"Can you teach me how to read?"

As you know from my previous blog a few of the kids at Breaking Chains have gotten the go ahead on attending Interamerican School next year. However, there is still work to be done because we have hopes for a few more of the kids to attend as well. One of those kids is Arol. Arol is 9 years old and has become one of my favorite kids at the building. He is always right by my side at movie nights and is the first person to greet me when I arrive at the building (even though he probably just wants to make sure he can play with my phone before anyone else has a chance.) Arol is a very ummmm expressive child, and you can always tell exactly what he is thinking from his facial expressions. Aside from that he has just about the cutest smile you could ask for. Since I have begun my Spanish lessons he has begun talking even more and he helps me practice every time I am at the building. We are usually the best of friends but one night at a feeding he was furious with me.

It was the day we had taken Jonaton and Dayana to my school for a visit. Arol just sat in the church room with his head held down. When I went up to greet him he handed me the crucifix I had given him weeks ago and stormed off to the other side of the room. I knew why he was mad but I wasn't sure how to best explain it to him since my Spanish is still in its infancy. Amber was nice enough to explain the reason he couldn't visit the school yet. We didn't want them to visit the school if were not sure if they could attend or not. The last thing I want to do to these kids is get their hopes up just to have them crushed. After Amber explained everything to him he came back to the room and apologized to me. I could already tell he wanted to ask me something but I was gonna wait for him to be the one to ask it.

Fast forward about a week. Arol and I are sitting alone up near our aquaponics farm and I am talking with my limited Spanish vocabulary. He stops talking and I can tell he is thinking about asking me the question I knew he would. He grabs my hand and looks up to me and says " Corey, can you teach me how to read?" Of course my answer was yes. I told him we would start Friday and we was extremely excited at the aspect of finally learning how to read. Being in 2nd Grade and not having the faintest idea how to read and not even knowing your alphabet shows you just how sad the public school system here can be.

Friday arrived and when I arrived at the building I told Arol it was time for reading lessons. he immediately told me he no longer wanted to have any classes and he ran to his room. I asked his siblings to leave their family's room so I could talk to him. I found him hiding under his sheets in one of the beds. He told me he was stupid and that he couldn't learn how to read. Arol is far from stupid but no one has ever given the kid a chance to succedd. I doubt anyone has ever even told him that he could do anything. Negativity is all around him so who could blame him for being scared. I told him as best I could that he was smart and that he could learn how to read and promised him that I could help him. After some more convincing and a big hug he grabbed my hand and we went to class.

Michael Lemmons and I have begun teaching the kids how to read. Our fist class was only two kids but it seems everyone who can't read wants to attend which means our next class will be about 5 times as large. We are going to try to give three lessons a week and start english classes once that is finished. Between my limited Spanish and the face that Michael and I have never taught anyone to read in english let alone in Spanish the lessons are sure to be comical. Keep updated on our attempts to educate our friends at Breaking Chains on my blog and her blog by clicking the link Michael L on the side of the page

Arol after he asked me to teach him how to read.