El Hogar

I filled my day with a good variety of activities after my morning class! Spent some time with friends, then headed home for lunch and the daily offering of the telenovela (soap opera) that my mom and I watch most days! I spent a few hours just resting and relaxing, watching a show, reading, etc - which always feels good!! In the late afternoon I went with my mom to El Hogar, where she volunteers twice a week at the home for teen girls who come from troubled homes or backgrounds. Very few have both parents, some have neither, and whatever source of parenting they do have, or had in the past, has been in most cases a very bad influence and the source of most problems. These girls are aged 12 through 18. They are all such pretty girls who just need a bunch of love and attention! They live at El Hogar, with three women who run the home, where they also have their meals, activities, support, and a psychologist. They go to a school for classes. Pati, my mom, mostly does testing of both academics/learning and personality/emotional aspects. When we got there all the girls were together listening to a music group that was visiting, so after she introduced them all to me. She explained where I'm from, that I'm living with her, and that I'm here to help them with whatever they need, as well as chat, and practice English if they'd like! At the end she asked if there were any questions/comments right away - and one girl shot up her hand real quick and in Spanish said, "Well I just wanted to say that Emily, I think you have really beautiful eyes!" Probably not exactly what Pati was looking for, nor what I was expecting, but cute nonetheless! After my mom showed me around, I met the psychologist and we all chatted for a while. Later I worked with Cindi. She is 16 and needed help with her English work. Her textbook seemed fairly advanced for only being in her second year (ever) of English classes - but I figured she must just be really good! She struggles most with pronunciation so we went to the back of the book where there were pages with short dialogs printed out. She wanted to read through them and I could help her when she got stuck. Before we started I tried having a conversation with her in English, but I learned she must just be very frustrated during class, because she doesn't have nearly any communication skills near what her book depicts. So we stuck to Spanish, except for when she was reading. It took us about an hour to read through the two pages, but I could tell as we went along that she was getting better, more fluid, and more confident. As she learned I was open to helping, she got more comfortable, and I was glad to see this - as I'm hoping I can return in the future and help her out again!! Working with native Spanish speakers to learn English makes me realize how wrong I must sound when I've been learning Spanish at times.... Certainly humbling. You also see how confusing parts of a language are that I've always taken as natural. Contractions in particular... it was hard to explain to Cindi the concept of we'll, I'll, she'll, we'd, they'd, isn't, and can't - let alone the pronunciation. I really enjoyed my time at El Hogar! Currently in Mérida, Central's China program director is visiting, so tonight a group of us went with her downtown as she wanted to see a little more of Mérida at night, and considered us the experts (that's a first!). I rarely go downtown later in the evening, so it was fun to see the city convert into a place of cultural expression. There was a ballet going on, a concert, streets closed for pedestrians - the cobblestone lined with small tables that restaurants moved into the streets, more vendors than needed, and a comfortable amount of people walking and talking! Very nice evening!! Unfortunately - throughout my day's activities I accumulated an uncomfortable amount of mosquito bites. I'm a Minnesota girl, so it means a lot for me to say, they are BAD here. Yikes - it's like connect the dots on my legs, and my anti-itch and Off! spray are getting quite the workout! Maybe I'll get my fair share now, so when I return to the States they'll want nothing to do with me... Maybe...