La Guarderia Madre de Dios

Monday to Friday, nine to five, Leah works at a place called La Guarderia Madre de Dios. The practically gratis daycare program is housed in the back half of a shelter for women and girls, but the kids in the guarderia are only there during the day. Most of them come from low income, one parent families, and most of the parents work in La Cancha, the enormous market that begins around the corner. You can probably imagine how intellectually taxing it is working with two year olds all day. For example, yesterday we came up with a game where we throw a basket of ping pong balls in the air, and the kids scream, laugh, and run around picking them up. Repeat four or five times. Whew! It's a tough life.

The first picture was taken at a birthday party for Leah and for another volunteer named Marije. If the kids look distressed, it's because they were traumatized by a scary clown at a previous party. One of them wouldn't even stay in the room once he saw the cake and balloons. The other picture is from the mini-Carnaval we threw for the kids, complete with music and dancing, globos (water balloons), masks, and sweets. I'm not sure why, but the kids sing happy birthday in English and say 'whiskey!' when they have their picture taken.

Leah and Marije immediately before getting their faces pushed into the cake (Bolivian tradition, or so we're told). In the background: A table of the two year olds, and Anna and Maria, two of the educadoras.

Mickey, Alex gordo, and Vivi. Alex is called 'Alex Gordo', or usually just 'Gordito', to distinguish him from the smaller Alex. It basically means 'little fatty.' A very cute nickname for a very large two year old. Vivi's hat is hiding a great buzz cut. A lot of the girls get their heads shaved to encourage their hair to grow in thicker, a look I initially confused with a very efficient way to get rid of lice. And Mickey pees his pants.

A crayon rendering of Carlos doing a puzzle. Sorry for the blurry picture!