Primer dia de praxis

Primer dia de praxis—

This morning I woke up to the smell of chocolate chip pancakes. As I rolled out of bed, Michelle, my roommate, was just returning from the bathroom. “Get up silly! The CCs (community coordinators) made us breakfast!” she practically sings. Like every morning I slip on my flip-flops and head for the kitchen for my (first) cup of coffee of the day. As I enter the dining room, I am greeted by all of the students in the Casa! I feel like everyone has been up for hours, even though it’s only quarter to seven. “Can’t you tell Katy is a morning person,” Drew, one of my housemates, chuckles as he says this. “Haha,” I mumble in return and head straight for the kitchen, el café aromatico calling my name.
After a very enthusiastic breakfast in which the Backstreet Boys were included, we were finally on our way by seven thirty. Because our praxis site is not only the furthest away, but also in the opposite direction of the others, Quentin, Chris and I took a taxi. Salvador, our driver, chatted about his experiences in the war, the role of the United States, and even mentioned Russia. “Have you taken classes about the war?” he asked. “Yes, I am a Latin American History minor,” I respond. “We are all also taking the class here,” Quentin adds. “Que chivo,” says Salvador.
Our taxi ride was short-lived, and we arrived just fifteen minutes later to the convent in San Jacinto where Soeur Rosa, the Cedro director, greeted us with hugs and kisses. “Que maravilloso that you are finally here,” she says. She continued to give us a brief tour of the convent, adding specifically to me, that they can always use knew girls to practice. She continued to hint at this throughout the day.
The trip up the volcano towards Cedro was nothing short of interesting. Crammed into the back of a pickup while it is raining always makes a typically one hour ride feel like three. Not only did the rain make it difficult for our driver Joaquin to see, but also there were lots of mudslides, boulders, people, livestock and other vehicles to avoid on the narrow road.
We finally arrived to El Cedro where a crowd of a little over thirty children greeted us enthusiastically. “Bienvenidos!” they all sang, just as they had on Saturday. Soeur Rosa wasted no time in dismissing the kids to their classes, and taking us to the ‘sala de reuniones’, where the women of the community discuss the use of the center. There, she explained the different opportunities for how we were to spend our time in Cedro. Computer and English classes stood out to me, along with helping in the ‘comedor’. Following of brief meeting with Soeur, she hurried off to work in the kitchen and sent us in the general direction of the computer lab. We found the computer lab with little difficulty because it was the only classroom that had a lock on it. The room was also cooler than the others, with three fans blowing and the air conditioning on low. I went straight to the first desktop and removed the cover, and crushed off the thin layer of dust from the keyboard. I wondered to myself whether the machines had been touched since the last Casa students were there.
I familiarized myself with the dated pc and windows program, and just as I was finishing, a group of five children came in. Sergio was obviously the oldest, leading the timid pack into the room. “Quieren tomar clases de computadora,” I ask. “Si,” they respond simply, showing no obvious excitement. “Bueno, empezamos,” I said as I motioned toward the four working machines.
Computer classes went fairly smoothly. Chris took on a more advanced boy who wanted to learn more about Microsoft Word. Quentin helped two young boys who were just learning to type. I worked with two girls who also needed some typing tips.
By noon, I was starting to get very hungry, but before we could eat, Soeur told us, the children had to eat first. Every spoonful of rice and beans that I served to over one hundred children was painful because it smelled so good. I had to keep reminding myself that for some of these kids this would be their only meal of the day. I could wait another thirty minutes for my meal, which would not simply consist of rice and beans, but also fresh vegetables, coffee and a hard-boiled egg. Lunch was chaotic, but lots of fun. On more than one occasion, one of the little boys and girls came and gave me hugs and gracias for their meal. One girl in particular wanted to know if I could stay in Cedro with her forever.
After lunch most of the children cleared out of the center, many heading home to work, and the most fortunate back to school until quarter to five. Some children however stayed around. As I wrapped up my conversation over dishes with Soeur, I wandered out to the cement slab where I heard lots of laughing. Chris and Quentin had started a game of futbol with some of the local boys. All of them barefoot and having the time of their lives being pushed on the ground and dancing in circles when a teammate scored a goal. I decided to sit down next to Juana, the only girl watching the futbol match and show her pictures of my family. “Que bonita,” she kept saying in reference to my younger sister who is close to her age. As we sat there enjoying each other’s company, three other young girls approached us with as many flowers as they could each carry. One by one they proceeded as timidly to give me their bouquets. I had never seen so many different colors and textures. “Gracias!” I said and gave them all hugs.
Our day ended around three because we have such a long ride home. Not only did it take about an hour to get down the mountain, but also Soeur informed us that we would have some other passengers to stop and drop off on more than one occasion on the way. Two men with swinging machetes, a young male student, and a woman with her son sat in the bed of the truck as we fought the mud and rain once more.

Katy

Best meal I’ve had so far:
Pupusas de chorizo
Sliced avocado and onion
Pilsner
Chocobanana for dessert!!!!!!

“To be human, is to live out our deepest truth.”