Tuesday March 27, 2012
Many kids here think they will never get anywhere in life but Sister Jean Gabrielle constantly reminds the children that the only way out of poverty is education. Today, it was beautiful to see how eager the kids were to be learning. We had them sit around in a circle and asked them what they wanted to be when they were older. It was amazing to see the aspirations they had for themselves. Kids wanted to be police men, doctors, lawyers, baseball players, nurses and a few wanted to be artists or even a sister of the church themselves.
Although it was an incredible experience to help teach the kids about Jesus by singing songs, English by singing the alphabet and doing arts and crafts with them, the language barrier was very frustrating. Even with many of us taking high school and college level Spanish classes, communication was sometimes tough. However, a language we thought was dead was brought back to life by having to interact with these children. Alejandra speaks very good Spanish but we felt as though we could all be a greater influence on them if we could better understand each other.
Despite the somewhat of a language barrier, we can all already feel connections being made with both the children and the people whose house we are helping to paint. Elizabeth brought up how although painting seems like a superficial change, it still feels good to be making something beautiful for them. In addition, Deacon Cecily feels blessed to be able to take part in giving these people their first house. The two teenage boys, Jeiro and Francisco, asked the girls if they'd miss him when they left. This really touched Bintah, D'janna, D’aesha, Ashleigh, Deacon Cecily, Elizabeth and Ellenie because the past two days had made them feel so close to the people whose house they were painting, like they had already become a family. It is sad to be leaving them and moving on to paint a new house, but it is also very touching because the boys mentioned wanting to visit us where we are staying, at the Kellogg center. Even though it is only Tuesday, we know we are going to miss everyone we've met and came in contact with here when we leave because we have already begun to create such close connections.
Although it was an incredible experience to help teach the kids about Jesus by singing songs, English by singing the alphabet and doing arts and crafts with them, the language barrier was very frustrating. Even with many of us taking high school and college level Spanish classes, communication was sometimes tough. However, a language we thought was dead was brought back to life by having to interact with these children. Alejandra speaks very good Spanish but we felt as though we could all be a greater influence on them if we could better understand each other.
Despite the somewhat of a language barrier, we can all already feel connections being made with both the children and the people whose house we are helping to paint. Elizabeth brought up how although painting seems like a superficial change, it still feels good to be making something beautiful for them. In addition, Deacon Cecily feels blessed to be able to take part in giving these people their first house. The two teenage boys, Jeiro and Francisco, asked the girls if they'd miss him when they left. This really touched Bintah, D'janna, D’aesha, Ashleigh, Deacon Cecily, Elizabeth and Ellenie because the past two days had made them feel so close to the people whose house they were painting, like they had already become a family. It is sad to be leaving them and moving on to paint a new house, but it is also very touching because the boys mentioned wanting to visit us where we are staying, at the Kellogg center. Even though it is only Tuesday, we know we are going to miss everyone we've met and came in contact with here when we leave because we have already begun to create such close connections.