Miss Simpatía

Juan, Luis Alberto, Gabriel, Brian, Chibala – first grade. Ervin, Mirna, Teresa, Darlin, Esterlin – third grade. Hugo, Augusto, David, Linda, Ingrid, Lenti – sixth grade.

(Sorry if I’ve misspelled some of your names!)

I’m working at Reforzamiento, an all-day workshop that welcomes children from the community. One class at a time, for us to teach and help the kids with the school work. And – man, so important! – to play.

Brian was my first hug. I spent more than 30 minutes trying to build a tall Lego tower with him. Proper engineer work: 4 pillars. I’ve studied some of that stuff after all… He seemed several times to be quite happy with where the construction was, but I guess he had no alternative but to keep adding pieces along with me. We run out of time before we could have the tower standing. I promised to continue the next day. He came back when he was about to leave the door and gave me a big hug – right at the height of my knees. I’ll remember that hug.

Esterlin is a rebel. It’s hard to have her engage in a task from beginning to end. She loves to mess around with the other kids, and looks at all school work with the arrogance of someone who knows that without much effort she can catch up with it all as soon as she wants to. She’s damn smart, and I can’t but smile at her bright eyes and enfant-terrible face.

I got today an unexpected request from Mirna. She had to prepare a long strip of paper for school and needed help. I resisted to express the “what the f*ck?” reaction that was going through my mind, and half-way the process I finally understood she needed it for an activity where someone in the class would be elected “miss simpatía”. I ended up really getting into it, and I think I’m even more proud than Mirna of the colourful stripe she took home.

Without me noticing it, by the end of the task Esterlin was by our side, and wanted a strip of herself too. I tried to sort something out in the short time we had left. I think she was happy: she left smiling. As rebel as the devil, she would win the title should I be the judge.