�AYA Service Tour 2009 in Monterrey, Mexico (03/07-15/09)

Day 4: Mid-week memoires

����������� More activities seem to be happening around the neighborhood that I can catch with my own eyes, and I was told that Jer was leading an incredible cooking class inside a nearby house of the community. Yummy!

����������� Robs singing class was gaining momentum too and a couple of more guitars and smiles appeared today among the locals.

����������� In the teaching tents I had the joy to participate in teaching and see Peter and Ariel doing an incredible job in teaching math and English respectively. Peter was fully geared with his sweet pencil sharpener and his warm way of talking and Ariel was jovial and efficient as a real teacher, which would have her classmates cringe, I am sure.

����������� At the Painting venture right next door, drawings of hearts and other expressions of love were prepared for the volunteers by the children of Alianza Real which was very touching for all of us. Tannis, Phyllis, Sarah and Bekah were doing a great job in setting up and helping the children make paintings of a different artist every day following a program Tannis and Sarah came up with. I was fortunate to help with translation for the Van Gogh theme of the day.

����������� The glum grey walls of the nearby basketball court were to finally embellished by the children of Alianza Real, who thanks to our program, had access to paint and spray-paint they lacked before and they did more than the usual graffiti you would expect; the created art and the results can be seen in the pictures here.

����������� Back to the construction site, where I had the joy to exercise a lot in drilling and assembling the platform for the slide the kids were to enjoy at the end of the week, under the orders of Connie and the help of Rob, whose talents are not limited to singing but is also a very meticulous constructor. By the end of the day, the sandbox was finished and we were moving on to more toys for the playground.

����������� On the background of the work, I had the chance to talk to Peter again on the bus and I was elated to find out that he names his superfast boat Mistress quickly for any connotations you can imagine! And our beautiful day ended in the usual Mexican tastes of chili my mouth gradually gets used to and with the refreshments of margaritas I will never get enough of. Deborah chose a nice blue tint for hers which was promptly dubbed the Yale-gherita.

Cheers to a successful day! On to the end of the week