from good to stress fest

so this week was not so great as last.
there was a rather large incident with poo which inspired mary to head up a cleaning and painting project of the youngest kids´room.
poo is actually an ongoing issue with dogs who really need to not be at the orphanage, and kids who aren´t grossed out by it.

wednesday was kids day, which seemed to be somewhat disorganized - especially at the campesino project i work at (the hogar kids seemed to have a good day). it didn´t even really happen there until 2 days late. someone who was supposed to be in charge of bringing and organizing gifts and cake really wasn´t on the ball. i wish we had been given some notice as to what was going on with this holiday, and we could have made it something a little more special for the kids. at least we managed to get some games and skip rope in with the kids once we realized that class wasn´t going to be as usual today. i got to teach them a politically incorrect skip rope song-game... the one that goes¨"not last night but the night before.... etc." they loved it, and have no idea what the words are, but it kept going on and on as each kid wanted a turn.
oh... and then, the abuela of the village (like the leader) made me feel guilty for not bringing gifts earlier (even though it wasnt my job) and also said i had to bring more on monday... while the other lady (who´s job it was to bring the gifts) told me not to b-c she had brought enough and the abuela was basically conning me.... (is that a word?) plus both of them were speaking to me in spanish super fast, thinking i understood them, when really i only caught the drift... or at least i think i did.
who knows.
all locals here seem to think foreigners are all super rich (ha ha) and should just be handing out random presents like some sort of santa clause person. it´s pretty warped. it´s so backwards.
i could go on and on in a big anti-capitalism rant, but i´ll spare you.

on the bright side, the showers are functioning now - so hopefully they won´t break again!
the toilets, however are not yet operational in the kids bathrooms - so it´s difficult to teach the kids propper hygeine.

i have so much going on in my head and i can´t write fast enough! i appologize if you are reading this and wondering what the heck i am talking about...

the height of it this week was me, the only volunteer at the hogar for now, doing laps around the halls last night, bar of soap in one hand, towel in the other, bypassing kids as they bathed making sure they used soap, and returned the soap- stopping along the way to clean up dog poop or get a kid a toy or book or helping a kid bathe or look for underwear etc for kids getting ready for bed, or yelling at someone for chasing someone or accidentally giving another kid a semi black eye.... i felt like miss hanagan from the movie annie... i think she was just misunderstood...
i need to watch that movie again.

oh, and the puppet project is on hold. we´ve made the puppets and will try to put together a little show once i get back from renewing my visa. but the kids can be such brats. one ripped the nose off my puppet, and others have let me know that they dont want to take the class anymore.
they have the attention span of gnats.

all that said and done, i´m still glad i moved in - and hopefully can afford to continue living there- as i´ve really gotten to get to know the kids much better being there at night. it´s actually pretty cute helping the little guys brush there teeth.

it is the weekend now, and i get to escape for a day... go to the beach or something and try not to think of dog poop, money and non functioning toilets. horray!