For the last 6 weeks or so Ted has been going to Los Ricos with about 35 other folks from the states and Canada to teach English to the kids there. I was finally able to join them today. Los Ricos is a very small and very rural community about 30 minutes west of San Miguel. We began our teaching day with the kindergarten group. What can I say but adorable! Seven wee niñas were huddled around one corner of a big table that was very low to the ground. As we started to say our "hello-what-is-you-name?-my-name-is-Leila's" two little niños emerged from underneath the table to join us. What followed was a wonderful hour of singing head-shoulders-knees-and-toes, shouting out animal names as large flashcards were shown, practicing our colors, and drawing. There were many wide-eyes, smiles, boogers in noses, and hugs. We moved on from the littlest ones to first grade, and they were the wild ones! Just six kids but so much unfocused energy! We were working on numbers - 11 through 15 - which are very difficult to understand! One through ten they all get pretty quickly, I am told, but the teens are really challenging. Actually, they are challenging from english to spanish as well. We ended up splitting them up, Tara, a tough older Canadian volunteer took a girl who didn't have her notebooks and was wandering a bit, Ted took a little boy who could not sit still! I took the four other girls, and we all sat around on the ground and colored in worksheets and worked on colors, numbers, and fruits. Again, more smiles, more affection, more fun! How open they were after just meeting this weird gringa they had never seen before! The last group we worked with was the 11th graders. I was split up from Ted and handed 3 boys to work with. What a change! While they did seem to pay special attention to me and not really focus on Bob, the older man whom I was teaching with, the hugs were traded in for shyness, nervous energy, and lots of laughter. Yet, they had a stronger command of the language and it was endearing how much they wanted to understand. I admit to feeling a bit conflicted about teaching english to native spanish speakers. It is so difficult in that I am here to learn how to communicate in spanish, how to talk about myself and my life and ask questions of people about who they are and what their lives are like. I do recognize that it is a pretty amazing thing that this project exists in this village. The mothers of the community started the project by asking for english teachers to come to the community. The way they repay the efforts of the tutors is by making lunch, which we all share. Oh my oh my! Pots of all sorts sat on a table in the middle of our small room, and styrofoam cups of horchata lined one of the window sills as we all lined up to get some of the most lovely, rica, and vegetarian (I assume!) food I have had here! It was tasty, colorful, wonderful, and such a generous gesture by the families of this village. I feel so fortunate to have been allowed into there midst, allowed to meet and engage their precious kids, and invited to sit at their tables and be well fed. I never forget that I am a stranger here, and in so many moments during so many days it hurts to feel that. But during today I felt like a guest, welcomed, and so grateful.