Yale Name = Limelight for Good

Helloooo my loves! I'm sorry about the lack of updates, this week has been veryyy busy. I've come to the realization that I don't know how people have 9 to 5 jobs and EVER have time for ANYTHING after work! I'm not 9 to 5 and I'm certainly not in an office somewhere, but still.

I'll give you a quick overview of the work we've done so far. And after tomorrow hopefully I'll have pictures to put up of the UNBELIEVABLY ADORABLE kids =D

First off, in a conversation with Shanah, I realized I am not in love with little kids. As in, I don't love all kids (or babies) unconditionally, the way most people do (and the way I love dogs lol). I taught at (and later ran) my karate dojo for 5 years, so I know it's not that I don't like children. I absolutely LOVED my kids--I would talk to anyone who would listen about Jonathan's latest antics (the kid is such a smart-ass haha), or how Fahim once told me, with the air of someone explaining 2+2 =4 to someone, that I was "SuperWoman" because I could fix anything. That's just it--they were mine. Once I get to know kids, I go crazy about them. Hence why I'm having such a good time at Cre-Ser =)

This Colonia de Ferias is a two-week long summer camp for Autistic children. The first session started this past Monday and is for kids between the ages of 2 and 7. The next starts when this one ends and is for kids age 8 to 14. We have 11 (soon to be 12, I think) kids enrolled in the camp, which allows most of the kids to have two interns each, who are from the local university, all majoring in things like Nutrition, Psychology, Physiotherapy, etc. Three of the kids are not Autistic; they are siblings of other kids enrolled in the camp. They are split up into three rooms based on color (YEAH, GREEN) and work on a series of activities with them, such as educational games, arts, sports, social interactions (trying to get them to play together can be hard haha), and other stimulating activities. The kid that I was assigned happens to be one of the few "normal" ones (once again, don't go PC on my ass)--his name is Carlos Vinicius. He's 6, really talkative, and has a great imagination. I really really like my kid, he just doesn't require the attention that the other kids, especially in the green room, need. The professionals at Cre-Ser said that they wanted me to experience working with an Autistic child (to which I was like, well, considering I came from the US to Brasil for that, yeah, that would be nice lol) so they told me to move freely around all the children and help and interact as much as I wanted without worrying about who I was assigned to. And by that I mean that Rose, who is the professional in charge of our room, would watch over Vinicius as he draws while I would go settle Gisele's tauntrum and get her to play with numbers instead. It worked out great the past two days, because the other children in my room are Gisele and Pedro Victor, two of the most adorable little kids I've EVER seen.

Gisele (Gee-zeh-lee) is a regular at the center (I'm sorry I switch between saying Cre-Ser and the center, they're the same thing), which she's been attending since it opened in February. She's 4 and she vocalizes (makes noises only she understands) but she's only just starting to form words; today, watching a DVD concert of Xuxa (DOES ANYBODY REMEMBER HER??) singing a song called Tchu Tchu Cao, Gisele sang along when Xuxa said "peludo," which means furry (the song was about a dog). We were stunned! That's like the 4th word in her vocabulary, the others being chi chi (pee), liçensa (com liçensa = excuse me), and cinco (five) hahaha.



As for Pedro Victor, I could gush about him for DAYS. He's either 3 or 4 and he has the most winning smile I've ever seen. He's really intelligent, can talk pretty well, knows every single animal that roams or has ever roamed this planet, and likes to draw on the dry-erase board. Actually, good luck getting him to stop haha. He draws the same thing over and over again, a circle with two eyes and either a neutral or a sad mouth and then a bunch of squiggles and bigger circles around it: Mamae, or mom. We have yet to understand why the non-happy smile, because he's smiling big all the time, especially when he erases something well by himself and I say "muito bom!" haha. He's like the world's biggest cutie =D



Vinicius is really intelligent and I'm only worried he's not challenged enough in this atmosphere. Not gonna lie, my heart goes out to him whenever Rose (Hoe-zee) makes the signal for me to leave him and she takes over. She's not a bundle of joy and fun all the time lol. He's actually come to ask for me when I'm not with him because he wants me to play with him or see something or just stay at the table with him =) Awwww my kid is sooo cute!



Okay, this is was supposed to be a really short post, haha, but I told you, once I start on these kids, I can't stop. Wait until I have pictures, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Until then, I only have this, which explains the whole Colonia de Feria thing (aaaand has a picture of yours truly with Gisele and two other interns), albeit in Portuguese. Put your language skills to the test, Nico! =)

http://www.farn.br/novo/navegacao/noticias/vernoticia.php?id=617


Hope your summers are making you as happy as mine is!

<333allie

PS I LOVE BRANFROSH!