A Land Far, Far Away...

I'm so relieved it's Friday, as I imagine people all over the world have been feeling at various times throughout today. It's been such a hard week. I know that since Oli left we have been partying less and having to work harder, but I feel now that the novelty of being here, in this strange country with its new sights, sounds, customs and all the rest of it, has worn off a bit. I remember the first couple of weeks being hit with the realisation that at long last I was in Argentina and I felt so incredibly lucky... now I feel more tired and fed up than excited. But then, it is Friday evening and it's been a long week. Tomorrow I will be rested and will hopefully be back on form. Until then, I will tell you a bit about last night and today.

After tea, Sile, Tim, Jonny and I went down to the Costanera (not Costa Negra as I had previously thought, although "Black Coast" does have an appealingly Goth quality to it) to see the Parade for Noche del Estudantina (or something like that . I haven't quite managed to get a handle on what the title is. Everyone mumbles the words a lot here and it's very hard to get a sense of what they are saying!). The parade is made up of hoardes of school children who are dressed in various sorts of Carnival get-up. From what I can gather, all the high schools in the city are represented. They wore lots of themed outfits, including boys in spats, girls dressed as princesses, a japanese-style drumming band and a whole load of boys dressed in red and black pirate outfits (I was quite tempted to ask them where they got their sparkly shoes). There were several contingents of girls dressed in plumed headdresses and with huge ostrich-feather tails attached to their minute skirts, dancing to samba music. It was very iconic of South American culture and looked like amazing fun. I was impressed with how long the girls danced for and how well they knew their moves - they must have been practising for ages. It certainly beats being in the chorus line for the school musical! Earlier on the bus home, I had seen what looked like a big red yeti at the back of the bus. When it got off, it transpired to be a girl carrying one of those plumed headdresses. I couldn't imagine what she was doing, and was quite bemused by the whole incident. Now it makes sense!

Everyone made it to work this morning, and the kids at Arcoiris were pretty calm. We ended up playing a new game that we bought for them the other day. It is an English vocabulary game and went down well, especially with the older kids. Sacarias, who is 12 and very interested in learning English, picked up a lot of the words very quickly and although he struggled a bit with the pronunciation (I think it must be the way I say things!) he did very well. I wonder if in 10 years he will be a fluent English speaker, maybe travelling abroad and doing really well for himself - I really hope so.

At one point Analia brought out a book of nursery rhymes and fairy stories in Spanish, and started reading Snow White ("Blancanieves") to us. When she got bored half way through, I picked it up and started reading it to the kids. It was such a nice experience for me. I used to really enjoy reading to my class last year, and it was incredibly challenging to do the same in Spanish. I had to make sure that I put all the accents and stresses in the right places, never mind checking my pronunciation! Children's stories are often the way that kids learn their native language, though, so it was an interesting insight for me as a non-native learning Spanish. Some of the rhymes and so on are the same as ones we know - there is one about a boy who kisses girls and makes them cry like Gorgie Porgie, and they have Frere Jacques, although it is about Uncle Tom (or something!) instead. There were lots about going to sleep and Sacarias started reading me some of these while we were outside lying in the sun. I was really struggling to stay awake. All the kids here seem to still be up at 11 or 12 at night, so maybe these lullaby rhymes are more necessary here than at home, hence the large number of them! Also, fairy stories in Spanish do not end with a direct translation of "...and they all lived happily ever after". Rather, in Spanish-language fairytales, our brave heroes "lived happily and ate partridges" ("vivieron felices y comieron perdices"). So there!

More of the same at Refugio today... but my nerves are frazzled and I was doing well to keep my temper. Walter was particularly destructive and his brother wasn't much better. All the kids constantly hit each other with objects or their hands if there is nothing else around, and no one apart from us is ever around to see it. I was annoyed as well as after only 3 days, we lost a piece of the domino set and no one tried to find it. That says it all about the way the kids feel about their surroundings. We brought out the jenga set later on, and the older boys seemed really keen, but instead of playing, they just kept knocking down the tower. I ended up putting the game away, and was really disappointed by the boys' attitude. It's the kind of delicate situation that cannot be mended or even approached, though, with the language barrier that we are facing. I generally understand the kids well and make myself understood, but they choose which parts of instructions, warnings or reproaches that they want to understand, just to make things difficult for me. At one point today I was struck by how thankless the job is - I thought that the kids here would appreciate what I am trying to do, and thought that somehow they needed the help I can give. However, apart from the majority of kids at Arcoiris, the opposite is true. I know that they have been brought up to be this way and that it isn't at all their fault, but I didn't come here to have a mop thrown at me or be spat on. I could have stayed in Bonnyrigg! I do feel, though, that I'm doing the best that I can in the face of all the obstacles. I mentioned Maria, the girl with the speech impediment, before. Up until recently, all she has ever said to me is "Tía!", but today I was delighted (however briefly!) when she called me by my name. I didn't think she had it in her!

I did know that this was never going to be just a pretty little holiday. But I hope that what I am doing is making a difference and I hope that in the last few days I am here I will make an impact that will somehow improve these kids' very lonely and hard lives.

However, when work is over, holidaying begins. We are going out tonight and tomorrow night, probably with the new girl who arrives today. On Sunday, I think we are going to go to the jesuit ruins at San Ignacio, which are supposed to be amazing at sunset. I'm really looking forward to getting away and having a break! I will try to write this again tomorrow, otherwise I will probably be signing off until Monday. Hoping this finds you all well.