Blog 3 — Mi vida
On Sunday August 13th, my flight left at six in the afternoon and my life hasn’t been the same since. Although the flight was only two hours, I arrived at six time in Honduras due to the time change and so began my volunteer work 12 hours later. I volunteer at Escuela Internacional La Lima, from seven thirty in the morning to two thirty in the afternoon with four grade levels ranging from Toddler to Kindergarten. Three to four days a week I go to a nutrition center for a few hours to simply love and care for the children that have been separated from their families while they are feed back to health.
My mornings are usually quiet and lonely as I am one of the only people awake at six in the morning — despite living with my grandfather, he doesn’t go to work until eight in the morning. It is traditional here for families to have help to prepare meals and tidy the house. In our case Ondina (the help) is more like family as she has been working with my grandfather since I was born. Some morning she will prepare pancakes (panqueques) for me, but other mornings I ask her not to worry about my breakfast as her children live with us a well and has to get them ready for school.
By seven my aunt is outside the gate ready to take me and my two cousins Johana Maria and Samuel to school. The thirty-minute drive never feels long as my face is stuck to the window as I look at the mountains, the fields and the crops, unusual to the Florida scenery I am used to. On the drive there, every day I see a father biking his son to school, also unusual for me but an admirable sight. Once we arrive at the school I head straight to the Toddler class room where I am of assistant to Mrs. Suany and Miss Evelyn and the ten two-year old’s who I am incredibly attached to after only three weeks. To them I am “mami, papi, ale and uppy,” but who wouldn’t be okay with those nicknames when they come from a bunch of waddling two-year old’s. Due to their age there isn’t much to teach them but develop their vocalization. An hour and a half into the school day I transition to Pre-Kindergarten where the children are being introduced to English. The hard part about my job is trying to level all the kids as it is very much prevalent that some are definitely struggling. I get a lot of support from the teacher and the teacher’s assistant but with about 15 kids all varying skills the work does become a little tiresome at 10 in the morning. Yet occasional energy drainage does not compare to the joy the kids bring me in simply seeing their lit up faces when I walk in the rooms and the abundance of hugs I get as I leave the classroom to switch grade levels.
After Pre-Kindergarten I transition back down to Nursery which are the three to four-year old’s. I don’t think there are word to describe the air when I walk in the room. I can barely take two steps into the classroom before I have five boys hanging on me, hugging my legs and on my back. During my time in Nursery I assist Mrs. Patty with her 14 students teaching them social interaction, cues, and mental developmental skills. At this stage in their lives, Mrs Patty explained to me, the kids are evaluated by the skills they possess such as being able to tell about an even that happened to them in the past, or if they can use their creativity while playing with play-doh. Between eleven thirty to twelve thirty in the morning I usually go back to Toddler to help with lunch time an occasionally have my lunch taken by the two-year old’s — haha.
Finally, at twelve thirty I have to sneak out of the classroom before the toddlers notice my absence. Once in Kindergarten I do much more work helping them with reading, writing, speaking English. Miss. Sherly and Mrs. Melisa have organized centers where each of us dedicate 20 minutes to working on a different task such as writing one word/sentences in English and drawing for it, practicing numbers over 10 or reading. The same could be said about the ambiance when I walk in. On multiple occasions Mrs. Melisa has commented on the difference she sees in the kid’s engagement when I walk in the room compared to previous activities.
On the days that I do go help at the nutrition center I can’t help but feel grateful: for everything I have had and the unconditional love I have obtained from my parents, and secondly, for the opportunity I have been given to help this wonderful cause. During my time there I am primarily socializing with the kids there. I have learned that the power a love is an incredibly strong source of energy that these children are so deserving of. Later in the evening myself and other volunteers proceeded to putting bibs on all the children, sitting them in their chairs, saying a prayer thanking god for the food they are receiving.
Looking at my experience as a whole and everything I have accomplished in just three weeks, forming close relationships with the children, having the teachers call them my sons and daughters, to sharing my heart with the boys and girls in the nutrition center has opened my eyes to incredibly blessed I am to be here working every day with such incredible people and the opportunity I have been granted to help people other than myself.
“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” — Kahlil Gibran
