Life as it is: Albergue Infantil Salesiano (AIS)

A lot of you were/are interested what my days actually look like in here. I got quiet a lot of questions about that. So I thought it might be nice to write a blogpost to describe a general day in Albergue Infantil Salesiano. This schedule gives you a rough idea, although everyday something changes. You know we work with children, what would you expect?! Without further ado, here we go. 

* 5h45 I need to wake up (or 5h30 if I want to shower). Yes, that is early. 

* 6h we wake up the children (depending on the day I am responsible for one of the three age-categories, each group consists out of 11 children) 

We help the children making their beds, they go shower and put on their schooluniform and we help them to go wash their pyjamas and once a week as well their bedding. Oh and washing clothing and bedding, we do that by hand here, with cold water and some soap. I as well wash my clothes and bedding here by hand. 

* 6h45 all the children need to be present in our church where they get a moralizing pedagogic preach by one of the sisters. It sounds worse than it is, the sisters try to teach them in this way some important values like honesty, solving arguments pacifically,... without targeting one kid.

* 7h all the kids are eating in the common dining room. (breakfast is prepared and served girls working here) Giovanni and I observe the children while they eat, we keep order (well, we try but fail miserably) and make sure they finnish eating on time. We hand out more bread/tortillas and drinks if they want more. Everybody needs to finnish their plate or they are not allowed to go to school (that is what we tell them), in reality someone not finishing their plate has to take what's left to school or has to eat it when returning from school. Also the girls already know who eats more and who's appetite is smaller and so they serve adequate portions. 

* 7h40 everybody gets into our schoolbus and Don Conrado drives us to the three schools. I get out the bus with 6 of the children at the first drop-off point. At that point we have crossed the dangerous roads and I walk with them 500 meters further to their school. I return by foot to the children's home. 

* 8h15 I arrive at AIS and eat breakfast myself. 

* between 8h30 and 12h30 there are a lot of possibilities depending on the day. Sometimes I have no free time at all and sometimes I have the full 4 hours free and I can use them to Skype, write my blog, go buy some vegan food, play some basket 1 on 1 with Giovanni, teach how to play the guitar to Esteban, cleaning my room and bathroom, wash my clothes, wash my bedding, searching for the right sequence of moves to deliver checkmate to my father, overthink my further travelling plans, overthink what I want to do with the rest of my life (you know, the usual). Sometimes they need me to help out with doing some grocery shopping or some other tasks. Sometimes we as well have meetings with everybody who works here and has a lot of contact with the children to share experiences and information and to discuss how to help some kids in very specific ways, what kind of guidance does that individual needs. 

* Starting from 12h30 we start driving around with the bus and go collect the kids from their schools. 

* Around 2 p.m. all kids have arrived. They change their clothing, from school uniform to regular cloths. They go wash their uniform. After washing their uniform they go study. 

* 3h p.m. we eat a warm meal, until 3h30 or latest 3h45.

#GOVEGAN (sorry that slipped in by accident, can't help myself) 

* Afterwards there is some play time until 4:30 or 5 p.m. depending on the day. Play time means basketball or soccer. 

* After playing there is more study to be done. All children do their homework. The ones who are ready with their homework need to keep themselves busy silently by reading a book or doing homework for another day. If they want, at this moment there is also time to give some extra classes on mathematics, English, or something else they didn't really understand at school. Some day there are as well other activities possible. A music teacher and a dance teacher teach a weekly class here. 

* From 7 until 8 (more or less) we watch TV. Most of the time we watch movies, spread out over 2 or 3 days. The children love superhero movies the most so I am fully into Marvel-modus now, everything dubbed in Spanish of course (and believe me, you know how irritating dubbed movies are, you do kind of get used to it...) 

* After 8 we have something small to eat, some bread with marmelade, friend bananas,... 

* At 8h30 there is some more prayer (As if we didn't pray enough throughout the day already?! I think Jesus heard us already okay...), usually we do a full rosary! I can assure you, for someone like me who doesn't feel the religious experience (I do commit to my own form of spirituality, but that is something very private and completely different from religiosity), a full rosary is just plain boring and feels kinda useless. I'll put it this way, in comparison to the rosary, the priest in church is a Rockstar. But okay... If that is what I need to do to be able to work here, then I'll pray the Goddamned rosary. 

After the rosary we make sure all the children go to bed and finally I can crash down in my bed as well. Most nights I spend about half an hour on my tablet before going to sleep. At this moment for example I follow very closely the world chess championship between the defender of the title (and my favorite player of the moment) Magnus Carlsen and the challenger Fabiano Carano (who came prepared for a battle!). At the moment of writing the tournament is already going on for almost 2 weeks, 10 games have been played, all were drawn, so it could still go either way and both players deserve the title. Two games left before we go Into the rapids (Carlsen's strong suit). Exciting times in the world of chess. 

Weekends are somewhat busier for me because the children do not go to school, so Saturday and Sunday are actually the toughest days for me (although I do get two hours more to sleep). The schedule is quiet similar but there are some changes. On Saturday we watch a full movie and the children can eat their dinner in front of the television. Sunday we go outside to celebrate Jesus in another church than our own. Before noon there is more studying to be done as well do the children need to help with the household chores. 

Wednesday is my free day. I try to use this day to find some rest, go to the movies, meet some locals, have some excellent food,... 

That's about it I guess. You see, quiet the strict schedule... And as you might know, strict schedules are not the strong suit of free-spirited-me, so this does requier some (read a lot) effort from my part. So everything considered, I do feel well in here, although it is not always easy. 

Best greetings.

B. Supertramp.