But my Prepa children are absolutely and completely precious. And truly light up everything. I have no idea how I'll leave them in a month. The joy that literally fills their faces every time they see me walk towards their classroom is heart-melting. The run to me with so much glee, arms outstretched for a hug. As I hug them and say good morning, they'll proudly (and without prompting) produce a phrase from class, such as, "I'm fine, thank you!" or "My name is Nahomy!" or "I need water please!" It's really cute. Sometimes my kids will come up to me and shyly hand me something - a mandarin orange, a drawing, a stale Oreo. It's astounding how much they love me. And how much I love them. I can't even believe it or adequately put it into words.
I tutor seven times a week - two of my Prepa students each get two lessons a week, and another one of those seven lessons is an adult English class that I'm teaching to the family of one of my students. I still teach Elmer to read once a week. It's all a lot. All of the kids I tutor are extremely behind, except for one, whose parents simply want the extra lessons. For my hour of tutoring in each of these cases I make $2.50. Sometimes I'm given food or a snack, sometimes not. And while tutoring is completely different from teaching and completely exhausting, I really do like the chance to work with my kids, almost able to hold their focus for an entire hour.
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| Hernan, during a station that he participated in. |
Twice a week I tutor Hernan. He's new to CBS this year and came to the school with no English and no real sense of how to act in a school environment. During most of my lessons I look over to see him leaning all the way across his table to talk to another kid. Or I look over and he simply isn't in his seat at all. Sometimes he's under my desk, wandering around the room, or playing with toys. During stations I often lose him. At recess he is constantly racing around, with occasional stops in the classroom to grab a bite of his food.
Hernan is beyond wonderful, though, and definitely one of my favorite kids in Prepa. He has so much energy. He's seldom still or quiet, and is honestly quite a challenge in the classroom. His attention span is even lower than the already low average attention span of my class. I often have to literally hold his hand to get him to focus. It's not easy to try to teach him English. But Hernan has the biggest, most delightful smile. He's the tiniest kid in the class but just lights up when he's happy. When he does something right, he beams. Every day he races towards and I absolutely have to pick him up in a hug. He adores me, and I him.
Hernan has come so far since the beginning of the year. Even though he writes "Hahahan" because he still can't write his name, it's better than "H" at the beginning of the year. I am so proud of that boy. He struggles with letters, but knows how many fingers correspond to each number. A week ago during a color-by-number activity, Hernan actually made an effort to color each piece of the picture the corresponding color. Never mind that he still accidentally colored the green areas pink. Ask any of the volunteers, Hernan is the single kid that I most talk about.
Every time I tutor him, his family feeds me an enormous dinner. It's wonderful to spend two nights a week working with Hernan, seeing his success, and then eating and hanging out with the family. His entire extended family is so kind and we've become close. Last night they gave me a whole homemade coconut flan to bring home to the volunteers. It was very delicious.
Earlier this week Hernan's dad found out that I'm leaving in a month - apparently he hadn't known beforehand. He looked almost devastated to hear the news, and explained to me that Hernan doesn't do well with change. I about burst into tears. I would stay for Hernan, I really would.
I love these kids.
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