Year two at the fair - impressed again

If you read the post 'impressed by an eight year old'(August,2009), you'll know that last year, we took 4 kids (2 kids from 2 families) to the fair in Antigua. I've since met all of the kids from both families and so our trip this year was with 7 kids.

It was a little more difficult this year to arrange because we needed to coordinate with the parents a day we could take them all together. What made it a logistical nightmare was that the older kids had to work (I'm talking about 11 and 12 year olds here selling ice cream and shining shoes)and so the weekends were not an option. During the week, the parents were OK with our taking them when they should be in school (only 2 go to school) but I wasn't. So we ended up settling for a Tuesday evening after school and a slow work day.

There's always something about these kids that impresses me. This time, when we arrived, all rides but two were stopped because the generator wasn't working and they'd had to go to Guatemala City for a new one. There were two manual rides where the operators physically spun them - a small ferris wheel probably no higher than 10 feet and a carousel - both really meant for children younger than the group we had.

Like last year, they were all allowed to select 2 rides. Since there were only 2rides available, and not the fun ones, I thought that they might prefer to leave and return the next day. I know kids are into immediate gratification and tomorrow may never come but what I expected was a little bit of sulking followed by agreement or disagreement. Well, no sulking and emphatic disagreement. They rode the carousel, threw their arms up in the air as if they were on a roller coaster and immediately settled into Plan B.

Impressed by an eight year old

A couple of weeks ago, Antigua had a town fair with ferris wheel and amusement park rides. Paige, my housemate, and I were on our way to the fair when we ran into Rebecca, a seven year old girl with whom I often sit in the park.

We asked her if she wanted to go to the fair with us - what child doesn't want to go to a fair? How fun to see the absolute glee on her face as she said yes in one breath and, in the other, asked if she could bring her friend Sandra! Sandra had a brother and Rebecca had a brother and what we thought was going to be one child, turned into four all jumping up and down, clapping, holding hands and hugging our legs (they're short).

We told them they could each choose two rides. We started out on a young person's roller coaster which everyone handled very well. I'm not sure we did the best job of helping them select the second ride. They wanted to go on the above pictured ride and we suggested that it might be too 'rapida' for them, especially for the two little boys aged 5 and 6. The boys agreed that they would instead go on a smaller little ferris wheel but Rebecca and Sandra insisted that this was the ride they wanted.

And so it was. Paige stayed with the two boys and I went on this ride with the girls. Now, I grew up on rides, have always been a fan of amusement parks and have even ridden this ride before BUT the operator had that ride so straight up with absolutely no tilt that even I was uncomfortable.

I looked over at the girls and they were scared to death - eyes wide and staring straight ahead. What I noticed about Sandra though, was that she was relaxing herself by breathing slowly and deliberately through her mouth. I was so impressed. I didn't learn this technique until well into adulthood and that an eight year old girl knew how to calm herself in that way really struck me. Where did she learn that?

The rest of the day was fun. We paused for a drink and surprised them with a final roller coaster ride (Paige had previously bought tickets when we went on it the first time because we naturally assumed that they would be good for all rides in the park but it turned out that the rides were all independently operated and all tickets had to be individually purchased).

And then being the rainy season, just as we were descending the first hill, the rain started and dumped alot of rain in a short period of time all over us. It was a perfect day!

p.s. A few pictures from today in the park


Rebecca, her younger brother Antonio in front (both from the above story) and their amigo Dominic.

The children in the park

Sometimes, when I have run out of aqua pura (bottled water) for coffee, I go to a favorite coffee stand, grab a cup to go, and sit in the park and enjoy the usual beautiful morning. This is where much of the sales work to the tourists is done.

Saturday, I met Dulce Maria, a little girl of six, selling cloth bracelets. I usually don't buy from the children because I don't like the idea of perpetuating the cycle. If I buy, they will continue to sell, right? I am losing my resolve. She told me she was thirsty and had to sell bracelets so that she could buy some water. I didn't have any water to offer her so I bought some of her bracelets (the beautiful turquoise one bled into my white hand towel in the bathroom - I'm going to have to be more careful about that).

The next day, I met Jose (pictured above).

Jose is 12 years old and lives in Chimaltenango (about 30 minutes by bus). He tells me that he doesn't have parents and that he rents a room from a Señora. This doesn't make sense to me. I have a hard time believing that it's true, but it very well could be. On the weekends, he works as a 'shoe shine boy' which is a common occupation for a young boy in Latin America. I wear plastic sandals and am not a good target customer(although one child offered to wash my shoes rather than shine them and when I told him it wasn't important to me he passionately insisted that it was important to him) so instead we talked and he showed me the gaping hole in the sole of his shoe. I was glad to hear that he goes to school and he carried his english book with him. He pointed to sayings like 'you are beautiful' and 'it was nice to meet you' - what a clever and charming little boy, verdad? He is also in the church choir and he sang for me the most beautiful song.

If I see Jose on a Saturday, when the market is open, I am going to ask him if I can take him to buy shoes. I know in this case that I'm encouraging behavior that creates dependency. It is a dilemna that I am stuck with. My first time in Guatemala, I shared my lunch with a little boy and when we were done, he asked me if he could have my chicken bones. It broke my heart. I know that I can't take care of everything and so I do what I can and try not think too much about it or judge how deep or honest the need is. And sometimes, I say "no, not today". The alternative is to become immune to it and stop seeing it. I think I'd rather do a little bit here and a little bit there.