If thats lucky...

Today I quite possibly became the luckiest girl in Madrid. I'll explain; apparently there is a saying that if you get crapped on by a bird you are supposed to have good luck. Teaching English sidebar; Crap = "stuff" but be careful, it can also mean SHIT!" Yes, I took that verbatim from a lesson plan today about getting "stuff done."

Anyways, I am waiting for the local English second-hand bookstore to open to sell back my

 teaching books and with that money and 

generous donations from my friends and family, buy some books for the kids! As I am sitting on the bench, I literally hear what could have been a roar from the God's above my head. Well, that "roar" turned out to be a shower of shit that literally pounded the pavement in front of me like someone threw a large bucket of water over the side of their window TEN STORIES UP, no lie. Let's just say my bag, shoes, jeans and half the bench could now go back 20 years to the 80's and match the paint splattered style that I hope to God will never be cool again. That or we could have gone to Green Bay, Wisconsin where every person there has a pair of those outrageous pants in green and yellow to support their precious Packers. This was serious. Acting casual (per usual) I walked up to an elderly couple who were also waiting for the store to open and asked for some tissues. Keep in mind, I am speaking in spanish and I am so flustered I said "una pareja" pooped on me rather than "un pajero." Basically I think they thought I had just been seriously wronged by my boyfriend. Oh well.

On the bright side (right) that is the SECOND time in a month I have had a bird's poop land on me, the first being DURING a class on my head...true story. For those of you keeping track of my luckiness, add another time this year where a bird pooped on my jeans and finally several years ago while rollerblading in "mid-blade" a bird managed to find me. Seriously, I am set for life. I hope they decide to bless someone else as much as they have so kindly taken to me.

All this is before the most important part of my day and that was getting the COOLEST books for the kids in Uganda. Take a look at the pictures; I got a 3D Dinosaur book that blew me away. This book kept ME occupied for 10 minutes so I can only hope these kids will never put it down! I also believe I bought every single book with a person on the cover who was African-American (ok so that was 4 books) as I think it is important to have kids relate to characters in a story. 

I got to thinking about how children "relate" to characters in books and need role models when I started searching through the shelves for cool books to bring. I never thought about it and I bet you haven't either but next time you go to the bookstore, pretend you are shopping for a small child in Africa who has no concept of "mega-stores" or malls and relates the term fast-food to the animal he just couldn't catch for dinner. Now try picking out books that this child will find relevant, interesting, and helpful. It was a lot harder than I thought! It was a moment where I felt really grateful for what I had and I remembered all of my favorite books when I was growing up. I was obsessed with Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High, and Babysitters Club. NONE of those books have any relevance to a child's life when growing up in a developing country with relatives because he/she was orphaned due to AIDS. That was a really unexpected moment for me that I think will occur a lot more frequently once I am there when it comes to appreciating my good fortune to be born in the U.S. I guess I am the luckiest girl...

To end the post, I had my final class with the 2 cutest little kids I teach, Javi and Luisa. Luisa just turned 6 and I guess she feels that when you turn 6, you are 1. too cool for pictures and 2. much too cool for English class! Fortunately, I managed to sneak a few pictures with her in them and attached one. Their mother, Marisa has been my spanish teacher when I have time on Saturdays and I will really miss their family! Muchisimi gracias para todos Marisa y bueno suerte con tu hija "super guay"