A new school year has begun

My how time is flying. I can't believe I've been here for over 6 months. Over the past 2 weeks, the new school year has begun here in Buenos Aires. This means that there are fewer children at the comedor than there were in February. Things have settled back down to the way they were when I arrived. Some of the children go to school in the mornings and some go to school in the afternoons. Only a few of the afternoon school children come in the mornings, but a lot of the morning school children come in the afternoons. Things are quiet around the comedor in the mornings - usually 3-5 children at most. The afternoons are busy with 20+ children. Yesterday morning, only 1 child came, so he got one-on-one attention from me all morning. We played whatever games he wanted to play.

There are a number of new faces this year - some are of families who are new to the comedor, others are of younger children who have started school and now come with their older siblings. There are also some faces that I miss seeing as some families have stopped coming for various reasons.

The new families didn't even seem to notice I'm from North America - until I opened my mouth to speak, of course. When I arrived 6 months ago, I felt accepted, but it still took some time for folks to get used to me. After summer break, it feels like I've always been there and it hasn't seemed to take as much time to build rapport with the new families. Of couse, they've never known the comedor without me being there.

I'm loving my time with the children. The older ones enjoy copying my accent when I speak Spanish - we laugh about it together. Some of them like to try out English phrases they've learned - sometimes realizing it doesn't mean what they thought it did. The younger girls like taking my pony tail down and playing with my hair as well as taking my earrings out and putting them back in. One day, a couple of the girls (who are sisters) arrived eager to show me their new lipsticks. The rest of the day was spent putting on and wiping off lipstick - they each wanted to put their own lipstick on me, but I couldn't wear both at once, so they took turns. Occasionally, I teach some of the children English words - they say a word/phrase in Spanish and I teach them how to say it in English. The children love drinking out of my Nalgene bottle. I share my bottle with them and they always refill it when it's empty.

My time at the comedor is filled with smiles, laughter, hugs and kisses. On the car ride to and from the comedor, Beto usually shares information with me about the home lives of the different children and their backgrounds. It's hard to imagine these smiling faces so full of life going home to the situations Beto tells me about or that they have experienced so much in their short lives. Thankfully, they have the comedor to spend time during the day and many of the children trust Beto and tell him about problems at home, which Beto in turn shares with the social worker to intervene as necessary.