I’ve already talked a lot about how one of the best things about La Mariposa is the way that they work to give back and invest in the surrounding communities. In a previous post I described the plan to open a new children’s project in another local community, and our family was blessed to be able to purchase the school supplies and craft type items that we thought the project could use to get it off to a good start. It was an honor to then get to be here for the grand opening day of that project and witness the overwhelming confirmation of the need in the community for a project like this!
San Pedro is a small barrio of the larger community of San Juan, within easy walking distance of the school. Paulette described its needs this way: “This is in a barrio commonly referred to as “El Chirigete” which is highly offensive and means “dirty” (a reference to the community’s poverty)—it is the barrio everyone else blames for thefts or when anything goes wrong. Ignored in general by the authorities (except the police), the people of San Pedro were very involved in the opposition to the government and the building of roadblocks (during the crisis this summer). Most of the young men fled from this barrio during ‘Operation Clean Up’ and are now in Costa Rica. So the idea of this project was to contribute to the process of reconciliation.”
At the time this new project opened, La Mariposa was right in the middle of a lot of stress and financial insecurity, still struggling to make a recovery after the fallout of this summer’s political crisis and months with no students to generate income. And yet they felt called to reach out to this barrio, and begin a new educational project for its children, not knowing if the extra funding to support it would be there or not.
When they began to plan for this project, they estimated that around 40 children might attend, and planned accordingly in renting a spare room of someone’s home to house the project. On the morning that the project would open, all current La Mariposa students and our teachers piled into the van together to go be a part of the event. By the time we got there, the room was already packed with children, all of the little tables and chairs were filled, and as we waited for the start more and more children and their parents continued to arrive, so that many had to stand, and many did not fit inside the room! After Hassell, in charge of directing all La Mariposa’s community projects, gave a welcome introduction and thanked everyone who had made it possible, she began to long process of trying to take attendance to get a list of all the children who had shown up. In the end, there were not 40 children, but close to 100 children and their parents who were eager to take advantage of this extra educational opportunity!
Staff at La Mariposa had known there was a need, but were blown away by the community response to the project opening! Within a week they were needing to look for a new location to rent for need of a larger space, and moved into one nearby that had two rooms. I was excited about the idea of being able to participate in the start of something brand new for the benefit of children, and knowing that they had so many more children than expected with only two teachers to lead the project, I asked Hassell if I might spend my last two weeks at La Mariposa volunteering in San Pedro in place of my regular Spanish classes.
So for the last two weeks of our time at La Mariposa, I met with Johana (who was my ongoing Spanish grammar teacher for our whole stay, and is from San Pedro herself) at 8:00 to walk the 15 minutes through San Juan to the San Pedro project together, both volunteered together until the project ended at 11:00, and then walked back and finished out the 20 minutes or so of class time left before lunch with some final grammar lessons.
The first day we helped at the project, all of the children were still meeting at one time, split between the two small rooms with still not enough chairs for all of the children to sit. Two teachers trying to teacher that many children, ranging in age from 3-12, split between two different rooms, was quite a chaotic scene! Starting the following day they divided into two separate sessions, younger children in the morning and older children in the afternoon, making numbers and space a little more manageable! In the beginning I was able to help by passing out papers and supplies, assisting children with craft projects, and sharing little games and books I brought to keep children in one room busy while teachers were instructing in the other room.
As the project got into more of a routine and I gained more confidence in the role I could play there, I was given more activities to lead on my own, like teaching the alphabet, reading books aloud to the whole group, and my personal favorites—teaching the children how to play “Simon Says” (“Simon Dice”) and to sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” (“Cabeza, Hombros, Piernas, Pies”). I also enjoyed lots of little in-between moments: teaching small groups of children to play memory with a set of Cheyenne’s picture cards I brought along, and how certain children would come ask me for “las cartas” to play the game together every day during break time; sitting with children outside during recreo (a break time for snack, like recess) and answering all kinds of questions about my children, my pets, snow in Ohio; all the children who generously wanted to share their snacks with me, from mandarins to bites of their cookies to drinks from their yogurt pouch—they all wanted to have something to give me; the time kids had asked what my favorite fruit was, and I said berries like strawberries, and the next day a child pulls out a strawberry brought especially for me; my friend Angel who was waiting outside every day during recreo, even though he was in the older afternoon group, to ask me questions and practice phrases he knew or wanted to learn in English (our main accomplishments were “How are you?” “Very good.” And “What is your name?”—we didn’t have a lot of time!).
And then there were the times spent sitting with Jose, a little boy with a disability that has kept him completely non-verbal, pointing out pictures and names of objects in books and responding to his sweet attempts to communicate through excited pointing and gestures and pulling on my arm to ask me to sit and read with him some more (sadly, in Nicaragua there aren’t laws supporting the education of children with disabilities in schools, so a project like this might be his only access to learning outside his home, since schools aren’t required to accept him or provide support services). His big searching eyes say there is a lot more going on inside his head than he is able to express!
Sweet, speechless Jose. 
It was sad to come upon the last day that I would be helping at the project before we left La Mariposa, and to think of saying goodbye to the children. But they completely surprised me when I walked in the door that morning to find the children already seated in a circle around the room, the walls and ceilings strung with streamers and balloons, and even a pinata! Plus a beautiful cake with a special personalized message on it, punch and treats for the children—all for a goodbye party to thank me after just 2 weeks of volunteering—I was so blown away and humbled!
It was such a fun last morning of music, playing games (I had my chance to show off my pinata dance skills, and lead “Simon Dice” one last time), and helping to pass out all the special party treats for the kids to enjoy. It was an honor to have been the first volunteer to help at this new project and get to know the kids of San Pedro and work with teachers Idana and Milita, and to have them so quickly make me feel like a part of their community who would be missed.
The whole surprise, the decorations, the cake, the party were all amazing gifts to be given, but the best gifts were all of the huge HUGS from kids at the end, the two little boys who each came up to me before they left to give a sweet little speech of their own thanking me for helping with the project and providing supplies, and a picture of the beautiful children of San Pedro who will have a special place in my heart, always! Hasta pronto, San Pedro, te amo!
