Boys and rules.

I realised I haven´t actually mentioned about the new boys yet. Last year we had 24 boys, this year we have 30 and 21 of them are new. I´m not sure what´s gone on with a lot of my boys from last year as only one boy (Jesus, my absolute favourite who I miss so so much but still gives me hugs everyday and comes to talk to me through the fence) has moved up to San Antonio and the others don´t live at Ciudad anymore. I know some of their situations have improved which means they can live at home again which is great but there´s still some boys that i´m not too sure about. Having so many new boys also added to the stress at the start as there are so so so (I can´t stress how many so´s I need right now) many rules in Ciudad, a ridiculous amount. So obviously a lot of my job was to teach them how we work here. Just a few of the rules are:

- when praying you have to hold your hands together perfectly flat.
- when praying you must chant along to all the prayers.
- when praying in the comedor you must face the front at all times.
- when stood still / sat in church / walking, you must have your arms folded, you can´t scratch an itch, play with your hands, hair etc.
- in church you are not allowed to turn around, swing your legs, fidget etc.
- distancia, firmes, descanso, atencion. I.e. an army march that all the kids have to do to get their attention.
- when stood in distancia your hand musn´t touch the boys shoulder infront.
- no talking in the comedor until you´ve finished everything on your plate.
- even if you obviously struggle reading and writing you still have to stay inside until you´ve finished the obviously too hard homework that you´ve been given.
- when stood in line in the house on the checkered floor you must be stood 2 square blocks behind the boy infront with your feet together.
- everyone helps with limpieza (cleaning) in the mornings.
- when playing outside you´re only allowed on the patio, no-one is allowed to go up the steps to the higher level where there is sand, monkey bars, swings, a slide and a see-saw.
- no-one is allowed to go play with the San Antonio boys on their side.

I´m pretty sure there are loads more which I can´t think of right now.

I find it hard to be an authoritive figure when there are ridiculous rules like some of these. Like walking with your arms folded is obviously not a very comfortable way to walk and sitting for an hour in church with your arms folded is made even worse when it´s bloody boiling and everyone is sweating. The worst one is definately them not being allowed to play on all the monkey bars, slides etc. When I was a kid, that would´ve been the first place i´d go play, especially when there´s nothing to play with on the patio. Their excuse is that dogs pee in the sand up there and there´s lots of illnesses in the sand so they´re not allowed incase they get ill. That´s fair enough but the kids go up there anyway before we see them and get them to come down, so they kick sand down when they jump and pick up as many illnesses in other places as they would there. Sometimes I just wish they were a bit more relaxed here as I feel my job is more to direct the kids rather than actually build up relationships with them and enjoy my time with them rather than feeling like if I left right now, I wouldn´t be too bothered.

Again another depressing blog but i´m just getting so sick of rules. And as there are so many, the boys break them all the time which then means that I have to tell them off which I hate doing when it´s something that I don´t believe in anyway. But then if I don´t say anything they think they can get away with anything when i´m around. Its just a vicious cycle. I feel bad for Hannah as she loves her work with the 3-6 year olds but I need someone to chat to about it which means that she has to hear all my rants. I guess that´s what PT partners are for.

Missing home,

Eebs x