Rice, Beans, and how to live the dream.

Where have I been, where am I going?

This week was my first week of my own work.
Saturday We did volunteer work with the kids that are in the scholarship program. We went to Martita´s house and cleaned up. Martita is a woman who lives in our neighborhood who is as thin as a pencil, she is 70 something years old, no teeth, and very simple. (If you have facebook I posted a video of Martita in our house) When she is happy, she legit will make you smile, some times Martita is not so happy and its a sad day when that happens!
(I can´t remember all the days of the week and what i did each day so i´ll just skip around!)
I worked in the library one day and at first there was no one in it and I got a little feeling of what am I doing? But then 3 girls showed up and needed help with their homework. It was a really neat experience to just sit and hang out and figure out what causes hurricanes and where they happen and all that, in spanish.

Sunday- The Feast of St. Francis!!!
We went over to the Friars house and had a huge feast. We watched them kill the pig a couple days before, then we ate pig at the party! It was delicious! It was good to talk to the Friars and get to know them more and more. They are amazing men and we are lucky to have them so close! The neighborhood loves them, for good reasons, they do amazing things for the people here.
I got to hang out with a bunch of the girls from the neighborhood and they were cracking me up. They also thought I was very funny because i´m not scared to make a fool of myself by dancing or learning games that require directions in spanish. Oh well.

Another day when I was in the library, translating letters that some of the kids had written for their sponsors, 5 little girls came in and we ended up having story time. It was pretty precious to just sit around and read clifford the big red dog.It was also very good practice with my pronunciation! After we read, the girls startd to ask me about America and what it was like. They told me that their dads live there and they want to go.
Then they told me a story about one of their step dads and how he was killed because he was trying to rob a house. They are very open about their personal lives, it all still hurts them, but they are very willing to share and to ask for help.

My favorite day was when I went to Casa Ayuda. A guy (Lenin) that helps us out also does physical therepy. Casa Ayuda is for special needs kids and Lenin does physical therepy there too. We worked with a boy who has CP and then I tried my sign language out with all the deaf students. They were so happy that someone was trying to communicate with them. American Sign language and spanish sign language is different, but I could get by with the basics, and finger spelling. I went into their art class room and was blown away. One boy, Roberto, has a painting that is something that could very easily be sold. He is 15 years old and hopefully when he leaves >Casa ayuda he will be able to have his work be with his art. I really am going to look forward to going there every week. Hopefully we will be able to get some of those kids in the sponsorship program, because they need so much help!

As always, it is little by little and one step at a time.
Miss you all!