Kids everywhere!

The baking workshop started yesterday. Every afternoon, the whole centro is filled with the smell of sweets. Yesterday when I finished up English class, I smelled something sweet and citrusy, and identified it as pineapple. I asked Doña Thelma if they were making pineapple cake, but she told me they were making Hawaiian pizza… This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they were selling individual pizza’s for 5 cordobas (about 30 cents) apiece, and that they’re going to be selling something different every morning. I think tomorrow they’re making croissants…

Yesterday was also the first day of school at the centro. For Itzia and Leddys, the girls in my house, it was their first day of pre-school. Ana helped them bathe, put on their white button down shirts tucked into pleated blue skirts, white knee socks and black Mary Janes. She slicked back their curls and sprayed them with Strawberry Shortcake perfume. They put on their backpacks (one blue and one pink with cartoon cats on them) and went off. I arrived later on. The teacher was leading all the preschoolers around the different parts of the centro… They were in 2 lines, one the boys, another the girls, each one had their hands on the shoulders of the kid in front of them. As I was sitting in the office planning my class, I could hear some of the kids crying. Apparently a pretty large percentage of the kids don’t make it through the first week because they can’t adapt to being away from their moms, so they have to wait for the following year to start school… It’s really funny to see the kids in the schoolyard, all under the age of 12, dressed up, hair slicked back, wearing perfume (the boys too!)… It’s like a fashion show for the parents to show off their kids in. Although when they get home, they immediately strip off the uniform, put on their playclothes and forget all about school.