markets and children

well it has been a few days since i have written, but i have been quite busy...right now it is a beautiful wednesday at 12 :30. i am making me some coffee and toast for breakfast ( my breakfast here is at 12:30...haha). because my volunteering does not start until usually 3 in the afternoon my day starts about 12 which is very nice...but of course i do not eat dinner until about 10 or 10:30...all porteños eat late here...its crazy...but i am now used to it.

this weekend on saturday and sunday i went to two different weekend markets here in the city. the one i went to on saturday was really nice arts and crafts and handmade stuff. and the one i went to on sunday was in an older part of the city, called san telmo, and the market was HUGE. it was an antique/arts and crafts fair that they have every sunday. i have never seen so many antiques and antique stores in my life...and trust me i have been to a lot. it was market after market and store after store...there were a ton of people there...it was amazing because there were street musicians playing, street singers singing, puppet shows, magicians, tango shows, the place was alive. there was one orquestra band that played and they were about 8 people playing different instruments and they were amazing. i bought their CD and i want to go to one of their shows coming up. also that day i had a small problem...after i left the festival i sat down at a cafe for a quick bite to eat because i was starving...well i got my bill and it was 23,50 pesos and i only had 22 pesos...i did not realize that here, like many places, you get charged a service charge and for some stupid reason i did not bring my debit card with me that day, and i was also by myself...so i explained to my waiter that i did not have enough money because i did not know i had to pay a service charge and all that and i did not know what i was going to do...well he reached in his pocket and gave me 2 pesos! and yeah that might not seem like a lot but people here do not get payed very much and a lot of them live off tips, so 2 pesos is a lot. it was an extremely nice thing. i thanked him a lot and told him i was going to come back and leave him a really good tip because that was very nice and as i was leaving he said to me in english ''we are friends'' personally i will definitely remember that for a long time.

the last 2 days of work have definitely been my favorite. monday i met cristofer who is the cutest kid i have ever seen. i colored with him and played with him most of the time. i also read some with a little girl...we were reading spanish books so we were actually both practicing...i love just going outside and playing with the kids...its my favorite. and yesterday the place i went there were a ton of kids...they are all so happy and after we got done working on school work they went crazy just running around and playing...it was so much fun...there was one little boy there his name was john and he did not really talk much and was very quite. so i sat with him and he practiced writing his letters and colored all to himself. he was very reserved, but such a good kid. so far at all the places i have been i love all the kids...even the overly rowdy ones...

overall everything is going very well here, well there is a crazy strike by the farmers in the country and a conflict between them and the government, and the other monring the subte was shut down all morning because of a strike, but minor details...it is south america so you just adapt...but ahora tengo que irme, voy a ducharme...hoy voy a un cumpleaños con L.I.F.E.!!! God Bless.