didn't want to stay for the show because they were scared. And the show was the same as before, 30 minutes longer, but the same.

I worked on the readiness handbook for Karen on Sunday night because we had scheduled a meeting with people from the school district for Thursday, so I had to have a draft by then. I emailed it to her that night, and got her response of Tuesday morning; she couldn’t open the file.

On Monday morning, Dorothy came back! I was happy to see her, but I wasn't sure what to say. We talked about her family and how everyone was doing and how father's day had been for them. Her daughter Stephany was there too. She's always really happy to see me, and she helps me with all I have to do. We didn't have story time because Drusilla's friend, Gypsy, was coming to do belly dancing for the kids. She came earlier than the clown had, which was relieving for me because I didn't want her to be late for story time. She performed well, but a lot of the librarians didn't like it because it was short and lacked dancing moves. I thought it was ok for a library program, since parents wouldn't usually take their kids to see a belly dancer (maybe?). Dorothy was surprised to see the quilts put together, and she liked them. Later on that day we went to Harvest daycare to read to the kids. Dorothy read a book that I fell in love with called "I ain't gonna paint no more". We had the kids stamp pieces of fabric so they could make a quilt.

The next day we went to Pageland to the fellowship hall. Stephany had got braces the day before so she was showing them off to her friends. We had around 60 kids to come see the belly dancer. This time, she was a different girl because Gypsy couldn't make it. She was great with the kids and made them dance a lot. She played a song by Tarkan that reminded of when I was little and took belly dancing classes because we would always dance to that song.

In the middle of her dancing performance something unexpected happened. Two Latino kids came in the fellowship hall with their daddy! Noemi, the older girl sat down next to Stephany and her friend. Josue was shy and didn't even want to sit down with the other kids. I watched them from far away; I wasn't sure what to do because I sensed how nervous the family was about being there. Once the belly dancer left, the kids got to play with hula hoops. Noemi got one, but she was too old to be playing with them and sat bored in the middle of the room; Josue wouldn't let go of his dad. I was feeling crowded because all the kids were playing around me, so I moved away, but ran into the Latino family. My Spanish came out instantly. When I saw Josue holding on to his dad, I had to hold back my tears. I grabbed his little hands, pulled him a little away from his dad, and leaned down to talk to him. I asked him to come play with me, little by little he let go of his dad, holding my hand tightly. I found a hula hoop for him and showed him how to do it. I brought him next to his sister, and she helped him. I stepped back and watched him for a while. The other kids were getting bored, and some were leaving so I had to pick up the hoops they were using. I glanced back to Josue and saw him laughing when his dad joked with him. I talked to them before they left and told them to come back the next week. They were relieved to speak Spanish to me, more relaxed and comfortable and so was I. Dorothy and I went back to Chesterfield, I prepared the reading certificates for the kids, 400 copies that I had to cut and sign.

Today, I finally went to First Steps. We had a staff meeting, where Karen told me we were not doing the readiness handbook because it was going to take too long, meaning that all the work I did for it was pointless. I wasn't mad, but I didn't understand what Karen wanted me to do since I had to spend all week at the library the week before. In any case, she said I was to work on the resource directory for the rest of the summer, which I am about to finish. I spent all day calling agencies to confirm phone numbers, addresses and other details about their services. A couple of rehab centers were trying to get me to register for their programs even when I told them the information was not for me. Other people were annoyed at my questions. Then, others wanted to talk forever.

Nancy, Stormi, Ben, and I went to the Southern Belle for lunch. When we came back to the house we went to Larry's pool across the street. We had good food and Alex Cortese played guitar and sang in Portuguese.

Dorothy was trying to get the belly dancer from Tuesday to come out again tomorrow for the Cheraw library, if she doesn't come, we'll have to read a story instead. Also, I've seen roaches everywhere in the house. I'm less scared of them now, but I feel them everywhere, when I sleep, when I eat, when I shower. I can't stop thinking about them and I keep finding them, now dead because I put out some poison. Does it make me a bad person to kill roaches?

Killing a roach

I was doing my work like I should. Sitting down on the kitchen table working on a Math 32 problem. It was looking at me, walking fast with all of its little, disgusting legs. It stopped right in front of me, as if it was trying to tell me something. By that time I was already screaming all over the kitchen. This was the biggest roach I've ever seen, and it was flying everywhere!
I couldn't find anything to kill it with, plus I've never had to kill a roach before. I ran in circles while it was flying around. I found a bucket that I used to hit it with but it was moving too fast; I finally got it under the bucket and stepped on top of it. I thought that would be enough, so I went away.
Since I've never killed a roach before, I felt a little bad so I went back to look at it. Obviously, it wasn't there. It was half dead, but it managed to move all the way to the laundry room. I didn't feel like killing it again, so I watched it for two seconds and went downstairs.
I waited till Nancy wanted to come back upstairs and we looked for the roach. It was upside down still in the laundry room. Its legs were moving slowly now. I took the bucket and stepped on top of it. Killing a roach takes a lot of effort. I don't think I'll be doing that ever again.

First Day of Summer Reading!!

Today was the first day of the Summer Reading Program. I hate being early because then I don't have many things to do. I met Stephanie, Dorothy's daughter. She looked younger than I imagined. She was always smiling, she reminded me of Pearl in the Scarlet Letter. We set up the room for the kids and I got to take some pictures for the Library's website. When the kids were there, time went by really fast! I made a friend, Tyler, he is going to turn 4 July 1st. After the kids left, we cleaned up. Since I didn't have anything else to do, I went by First Steps to work on the Resource Directory. I stopped by Subway to get lunch. I watched the news, Obama wants to reduce the cost of medical school. Go Obama! I walked back to First Steps. I like taking a long time while Im walking because I can feel the sun. I like the warmth. The only part about the walk that I don't like is that I feel everyone is staring at me, since I am the only person walking. I had a lemonade that I felt like throwing away because it was so sweet. The water in Subway never comes out and it drives me crazy. hen I got back to the office, I saw Shannon and we talked for a little. Then I worked on the Resource Directory. I always think of the people that will be using it once its done. I imagine Wanda or LaNerika opening the directory to find a phone number. I wonder how effective it would be. I read many different websites and felt that my work was becoming slower and slower. I struggled to keep focus today because I hardly saw any progress. Karen came by to see how I was doing. She gave me more information to work on the parents checklist that Im supposed to be making. I stopped to think for a while and then started work again. I wished I could read the news, but I didn't want to stop working. I want to finish this project quickly. It was 4 and Nacy and Stormi came to pick me up. When we got back Ben, Alex and Cody were shooting with some rifle/gun, whatever it was. It scares me, not so much any more, I think its because it didn't look real. I went upstairs and I read for two hours. I wrote two letters and ate dinner that Ben cooked. For the past three hours I have been trying to make beans. They don't seem to like me. I can't stop thinking about the roaches and every time I think about them I itch and I feel them around me even if they're not there.

I was too early for our staff meeting on Thursday. I was able to read Obama's speech to the Middle East, this is a fascinating topic. It seemed like there were lots of good news that day. Also New Hampshire became the sixth state to approve gay marriage. I'm not sure why I feel like I need to write about the news when I blog, everyone can read the news on their own. It just surprises me how connected we all are, no matter how far we live. Our staff meeting at First Steps was long. I explined what I was doing with the resource directory and now the parent's checklist. I worked all day. I stayed longer that everyone else in the office. It rained a lot.

Like I said, everyone was getting sick. I had Friday off because my supervisor was sick. I wasted the whole day. I read the Kite Runner and did math for hours. I've been practicing my cooking, not without calling my mom four times in 20 minutes.

Saturday we went to Marion and I got to see the other scholars staying there. They're house seems to be in better condition, but I missed Cheraw. Don was there and we went to Ben's graduation party, he's an incoming scholar that I only saw a couple of times during Finalist Weekend. The food was great and then we stayed at the Marion house for a while. We talked while David O practiced Spanish with Rosetta Stone. According to Rosetta Stone, my accent in Spanish is not good enough, so I discovered when David asked me to pronounce a word he kept getting wrong; I too got it wrong. Later that evening we went to Myrtle Beach to eat. I'm glad we did some bonding with the Marion group.

Sunday I finished the Kite Runner. I don't like how I feel when I finish a book, I feel empty. Im going to start another one tomorrow. I made Colombian beans, they were really good. In honor to Michelle Im listening to bachata. Which reminded me that I am desperate to go dancing.

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Yesterday in the library, I read a lot of the news from around the world. I even read "country profiles" on the BBC website on Haiti, Colombia, and Jamaica. I went through maybe 200-300 years of political, social, and cultural history of those countries. I learned about their leaders, dictators, and revolutionaries. I tried to figure out where each country went wrong, but I only have the background in Colombian history to decide that we went wrong when the conservative and liberal parties were formed in the mid1800s. Not that times were better before this happened, but this was the most significant event that seemed to cause the decline in Colombia's slow progress. Anyway, my online trips back in time and around the world, the western hemisphere I should say, were sharply cut by a wave of patrons dropping off children's books, which I had to shelve. I put these in order and stopped for lunch. I went back to the Chesterfield Library with Drusilla, I was at Pageland in the morning. Drusilla told me a lot of stories on the way back, so I was daydreaming most of the trip.But I was listening, she talked about her dogs and her HIV cat, he doesn't really have HIV but the equivalent for cats; its goign to live, no worries.
When I got back to Chesterfield, I had to shelve ALL of the children's books there! I got through letters A, B, C, and D. It took me 2 hours, and then some kid pulled out a book from the A section, and when he found out he didn't want it he put it in the F section! Some work just goes unacknowledged. Nothing interesting happened for the rest of the day, not that I can remember. Oh, I know, I began studying math! I noticed for the past 3 years, I had forgot how much I really like math.
Today I spent most of my day listening to my ipod and writing on the computer. I had a meeting early in the morning with the early childhood director from the school district so I can start working on a checklist for parents to ...blah, blah....too long to write. Moving on, Ben, Nancy, Stormi, Davis, and our new facebook friend Hannah, oh and me, went to the Southern Belle restaurant. It was delicious, and me and Nancy decided today that we are like a family. I was the last one at the office today, but I felt like working, and I have A LOT of work ahead of me.
After work, Ross, Ben, Nancy, and me went to the park to play soccer. Me and Nancy ran to the park, I was exhausted by the time we got there, and I kept getting cold even though it was about 80 degrees outside. I think my body was protesting such an unexpected workout; it went through a lot of confusion, going from sweaty to cold to shivery. Then we played frisbee and cutting my nails made a huge difference on my catching and throwing. Nancy has been teaching me all kinds of sports. Now, I'm learning how to juggle the soccer ball with my feet. Nancy can do it for about 140 consecutive times. I'm really excited, and I've never been too excited about soccer.
I ate dinner, took a shower, reviewed math, answered all my facebook messages, and blogged, all before 1AM! I hope the workout today will let me get up tomorrow morning. And everyone is getting sick! Obama got to the Middle East today. I planned to read the news, but I have too much to do at First Steps to have any time to read.
Cheraw is quiet. And I found a roach in my closet.

Short Update

Unfortunately, there are no fancy pictures to go with this post. I had a long week. I got to travel around the county with one of my three supervisors, Dorothy. We did a little bonding. We went out to eat really good food from a town in the southern part of Chesterfield County called McBee. We had peach enchiladas for dessert. Out of all places, I would've never though McBee, SC could have the word "enchilada" in any of their dishes, but apparently it is part of the food culture here. I don't even know what an enchilada is! But the dessert was good, it had like a bread-tasting wrap with a peach filling. My writing doesn't do it justice, but it was delicious. I saw a lot of Latinos working at the restaurant and they stared at me hard!! I have this interesting feeling towards them because they seem so happy and relieved to see someone like them, and I feel like I must do something... to help? Maybe to help them, but more to acknowledge, almost like saying "I understand," " I see you," " I know you." They look at me and they search for those words, but how do I tell them that I do acknowledge them? I end up feeling so confused.
We had $20 for lunch, which seemed to be more than enough, since we got to eat dessert and everything. The whole excursion to this restaurant (I can't remember its name) reminded me of how when I was little I used to go buy groceries with my cousin, and we would count the money to make sure we'll have enough change to buy candy. Dorothy is a nice lady; she is a little quiet like me, but that's because she has a lot in her mind (Is that line from a movie?). When I talk to her I always think she's younger, like a little girl. She has that kind of energy I guess. On our way back, we stopped at a lake, and she told me all about her family's trips to the lake. The lanscapes were so pretty and peaceful!
Storytime is always busy. The kids get to dance a little, sing, and laugh. There are usually around 15 kids in story time. My favorite part is at the end of the story when everything makes sense to the kids and they laugh because they understood. There is a chance that I might get to teach them a little Spanish.
Back at the office, time goes by quickly because I just call places to confirm information. I had a lot of trouble with AA. I ended up dialing the wrong number and asking for information on AA; I'm sure the person that answered thought I must be insane, so "soft-spoken" asking about AA. I still haven't got in contact with a person that would give me the information.
So after the quick update from last week... Today! I met a man, James, who works with the men who are in jail but do community service, and he thought I was white! I'm not sure how he thought that, but then he said he knew me from somewhere and he took a long time to try and remember from where. He spoke to Dorothy and I didn't understand a word they said to each other; those are the times I feel most foreign. Me and Dorothy spent all day together working on the summer reading program gift bags and crafts. We talk a lot now.
Nancy and Stormi came to have lunch with me today, pleasant surprise.
....will continue tomorrow...