My Final Words

4/11     Words cannot describe what I felt throughout the day. In the past, I thought that saying goodbye to someone you love was a burden. Today felt like saying goodbye to the kids was a beginning for us both. Kevin says that it’s the opportunity that sets us apart from the students. I believe it’s the love you are given daily. It’s to be said that love is the best medicine. These kids go home to where some of them are treated worse than the pigs they own or the dogs on the streets. If you give them some love and a little bit of affection, the negative energy consuming them becomes positive, and so does their love for you. Today I felt the positive love, energy, and force when I was at the party. Yimi goes home every day in the shadow of his mother, looking in to the face of the dark side. At the party I saw way more to him than just coloring and outlining shapes. He was a gentleman, with a big, amazing, intelligent heart. While Yimi and I were dancing I could feel his mother’s eyes sinking into my skin, looking at me as if I was sent here from God himself. When he left with his mother she whispered something in my ear, yet I couldn’t understand because it was in Spanish. Yimi was crying and so was I, in that moment it felt like when we hugged our tears were combined and so was our love for each other. When the bus left, it felt like I should run after them because they took my impacted heart along with them. I was remembering the first day with all the kids and them getting off the bus, with their joy filled faces, looking at us like they have known us forever. Today when they got on the bus they were sad, yet they had our names printed all over their hearts. Douglas, the kid who is scared of flying, gay, and the nicest person you will ever meet, was crying tears of joy and sadness. Joseph had no clue what was going on until I hugged him and said, “I love you and I will miss you so much.” This week will always be in my heart. The students love, strength, and compassion, will always teach me to carry on.

4/9         Today I worked with Nora, and most of the children are Autistic.  I worked with a variety of different students, at different ages and levels.  At first we started out with drawing and coloring lots of different shapes. They got the hang of it really, really fast. After we finished reviewing the shapes and colors, we moved on to learning the vowels and vowel sounds. We played a variety of different games, including an easy competition. On a miniature white board I would write a variety of Spanish-English words and phrases from around the room. I would first say how many vowels there were in the word or phrase and they would say which ones they were and then their sounds. After the students begged me to have lunch with them, they dragged me into the lunch room where an interesting Spanish/English conversation took place. After lunch I showed Yimi and Royner how to kick a soccer ball and we played a little one-on-one game. It made me feel really happy and excited to teach them a great sport to play at the school. We played soccer for about 20 minutes until we were told to stop and go inside. After we went inside we had a play-dough session, where at first I showed the class how to count the dough and add using balls of play-dough.  During the afternoon Ty, Addison, and I went on 2 home visits, the children both looked healthy. The second home visit we attended was about 15 minutes away from the school. Hensiy is 11 years old and she was living with Brain Paralysis, being paralyzed from the waist down, and a valve in her heart is swelled. She was unable to talk, yet understood about everything we were saying. She could eat anything but really enjoyed rice, beans, and cheese. When she was younger she had attended Escuala Especial Maria Romaro but her mother had taken out due to her crying the whole time she was there. We are planning to take her to the party on Friday to introduce her to the students and teachers. Henisy has multiple pills and medicine, including a liquid medicine for her heart. She also takes different pills that cost about 13 American dollars per month. I learned a lot from the kids at the school. I learned to stand up for others, understand what’s right even when no one else is doing it, and always trust myself.

4/10       Today I worked in the classroom with many different intelligent students. They were learning about the same things we were learning at my school in social studies. At first Sophia and I had no clue what to teach, nor how to communicate with the students. We started off with a higher level classroom then moved on to a classroom more at the level of a 4^th grader. At first Sophia and I made the students in to teams and wrote simple 3 digit problems on the white board. Rosa, Juan, and Christina were really nervous to speak in front of us, but by the end of the day we were all communicating in sign language. At 10:00 the students went to lunch, Douglas, Ty, Sophia and I played basketball. I. Was. Ashamed. My shots were off and, I kept falling. Dad you know what I’m talking about. Today, I not only learned a lot from myself but from the students. By the end of the day Christina was teaching Sophia, Jared and I Spanish and sign language. Today I feel like I have so much more to offer the world, much more than my lame excuses and constant attitude. The students I worked with today don’t get to ride in a chilled van, and go home to a hot meal and air conditioned room. I feel like I need to stop whining, suck it up, and  take the frown off my face and put a smile on someone else’s.

P.S Mom and Dad,

I still have lice and have a boyfriend named Larry. He’s a bear.

4/5-4/6      We waited for the cows to come home. Literally, we were in a bus for 3 hours while Tyler peed in a bottle, and Kevin slept on the floor, and everyone else ate HI-CHEWS and sang to Eminem. The only rules were no Jesus no Disney; by the end of the bus ride we broke those rules within a sentence.

            4/6 On the first day at the school we had cleaned everything. When we got there we met the principal and our translators. Then we took a tour of the school so we knew what level and disability the classrooms were. Addison and I started at a deaf classroom with minimal chairs, lots of posters, a bathroom and whiteboard. We started with organizing some of the bookshelves and dusting. Then we moved on to sweeping and mopping the floors. While doing this I had taken a little time to realize how lucky we are to have running water, electricity and many resources in our classrooms. After mopping and sweeping Addison and I went to clean most of the restrooms on the right side of the school. After lunch we went to clean the trash in and around the school. Our entire group picked up about 4 big bags worth of trash. When we were on the bus ride back to our amazing hotel, we were dead silent. While everyone else was explaining how hot, tired, and exhausted they were, I was thinking about meeting the students, teachers, and traveling to the home visits. Questions were flying through my head; will they like me? If they like me, will they respect me?  I was extremely nervous and anxious to meet them.

            4/7 At 5:30 we heard banging on our doors and we were up and getting dressed, prepared, and soon breakfast was in our happy stomachs. Not knowing what laid ahead of us today, we got into the van and began our voyage to the school. Three things that the people of Nicaragua love are gum, bikes, and paint. There are paintings everywhere it seems that whenever-wherever there is room to paint pictures they will. When we got to the school we met the teachers, we explained our lesson plans and got a feel for the classrooms. I. Was. Terrified. If I didn’t make a first impression, a good first impression my experience would be butt ugly. The kids would hate me, not trust me, or not respect me. Walking to the school bus I pushed out all of those thoughts as I saw the kids faces. At first they were grim, sad, and mad, but when they saw us they were full of smiles and happiness. When they got out of the bus they took one non-judgmental look and immediately hugged us. Naturally I cried. I took a moment then jumped right into the lesson. Jesus is blind, but that doesn’t get in his way. He is extremely smart and funny. He had a challenging start with the numbers and letters but as the day went on he began to get much more familiar with them. After awhile I had taught him how to make patterns and make a beat using everyday tools, the teacher had requested that I would sing the cup song. I sang it about 6 times; Jesus’ father and Kevin recorded the whole thing. Jesus loved it so much, at the end of the day he began to learn the English words and the beats. Joshua is about 7 years old and he has two disabilities, deaf and blind, yet he is an amazing child and quite handsome. After Jesus and Joshua left, two boys named Jimmy and Joseph walked in. Joseph walked in not knowing who I was, he pointed to me grabbed my hand and sat in my lap. Jimmy was doing very well until he admitted that he didn’t want to go home. He said that his mother hit him when he did something naughty. When the kids left I had a sudden urge to take them home and keep them as my own.

            4/8 Today Tyler and I had the home visits with Lisa-Marie. We went to 3 different homes but I will only share one amazing experience. The child Roger was at physical therapy with his mother so we could not meet him, but we saw lots of pictures. So we questioned the grandmother, she was extremely nice and sweet. The baby was at the hospital about 22 days ago due to respiratory problems. His disability was poor motor skills, and a growth on the soft part of his forehead. There were 5 people living in the well-kept and newly repaired house. He can walk and talk like a normal baby. After the home visits we went back to the school. I visited all the classrooms with success. Yay! I met all the students that were there that day and helped them. During lunch I played some futbol with some of the kids who are deaf. That is were I met Douglas. He is deaf but that doesn’t get in his way. He is funny, smart, and just overall amazing. He calls me Rosa half: meaning half red, half black because of my awesome hair. When we got to the bus we had many emotions buzzing through our heads. Here I am typing my blog, blindfolded on what awaits me tomorrow, yet I’m quite excited.

P.S mom and dad,

I have lice.