My kids

This was, minus the captioning, ready to go up last weekend, but I got busy and then went to Resistencia in northern Argentina to hang out with some pretty cool people for our closing retreat - all 6 of us in Argentina and Uruguay are rapidly approaching our leave dates, and this was pretty much the last time all of us could leave our sites before departure.

Rather than dwell on that, however, we've got a HAPPY picture post to caption, this time of 50 or so of the world's coolest inhabitants - the students of Centro de Estudios and the children of Club de Niños!

1. Giselle (left) and Abigail (right). If Abi looks familiar, it's because she was in Club de Niños last year; she's the only one of the 5 who "graduated" from Club de Niños who I've seen on an equally regular basis this second half of the year. These two very often come for English help, with a generous amount of other subjects mixed in, too.

2. Gimena is in her second year of secondary school and has come a long way, at the very least with her English, from last year when we first started working together. I've also gotten to explain Renaissance art and architecture and the Reformation to her - two of my favorite things!

3. Lucila, one of the nicest, calmest students imaginable. She's a great worker.

4. Cecilia is one of the students at the new secondary school in the barrio; from her, I've gotten to hear about the long and difficult process of looking for teachers, managing students new to secondary study, and doing these things in one of the city's poorest neighourhoods from someone who's seen it firsthand. She's a great English and sciences student.

5. The new accreditation class; this is for adolescents and adults who were unable to finish primary school, and upon completion of the class and a basic skills exam, they'll receive credit for the first 6 years of the educational process. There are currently 4 youths (ages 14-17) in the class; here are two of them, along with their teacher, Nellida.

6. The reclusive cook, Ana, captured again in her natural habitat, this time while making sauce for pizza....mmmmm.

7. It was a chilly day, so Emilia brought her earmuffs....she was not the only one to wear them, however. Even Fabiana, one of the teacher's aides, decided to fight the good fight against chilly earlobes.

8. Whip out a camera, and watch how they all react - laughing, smiling, or looking away, they all still want to be in a picture...

9. The day's activities involved the kids being blindfolded and touching various items, then having to guess what they were. This how my scarf ended up wrapped around Iara's head - note Viviana's glam pose (scarf-blinded and all) and Karen's "why are you putting this on film?" look.

10. Not everyone had a scarf or school uniform ribbon, however...fortunately, the kids are nothing if not creative...

11. The items to feel were selected from outside, and involved all kinds of stuff, including a broken broomstick, an empty tank of some sort, and what looked a bit like a toilet lid.

12. Emilia (kneeling) helped some of her friends' dreams take flight...literally. Giuliana wanted to "fly" (balance on one foot on an old stump with her arms out like wings), so Emilia spotted for her while Michaela waited patiently for her turn to fly.

13. The adults (plus a few kids) enjoying a few minutes of break-time peace while the kids play.

14. Monica is not normally a part of my afternoons, but is around every morning as the coordinator for Casa Jóven and Centro de Estudios. She's a big joker, and it took her a while to pick up on my sense of humor and tendency to say absolutely ridiculous things in a serious tone - she even told me once that she never knew if I was joking or not, or if I even caught jokes, just because I was so serious. Please hold the laughter, folks from back home. She figured me out shortly thereafter.

15. Kirsten, Milton, and Fabi hold back a flood of kids excited about having music class with the best Uruguayan/Estadounidense teaching duo EVER. Or at least that's what I tell myself.

16. We did the same activity with the little ones, who were (go figure) calmer...but when you have sweethearts like Sofia (pink scarf) and Leticia (blue ribbon as blindfold), it really isn't any wonder why.

17. They were so calm and sweet that we even got to do the second part of the activity - feel the hand and guess the person! Kimberley did, if I remember right, guess "Ana Karen" on the second try.

18. After snack time, the kids help clean up, even the littlest ones...Ana opted to wipe down the tables.