No boundaries

Word of the Day

colorear- to color, draw

cipote- kid

I had a really funny evening that illustrates how little personal space you can have in Peace Corps sometimes. I got home exhausted from observing classes with a counterpart in another community, and found myself struggling to drag my feet up the small hill near my house. My slow walking probably attracted the attention of the cipotes of the neighborhood. "Emily, coloreamos?" "Can we color?" I was starving so I told them that they couldn't until later. 

However, once they've sighted me, it's already too late. The two little girls were inside the house before I was. I told them they had to wait until I at least fried and egg or two because I was starving. They then proceeded to run around the kitchen, chased by my host mom's 2 year old grandson on a tricycle. I told them to give me 10 minutes, and they ran off briefly, only to return before my egg was even cooked. Three and six year olds don't have a great understanding of time. Then, everyone wanted to eat my melon. I gave everyone a piece, grabbed my food, and got the coloring supplies. The crowd of 3 headed for my room, and began to color fairly peaceably, at least until the grandson started hitting the littlest girl with the marker holder and crumpling her artwork.

Then, one of my high school students came over with a question about English homework. She joined the melee in my room. Thank god I had cleaned the day before, so my room wasn't a complete disaster, as it usually is. I was going to tell her to come to the porch, but she was already looking for a place to sit down on my bed, as I have no chairs. There were some really questionable looking avocado stains on the bed...so embarrassing. Literally no barriers between my work and home life.

The kids began to fight and cry for more melon, and then my host mom came and kicked them out. My host sister came in for homework help too, and then stayed for a long time chatting.

When I finally broke away to make posters for a workshop, I realized I had pretty much been doing work related things for over 12 hours. Peace Corps is such a strange job. But as much as all the intrusions were a little crazy, they're the kind of interactions I'm starting to appreciate a little bit more every day.