Hi again. I have a little more time today to write.

Rosa and Abel are the new directors at Welcome Home, and live in the compound (it has 5 small buildings), and their 15 year old daughter, Damaris, lives with them. She has become my friend, and i came down here to this internet cafe because she also wanted to come. she spends more time on the internet than the other girls, so she might turn out to be my cafe buddy. She´s a lot like i wanted to be when i was 15.. she loves rock and roll and plays a multitude of instruments.

The original plan was for me to stay in an old bunk room in the main building, but somebody left, and so now i am staying in a small apartment. After going up to that old bunk room to trade pillows I´m glad that switch was made.

This week my schedule has been like this: the staff girls arrive at 7am, and the kids come anytime between 7:10 and 7:25. Abel picks them all up on a bus. We all eat breakfast together, then the rest of the morning is spent in separate classrooms:Geno with the babies (1-3 year olds), Abby with the 4 year olds, and Brigida has the 5 and 6 year olds who are in Kindergarten. She takes them to their school each day, and sometimes I go with her. They are so cute- they wear these blue gingham aprons... the girls´ are more like aprons (with ruffles), the boys´ are just button up shirts. Brigida says it´s just so that they don´t get stuff on their clothes. Smart people.

Mostly I float around between the babies and the 4 year olds. The 4 year olds like to make fun of my lack of Spanish skills. The phrase I have heard the most this has been ´empujame, americana´ when they want to be pushed on the swings... i try to tell them that my name is not americana, but Meghan.

Also, i get called porbrecita (poor baby) a lot. when the girls are chattering they look at me, i shrug because I don´t know what they are talking about, and they call me porbrecita. meh.

The girls have been extremely kind to me, taking me under their collective wing. I think sometimes they just feel sorry for me: they know that I don´t do much in the afternoons after they leave. They keep me busy though- i have been the market, to ice cream twice, church four times (they go to church a lot!), to two internet cafes, lunch in the park, the fabric store, etc. It has already showed me a lot about hospitality- they are willing to invite me, and have already accepted me into their group. Everytime people here greet (or at least the girls) they say hello, but also put cheeks together in a semi-hug. It´s so warm and inviting.

One of my favorite things about the Spanish language has been that they add -ita and -ito to things that are small. there are two Manuels in the baby class so they call one Manuelito. Also, just if they are small they will add it, so they have also called Juan Jaunito.

On the way down to Mexico I read Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenreich. This last week I read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Both are very good and I recommend them both. Fast Food Nation has made me want to become a vegetarian as soon as i get back to the states (i can´t do it here, without refusing food, and i won´t do that). The chapters on the meatpacking industry are disgusting. Most of all I am concerned about the health of the American people. But also, there are just atrocious conditions in the meatpacking houses. In recent years immigrants have been recruited to work for low wages, and the injury rate is EXTREMELY high. With low workers´comp now, they get hardly any money for bad injuries. The turnover rate is high, and ... agh. it´s just really bad. I look at the kids I am taking care of and realize that it is the type of people like their parents that are lured to America with the promise of big money ($9/hr is much more enticing than the $7 a day that field workers here earn). I don´t want those work conditions for anyone. I don´t want them for these kids´ parents, and I especially don´t want that for the kids I´m watching.

That was maybe more information than anyone wanted, but I can´t stop thinking about that book today.

Everything is going well. People were worried I would get sick, but I think my greatest risk for danger involves riding in small late 80s Hondas with 6 other girls. At least everyone goes relatively slow here. I guess that´s it.