English Composition 1101: Day-to-day general service learning reflection.

I was actually kind of nervous when I was getting to the service learning coordinator's office at Centro Mater. I have to admit I was scared that she was going to say something like "Your doing all these hours this late in the semester?!" since in reality it was quite late in the semester. I finally met the woman, Ana Atkinson, who more than welcomely greeted me, asked me to fill out a paper and follow her. I was actually sort of shocked that she didn't ask me questions pertaning to anything, I mean for all she knows I could be a child molester but apparently I didnt' give her that impression. She walked me over to the playground where there were two classes in recess. She assigned me to one of them and I was on my way.

I was volunteering for a class of 22 children which included one diseased, one foreign, one abused and one autistic. There teacher's were Xiomara, Eliana and Maria. It was pretty much like a day care, my class because none of the children in the class were past three years old. We stayed in the playground till about 11:30, then slowly began bringing them into class for lunch. They ate lunch for about an hour, picked up their tray's, used the bathroom and prepared for nap time. During the kid's nap times I had a conversation with one of the teachers, Eliana, and discovered some shocking things about the children and realized what a small world it could be.
Eliana was trying to get to know me by asking me where I was from?, where I work?, and where I went to school?. Ofcourse I didn't want to sound cocky by saying the Honos College at Miami Dade so I simply said Miami Dade. She told me her daughter also studied at Miami Dade but that she was in the Honors College, looks like she didn't mind bragging about it. Turns out that her daughter is one of my closest friends here at the HC, and who happens to be well known loud, tiny and talkative cuban we all know as Elianet.

After my talk with Eliana, Xiomara one of the other teachers figured that because I was in the HC I was smart and ironically asked me to tutor in math while the kids were sleeping. She was going to take the CPT soon to enroll in school and she couldn't remember anything in algebra.
At about 3:00 pm the kids woke up, ate a snack and began to play. I decided to have a Salinas and challenge the kids at something creative and brainstorming. I split the class in two teams, team #1 and team #2. I gave team #1 a box of blocks and gave team#2 a box of connectors. The mission was that they had to build either the tallest tower or the longest chain but the catch was they couldn't speak to each other. The HC did something similar to this in our freshman orientation to test our teamwork skills.

Turns that the first day I spent there I had a blast and I couldn't wait to go back the next day. Not only was I giving back to the community which I love doing but I was doing it with children whom are one of my biggest passions.

The second day I went in, I arrived with Chary and Rosamarina. Unfortunately, we didn't have the same class, because they wanted something a little older. But that didn't stop my day from being great again. The minute I got there the kids all started calling out my name, some saying Ms. S or some just saying teacher. I arrived during snack time so we really didnt' get much interaction that day because nap time is right after snack time. I did homework while I waited the two hours of nap time then when they finally woke up it was game time. It's funny because that day I stayed later so I got too see some of the things they do after play time, for example dance and sing time. Man can those two year olds dance.

The third day was actually quite the same as the second. The only difference was that at one point in the day we had an arts and crafts time and made a couple of christmas cards for the parents and made a christmas section in the classroom. Now this day is where I got to meet one of our special kids because he usually comes to the class at 3:00 from his school. His name is Gean and he is an autistic child. Eliana which is the one who takes the most responsibility of him told me all about him before he arrived. When he first arrived at Centro Mater, he was the typical disabled child, did not interact with anyone, did not want anyone to touch him and did not like anyone contradicting him. But eventually as Eliana began to grow love of for him and struggle with him day by day he slowly became comfortable himself.

The minute I saw I couldn't believe that he was autistic. He looked completely normal. The cutest part was that the minute he walked through the door he saw Eliana and ran as fast as he could to hug her. He later than approached me, hugged me and smiled. He interacte with everyone and spoke a little here and there. He was the cutest thing. Unfortunately, he isn't the only one with problems in the class. But the problems I'm reffering to aren't as seriuos as his.
For example, we have a little black kid who's name is Isaiah and we can never communicate with either him or his parents. Why you say? Well, all they speak is Creole. Whenever I would tell him to do something, he wouldn't it, he would look aat me with a confused face or just look away. So ofcourse at first I thought he was just hard headed and didn't want to do what I told him until Eliana told me that he didn'y understand a word we were saying.

Another suprising but kind of funny thing I found in one of my children was in a little girl named Victoria. The first day I went in for service learning, she was one of the first one's i connected with. She kept asking me if her papi had came, if he had brought her food? and I wouldn't know what to say because I thought the kids ate at school. Throughout my days there I noticed that she would tell me things like that the food made her itch and thats why her dad brought her food, or how the lunch lady would come to the classroom twice one time to bring everyone's food and the second time was for Victoria. After seeing this for many lunches and snacks, I decided to ask the teachers what was wrong with her? Suprisingly, they told me that she has some sort of disease that makes her allergic to just about anything and everything. And I'm not exxgerating about her being allergic to everything.

Yeah, I had a laugh out of her story but there was just something more seriuos about one of the kids, which was the one that affected me the most, and maybe because I went through it to so I can relate. There is this little girl named Alliah who is just the most adorable thing on earth but that hasn't had the best of luck. Eliana told all about her and her story in one of our conversations. Alliah and her older brother had been taken away from there mother because it was noticed that their step dad would abuse an beat them to the point that the brother face and her nack have been left scarred. They were taken away and given to the father where they "hopefully" now safely live. It first came to my attention when she had gone to the bathroom, peed with the door open and whn i tried to close she yelled and said no please no! and after that the teachers had thought they say a bruise on her eye. Obviuosly wondered why they were so cautious about her and why she was scared in the bathroom and than told me everyhting.

Now just because the other kids dont have interesting stories or have some special disorder doesn't mean they aren't special cause they all were. I fell in love with each and everyone of them anf that always happens to me. I volunteer for a summer camp every year, get attached to them and then when the time comes around I have to let them go. But not this time! I'll continue going even after I am done with my "10 hours of service". All in all point is that my service learning experience had been one of a kind, from day to day. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. My services will continue and just get better as they come.

Pictures.