October 24: Trip to the Kindergarten

Last Friday, Claire, Marlene, and I left school around 9:30 with Lorna and her mother, having been invited by them to go to their Kindergarten downtown for "United Nations Day." The kindergarten, called "John Dewey," has one big area with a plastic playground, and it was here the children had been gathered to await our arrival. On the gate had been hung a meter-square poster they had made us, which read "Bienvenidos En el Dia de la O.N.U." Beneath this were stylized representations of each of us with our names and flags. Walking through the gate, we were greeted by six students dressed in "international" costumes, including a Pakistani, two "Americans" dressed in red, white, and blue tissue paper, and a butterfly girl. The children brought us each a tray of candy, and the girls got flowers. For some reason, they forgot to bring a flower for me.

We were led to a row of white plastic chairs at the far end of the room, in front of all the separate classrooms of children seated on the floor. Lorna occupied the fourth chair. We were asked to introduce ourselves, and then the children sang for us and did cheers for all the countries. Then we posed for pictures with the dressed-up children. Throughout all this time, my face was fixed in a wide smile, delighted at seeing children and their interactions and faces. It became almost painful after a while; it was a truly wonderful experience.

After this, the children were led by their numerous teachers (all female) into their respective classrooms, and we traveled to visit them one by one. The first was a group of about 10 diaper age kids who didn't have much to say. We followed that with a series of older groups, telling them colors in our languages and singing songs and stuff. One of the older groups made a plate of "American food" and an American flag out of paper and craft material, and gave Claire and Marlene each a pair of glasses made out of pipe cleaners. I only got an itchy necklace, and I had to pester Claire a bit about how jealous I was to get her glasses from her. It's not like she was going to wear them, though, and I certainly plan to.

After the first three classrooms, we took a break and had lunch upstairs, in Lorna's house. The house is big and open and wonderful, with an patio in the front with a big roof that we ate under. The food was a big vegetarian sandwich on baguette that had been divided up into pieces for us, and french fries. The sandwich was delicious, with beans and cheese and tomatoes.

We finished up the last classroom after lunch, a group of older kids that included as its most outspoken member the young granddaughter or niece of Paty and his wife, Doctor Erasto. They asked many questions, and gave Claire and Marlene their flags and gave us all paper skulls with rice eyes for the Day of the Dead. One boy kept getting really agitated and falling or jumping out of his chair.