Morning in the Guarderia

Nahun

Ruvi

Gladys

Today was a perfect day for testing the true strength of my Spanish. Maria Elena and Anthony headed for San Pedro Sula to meet the rest of the Maine contingency at the airport. I spent the day at the guarderia with the littles where the true test is always. My goal is to be able to communicate alone without the aid of someone bilingual or even another adult. The morning was spent teaching the littles how to use puzzles after a lesson in coloring and color names. There were several wooden and foam puzzles in the storage room, still in their plastic wrappings. Not for long. The teacher in me just naturally comes out. Sheer joy could be seen on the face of little Ruvi as he recognized that he could match the pictures and use the little knobs to turn the pieces and make them fit. When they had tired of this I pulled out a selection of spanish and bilingual picture books. The smiles grew immediately. Many of these children have never had access to books. They were also thrilled when I sat amidst them and could share the text. The best part was using my acquired repertoire of animal voices to add to the text. Before you knew it there was a room full of ducklings, piglets, and calves joining in. Little Gladys, who is extremely cautious, sat typically alone but with a book and a smile. As lunch approached....a perfect ending to a perfect morning. I sat with the youngest of Trijidia's children, Ana Nicole falling asleep nestled into my arms as I rocked her to sleep. Doesn't get any better than this! Hope you enjoyed your day as much as I did.