first day of praxis adventures

so yesterday was our first day at our praxis sites and it was great. my site, as i mentioned briefly before, is called San Ramon and there are basically 3 parts. The first is helping out at a day care/after school program. i´m there from about 8 to noon and i´m with the class called materno 1 which is basically all the 1 year olds...crazyyy. but awesome. i´m looking into investing a smock of some sort to wear while im there because i dont think ive ever had so much bodily fluids on me at once. snot, spit, pee, regurgitated food, and everything inbetween...all out of love though im sure, haha. they were great, a little apprehensive at first (i am quite a bit taller, not to mention blonde hair and blue eyes...i probably look like some kind of crazy white monster) but they warmed up to me pretty fast. there was one little boy who i think has some separation anxiety but he was basically attached to my hip the second he saw me. every once in a while he would venture off with the other little chickadees but one little thing would set him off and he´d come screaming back to me, haha. if i wasnt holding him, he was holding my hand...or finger...hes pretty tiny. so adorable though.

then the second part of my site is with a co-op/church community in this woman named Anita´s house. the co-op has beautiful things, shirts, skirts, headwraps, jewelry, and a whole bunch of other super crafty stuff...basically, its super dangerous for my bank account, ha. the church community is full of strong women so it will be amazing to hear their stories and learn from them. they were a part of the catholic church that is nearby but after the war, they got a priest that was ultra conservative and wanted to go back to pre-vatican II and after months of trying to talk with him and work it out, they decided to leave that parish and form their own. every sunday they have a celebration of the word (which i havent been to yet but im interested to go check it out in the near future). the celebration is all-inclusive, women, men and children alike, and they dont have a priest or regular person that leads. they take turns among the different people in the community sharing stories and leading each week. basically it sounds really sweet. when i´m with that part, we hang out at the co-op or go around the community doing home visits to talk and get to know people.

the third part of San Ramon is a comedor/soy project. there are a few women that make soy milk for the community and there´s also a computer lab there where they offer computer classes for the community. they used to get funding from the marionists but within the last couple years the funding stoped so to compensate, they started a small restaurant. thats where we eat lunch when we´re at our praxis site which is sweet because the food is incredible.

so on mondays, i´m with the kiddies until noon and then with the co-op until 5ish, and on wed. im with the kiddies til noon and then with the comedor til 5ish. im pretty pumped to get to know everyone in the community better over the next couple months...hopefully my spanish will keep improving to allow that to happen...