Hello! Hello! Hello, my friend!

I have been meeting so many people in Montevideo and cannot remember anyone´s name! Pastor Wilma has taken me under her wing and into her house and family for the first couple days. Yesterday I met Teresa, a woman from Italy who is studying Spanish and also teaching English at La Obra (where I will be volunteering). She teaches English in Italy and is returning at the end of next week to start work again. After talking with her last night, we decided it would be a good idea for me to go with her to La Obra today and help her teach English. I spent a second night at Pastor Wilma´s house and awoke to a chilly morning. Wilma and her husband LOVE coffee, so I fit right in :) Wilma showed me around the rest of the church building. The church was built by Lutheran missionaries 50 years ago. It was built under the assumption that the congregation was going to be huge and they would need lots of space. However, this is not the case. The building is quite large, but they make use of the extra space by renting space out for a dentist office (on the first floor) and holding dance classes and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings every evening in the basement. There are two apartments in the basement and one on the second floor. I will be staying in one in the basement at the beginning of next week. There is so much to do here, it is great.
At 11, Wilma went to pick up her daughter, Karin at the airport. She has been in Europe for 3 weeks. I was dropped off to meet up with Teresa so she could take me to La Obra. We took a bus to La Obra. When we walked in, we were greeted with hugs and kisses by dozens of happy children. They are so much fun to be around, and so excited to have new people there. Everyone was very friendly. The first class Teresa taught was 5-7 year olds. We talked about body parts in English and sang a "Hello" and "Goodbye" song. Next, we sat in on a class where they were talking about discrimination. It is interesting to hear th same comments from kids in a different language. It just makes me realize how much everyone has in common, no matter where they are born. I really enjoyed listening to the children´s comments and prayer requests when we ended the hour in prayer. Afterwards, we had some time to play with the children. Somehow I got roped into playing a game where you use two hands to hit a basketball that is rolling on the ground and the goal is to hit it between someone else´s legs. If it goes through, then they only get to use one hand. If it goes through the same person´s legs again, they have to turn around, then they are out if it goes through a third time... or that is how I interpreted the game. The game ended when a young girl got out and took the ball with her because she was upset. I tried to reason with her, but I don´t think my Spanish is that good that I can reason with an angry 7 year old girl to let us play a silly game with the ball she has. It´s hard enough doing that with a child that speaks English!
After "recess", Teresa had a class of 10-11 year olds for English. Here, they asked me (with Teresa´s help) in English my name, where I am from, how old I am and where I come from. It was fun to talk with them in English and Spanish. Then we played a game with adding and subtracting and they had to give me the answer in English. In Spanish, they don´t use the "th" sound, so it was fun to hear them say "three" and "thirty". We practiced saying "th" a lot. Then we talked about animal names and the kids played charades to figure out names.
Overall, it was a great day, and I am very excited to start getting more involved in the activities around here. As for now, I am having dinner with Wilma and her family again, and I will meet Karin, her daughter tonight. I miss everyone back home and would love updates!