Day-Care

Amanda, Hyang, and I entered the large, mostly empty room. There was a row of cribs along the far wall, and just one bin full of stuffed animals. It seemed the exact opposite of the day care I worked at in NY, which had hand-prints painted on the floors, mobiles hanging from the ceiling, and of course, lots of toys and books.

This Costa Rican daycare is a donation based NGO, and they are under-staffed right now because of the lack of finances. On Wednesday half of our class went to help with the kids. Amanda, Hyang, and I volunteered to help in the baby room. The fact that we don’t speak Spanish is no problem with the little ones, it was just a little hard to communicate with the staff.

The 10 “babies” were ages 2-3 and SUPER CUTE!!! Sorry, we’re not allowed to post pictures of them :( The cultural norm here is to dress nice to go out, so even though the toddlers were from poor families, they were dressed in good, clean clothes. The boy’s hair was jelled and spiked, and the girl’s curls were in pig-tails and pony-tails.

The bigger kids raced about on little riding toys, or threw the ball back and forth with us, while the little ones played peek-a-boo behind the cribs, giggling whenever we looked at them. Two cheeky little boys and one of the girls took the toy top from Amanda and chased each other around the room, hiding it behind their backs, or burying it under the stuffed animals.

When the teacher got out a snack, the kids instantly gathered in the corner by the door, trying to climb into their high-chairs, or sit at the little table. I was surprised by how quiet and well-behaved these little ones are, although obviously eager for their snack. I think about my daycare toddlers having a complete melt-down while we prepared their food. Maybe that’s because the USA is more time-oriented and scheduled. Here meal time is whenever the food is ready, therefore kids are not trained to be starving at 7, noon, and 5.

As the kids enjoyed their cookies and juice, Rachel came to tell us it was time to go home…until next time...