i always seem to have

a routine. class begins at eight for the chavalitos. they work on reading, riting and rithmetic, sprawled in a circle on the big tiled porch of the casa. each one has their wrinkled notebook, their leaky pen, their varying attention span. i've begun to understand how those teachers at the school teach without materials. little jose ramon is maybe seven, nayiba is six, ismara eight, pedro, luis manuel, luis francisco, luis bodaya, and oscar are all eleven. i spent this morning teaching oscar long division, putting problem after problem in his notebook and encouraging him to draw the answer. at one point i had him stand up and we laid the problems out on scraps of paper on the floor. we walked over them-- number to the left goes into number on the right, then up to put the answer, down to subtract, over, up, then down to bring the next number, back up, over, down, and done! we turned a math problem into a dance and then into a picture, then into a skill. he still tends to want to multiply the numbers, but we'll get it.

i work with nayiba and jose ramon on their letters. they copy over and over, Sa Se Si So Su. Ta Te Ti To Tu. Va Ve Vi Vo Vu. they get bored quickly, and when we review, i point at T and they answer eagerly at the same time, "F!" "L!" sigh. today i read them pinocchio instead, letting them pick out all the As, Bs, Cs, page by page.

yesterday we started painting a mural over at the school. fifteen kids came to watch the gringo circus and tell us they could do better. ha.

then, huddled in a corner, a little furry sack of bones. a former dog, this little bundle-- it died at our feet as we painted, covered in flies. i couldn't watch.