Dia de Lectura

Today, we had a reading marathon at the comedor to observe National Reading Day. Beto has been really excited about this. He has been talking about it since my first day. Yesterday, I finished organizing the books at the comedor and Beto pulled books to set out on tables for the children to read today.

All day, everyone read. Nobody was allowed to play games and none of the children complained. (We did have a break at lunchtime to eat and spend some time on the playground.) They were very content to select a book and sit down to read. After they finished a book, they took the book to Beto and wrote their name and the title of the book on a slip of paper and hung it on a poster shaped like a tree. This was good Spanish practice for me. In the morning, 2 high school girls who volunteer some at the comedor came to read to the younger children. I read to a couple children, then I sat down with some of the older children and read to myself.

After lunch, the other volunteers left, so I read to the younger children. They didn't seem to mind my horrible pronunciations or the pauses in my reading - they kept bringing me books to read. The children would snuggle up to me and listen. My mind was exhausted by 3:00, but I really enjoyed reading to them!

It was really cool to see how much the children enjoyed reading today. Honestly, I was curious to see if we would have as many children there today. While I was organizing the books over the past week, the children would come over to talk to me and look at the books. When I asked them if they like to read, they all said, "No." This made me wonder if they would even show up today knowing that all we would be doing was reading. They were there, even the children who told me they don't like to read!

I sent Beto a text message last night to ask if it would be alright if I took my camera today and he said it would be fine, so I have posted some photos from the reading marathon today. There are also a few new pics of my trip into the Capital on Tuesday. Click here to view.