No Puedo Olvidar

I swear I actually am working here, but here’s the thing – truly incredible things just keep happening that distract me from writing about my teaching adventures.

Sometimes I just cannot believe how truly blessed I am. Today is a prime example.

But first, I have to back track a little. In my last blog I wrote about Yolanda and how her arrival sparked a heart-wrenching conversation with my host mom. I regret to inform you that Yolanda did not return to the house. Instead, Theresa took her place the very next day.

After Yolanda left, I expected that we would get a new girl to come help out. What I did not expect was a third girl, which was the situation I walked into when I got home today…kind of.

Nimia is starting a new business and posted an online ad for ladies in other cities to help her spread the word and sell the product. Low and behold, a woman called Nimia up yesterday saying that her twelve year old daughter had run away and did not want to come home and could Nimia please give her daughter a job. Nimia, being the absolute sweetheart that she is, brought the girl home.

So at dinner tonight I got a glimpse into Arianna, the twelve year old girl’s, background. She is the fourth of eight children, but the oldest passed away earlier this year so now there are only seven. She absolutely loves learning and communications (Spanish grammar) is her favorite subject (Quechua was her first language). Arianna ran away because her father is extremely abusive and she refuses to return to that hostile environment. I never would have guessed that this intelligent, chatty, bright, YOUNG girl would be running from such a situation as she exudes such confidence. Sadly, tonight is the only night I get to spend with her as Nimia is taking her to child protective services tomorrow.

However, at dinner tonight I was trying to talk to both Theresa and Arianna as Luciana and Derek are out of town so it gave me a chance to get to ask them questions. While both looked to Nimia to repeat what I said before answering, they were quick to respond and I could tell they that both have an invested interest in their education. Theresa actually starts school in March at a nearby collegio (secondary school) which Nimia will pay for in exchange for Theresa working at the house on the weekends. She seems very excited to start school (a pleasant surprise compared to most American kids [myself included] response to having to start school).

 Finally, Nimia looks at Theresa and goes “Don’t be shy! If you have any questions, ask her!” Then Nimia turns to me and says “Theresa wants to learn English.”

Immediately, I see Arianna’s face light up as well.

So I asked the girls, “Well, after dinner tonight do you want to learn some English?”

They both nodded vigorously.

And so it goes. After dinner I went upstairs and grabbed all my extra scratch paper from class along with my assorted colorful pens (red, blue, pink, orange, purple, and green to be exact – I never leave home without an array of colorful pens!) and brought them down to the dinner table.

I started off with lofty goals. “I am going to teach them to put together a proper sentence,” I thought to myself. So off I go trying to explain how “to be” is an irregular verb and is Spanish there are two verbs (ser and estar) that translate to this one English verb. I got blank stares in return and realized that I was talking to twelve and sixteen year old girls and that this was their first English lesson. So I asked them, “Well what do you want to learn?”

Without hesitation Arianna shouts “numeros y colores!” Now this is mostly because she already knew a few colors and numbers in English. Regardless, it was a solid starting point. We quickly progressed from numbers to colors to body parts to foods, family, animals, clothes, things around the house and then various adjectives, emotions, and verbs. We covered a lot for one night but they wanted to just keep going!

To be honest, I tuckered out before they did! (In my defense, this was my second English lesson for the day!) When I finally checked out (at 11 – nearly two hours after we started this English lesson) they stayed downstairs and continued to write more words often (accompanied by drawings) using all my colorful pens (I swear using different colors helps you learn more quickly and efficiently!)

In the middle of talking about body parts, Arianna got up and started shuffling things around. A few minutes later, she came out carrying a cd and put on music for us to listen to while they learned a little English to (a girl after my own heart – I ALWAYS listen to music while doing my homework!) Occasionally she would stop writing whatever she was working on, look at the cd case and pick a new song. Once, she looked up at me and asked, “Sabes la cancion ‘No Puedo Olvidar’?”. I told her I didn’t know that song, so she played it for me.

No puedo olvidar. I cannot forget.

How this little twelve year old girl who is suffering in ways no one should ever have to could possibly have known how picking that song to ask me about would touch me, I do not know. What I do know is this - no, no puedo olvidar esta noche ni esta experiencia…no puedo olvidarte. 

Arianna's Notes on Body Parts and Colors

Arianna and Theresa working away at the kitchen table!