After one week living in the Villa and getting to know all of the children, mamas, and tías, I am becoming acclimated to the daily routine. After morning spiritual reflection and prayer, the children who go to school in the afternoon stay in the Villa and perform chores, such as watering the many plants in the Villa, cleaning their respective houses, and washing their clothes. Other children attend various workshops, such as musical training, arts and crafts, and academic tutoring. Mornings are relatively peaceful and afford me the opportunity to interact with the children on an individual basis.
Thursday morning I relived my days as a young child by playing in the sandbox with five of the young children who were on a break from their Montessori classes in the Villa. I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed building sandcastles and waterways to sculpted docks and pools. The children were particularly thrilled when we dug holes in all four corners of the sandbox and formed passageways leading to a large cavern in the center. They jumped up and down clapping as they filled the holes with water and saw the slow streams creaping towards the middle of the sandbox. Within several minutes we had most of the sandbox flooded, and the children began splashing each other with water.
While playing in a sandbox seems to be nothing more than a juvenile activity, it highlights something that I have noticed in my first week here; that is, these children receive great joy from simple things. Whether it is getting a piggy-back ride, singing songs, or jumping rope, the children of the Villa are happy to be outside and engaged in any activity. Instead of playing videogames (which they don´t have) or chatting on the Internet (which they do have), they prefer to partake in games with each other.
Friday afternoon, Zulma, the mama of La Casa San Francisco asked me to walk with her to take two of her boys to school. She told me that they ha been having a lot of difficulty recently, wanting to leave the Villa to live with their biological Mom in Santa Cruz. Zulma said that one of the brothers was leaving school midway through class and wandering around the neighborhood outside the Villa. They did not want to do homework and were not stimulated by any of the activities offered in the Villa. On our walk back to the Villa, Zulma asked me if I would talk to them and try to help. I agreed, and the last two days I have tried to slowly develop a closer relationship with the boys. The type of emotional burdens that these boys carry surely are not to be resolved quickly or easily, but I was encouraged this morning when I sat next to one of the boys in church and he put his arm around me and told me he was glad that I was there. Because the boys of the Villa have a lot fewer interactions with men than women, I hope that my presence will be a positive change for them. Basketball practices will start this week, and many of the older boys in the Villa have showed interest. Sports seem to be a great way to communicate with them, and I am hopeful that these practices will be a bonding experience for everyone.