Bicycles! Soccer! Mexiquito! We spent five hours at the orphanage today. For the first two, we were with three fantastic people from the states who have set up bike repair classes and a free-for-all bike riding day for the kids. Two evenings a week they have classes in which they teach the kids how to fix flat tires (which occurs about every 3 minutes) repair bike pedals, bike chains, adjust seats, handlebars, and more. It is now the good fortune of Ted and I to be able to join them for the bike riding part of it that is every Saturday. The kids fly ecstatically down to the bike shed after their breakfasts to get started. One of us volunteers takes their name, writes a description of the bike they will ride, and the shape the bike is in. When it's time to return the bike, the child needs to identify if any problems have occurred and then they repair them in the next class.
Most of the children have godparents, and it is the godparents of many of the past kids from the orphanage that have provided the bikes over time. One of the volunteers had helped a young boy, the newest addition to the orphanage, ride a bike by himself for the very first time last week. I continued to help him in this venture today. He fell a lot. He got back up every time, pleaded for help with his start off push and then adelante! He started to ride for longer periods of time and he started to take off by himself. So good, his smile went up to the clouds. Next week Ted and I will be leading the bike crew. The volunteers that run the program will be out of town and they have entrusted us with a job I'll be looking forward to all week. Next was soccer, oranges, and conversation in Spanish with a new friend. She is a teacher from Guanajuato and has been coming with Mike, the man that started the soccer program to help with translation and for support. We talk about our favorite authors, traveling, and more. She used to work with a group of Zapatistas. I have developed a girlfriend crush! After coming home from a long day in the sun and a surprisingly cold wind, I feel the fatigue that carries pure happiness in it's threads.
Bicycles! Soccer! Mexiquito! We spent five hours at the orphanage today. For the first two, we were with three fantastic people from the states who have set up bike repair classes and a free-for-all bike riding day for the kids. Two evenings a week they have classes in which they teach the kids how to fix flat tires (which occurs about every 3 minutes) repair bike pedals, bike chains, adjust seats, handlebars, and more. It is now the good fortune of Ted and I to be able to join them for the bike riding part of it that is every Saturday. The kids fly ecstatically down to the bike shed after their breakfasts to get started. One of us volunteers takes their name, writes a description of the bike they will ride, and the shape the bike is in. When it's time to return the bike, the child needs to identify if any problems have occurred and then they repair them in the next class.
Most of the children have godparents, and it is the godparents of many of the past kids from the orphanage that have provided the bikes over time. One of the volunteers had helped a young boy, the newest addition to the orphanage, ride a bike by himself for the very first time last week. I continued to help him in this venture today. He fell a lot. He got back up every time, pleaded for help with his start off push and then adelante! He started to ride for longer periods of time and he started to take off by himself. So good, his smile went up to the clouds. Next week Ted and I will be leading the bike crew. The volunteers that run the program will be out of town and they have entrusted us with a job I'll be looking forward to all week. Next was soccer, oranges, and conversation in Spanish with a new friend. She is a teacher from Guanajuato and has been coming with Mike, the man that started the soccer program to help with translation and for support. We talk about our favorite authors, traveling, and more. She used to work with a group of Zapatistas. I have developed a girlfriend crush! After coming home from a long day in the sun and a surprisingly cold wind, I feel the fatigue that carries pure happiness in it's threads.
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