Kids Will Be Kids

“Um, the ball? You want the ball?” I offered, but the 2-year-old’s big brown eyes were still filling with tears and looking at me, as if to stay “Why won’t just give me what I want?” The problem was I had no idea what she wanted. It’s hard enough to understand a toddler when you speak the same language, let alone a completely different one.

As part of my 10 day intensive spanish school, I also volunteered every morning for 3 hours at a before and after school program. When I first started, my Spanish was really rusty and I often felt completely useless. I would just smile like an idiot, not understanding what the kids or program organizers were saying to me. It was frustrating because I had so many ideas, and wanted to teach them new games but I didn’t have the words to explain how. But by the end, the kids were the best to practice my Spanish with and one of the teenage girls, Lydia, even taught me a clapping song (you know, like Miss Mary Mack), in Spanish.

The program focuses on arts and crafts, something the kids don’t get to do in school. On my first day, the lack of resources really hit me. The school had put a request for arts and crafts materials in their email signature and my plan was to bring some along, but in the rush to organize and pack for this year it fell to the wayside – and once I showed up I was kicking myself for it. But, like the title says, kids will be kids and find a way to play, be creative, and have fun no matter whats around. From turning an old mop bucket into a basketball hoop, to “feeding the plants” by pouring dirt on them, to the universal game of running away from the “Tickle Monster”. Each week they focus on a new creative project, when I was there it was making little wallets/purses out of plastic grids and thread. They looked really cool when they were finished, and the kids got to take home what they made.

Overall, it was a rewarding experience and gave me insight into Nicaraguan life. If I had just been sightseeing, I wouldn’t have had to take the local microbus into the next town every day, I wouldn’t have interacted with locals as much, I wouldn’t have been forced to use and improve my Spanish daily with kids who are incredibly blunt and honest. Haha. It’s definitely a challenging experience but one I would highly recommend to anyone travelling.

Disclaimer: I know many people will argue that tourists shouldn’t volunteer, that ‘voluntourism’ replaces a job a local could be getting paid for with free labour from tourists. Rest assured my volunteering position was not displacing any paid work, and the Mariposa Language School definitely aims to make sure that is always true with their projects.