Another great day of community service! While we spent our first day starting the arduous task of sanding the desks and rusty bars on the classroom, today was spent finishing off the bars, a precursor to the painting we will do tomorrow. It took me a while to understand the significance of this painstaking work. I realized that even the slightest aesthetic alteration to the school (whether that be freshly painted desks, non-rusty school bars, or a clean white board) betters the learning environment for these kids. I can tell from my interaction with them during the game and learning time how important school time is to them. Coming from impoverished or violent homes, these young children (aged 5-15) appear so happy despite their tumultuous home life. I realize now how lucky I am to attend a fantastic school like DCDS. I take for granted the clean bathrooms, freshly painted walls, and manicured athletic fields that DCDS has provided for me since Junior Kindergarten. The school has placed me in a safe, sanitary learning environment, which allows me to focus on my school work, not where I am going to take my next bathroom break. This is why every scrap of rust off the bars or every marking of graffiti off the beaten up desks means one little step closer to making their impoverished "Calle Hernandez" school closer to becoming the premium school I have attended all my academic life.
The children themselves are so delightful and eager to meet the mysterious foreigners who get to do the cool yard work. I only hope that a intelligent, polite young girl like Pricilla can beat the unfair odds stacked against her and have success with her academics. The highlight of my day was seeing her smiling face after a funny moment during a game of "Telefono". After giving her candy when we finished the game, she kindly thanked me in English, her second language and pranced off to do more school work. She may learn at a poor school in Heredia, but I know a potential DCDS star when I see one.
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