Kiddies, feministas and lovely chileans

I visited one of the institutions VE works with for the first time today. I spent the afternoon at a small home for children whose families are temporarily unable to look after them while social workers try to help the families get to a point where it is appropriate for the children to return to them. There were only a few children there but we had lots of fun just playing make believe games, looking at my picture book and dancing around. I was surprised how much of their spanish I could understand and I'm feeling lots more confident about starting work, though I am still overwhelmed by the fact that I am going to be working with up to one hundred children : don't think I'll ever remember their names...

This evening my friend Aisan and I went to a rally and march for International Women's Day, which was loads of fun : there were singers and poets at the rally and people dancing in the main square to a samba band. I tried to chat to quite a few people and hopefully have a group of young feminists I can hook up with, which is great. I'm amazed how friendly and open everyone is here, especially after Paris : everyone is more than happy to chat and luckily they like talking so the conversation isn't too dependent on me. I've been chatting to my soon to be housemate and to the girl I met on the plane in spanish on msn: v impressed with myself hehe.

Tomorrow we're supposed to be doing some variety show thing at the Volunteer House where all the new volunteers have to do a skit. Not too excited about that! But have to play along I guess, I expected some 'Go Team!' US type stuff so I'll just grin and bear it. Am certainly working on my slight anti-US prejudice anyway! I'm hoping it will all be gone by the time I leave, but I must admit that I'm glad there are three other europeans here too.

Bedtime! Lxx