Day 8-La Carpio

Today has been one of those days that just tugs on your heart strings. We began our day by taking a bus to La Carpio. La Carpio is a community outside of the city living in severe poverty. Many of the families that live in this community are immigrants from Nicaragua who came here to live a better life. From the photos above, you would think that these people do not have a good life while living on almost nothing. Actually, this community is all about hope. La Carpio was started by a women named Gail Nystrom who saw many people living on the street who needed an education and a place to live. This woman worked very hard to build this community to give families, mothers, children, and anyone else a chance of hope.

Today we were able to visit a Montessori school in the community that was started by Gail to give children a place to get education. We had "circle time" with the students who were ages of about 2-7 where we sang songs. They taught us some Spanish songs and we taught them some English songs. After, we each worked with one or two kids coloring and then center time. In most schools that I have observed in Wilmington, do not have the same center time that we witnessed. Here, the kids were able to wander around the room and play with any sort of manipulative that they found. It was so interesting to see how organized the class was and what each student did with the different manipulatives. I worked with a six year old girl named Raquel. She reminded me of myself a lot. We began by putting a math puzzle together while she quizzed me on my addition skills in Spanish. We then played a matching game, matching the Spanish word to the English word to the picture. After, we played with colored popsicle sticks for almost an hour. First we built a tower, then sorted them, then made patterns, then built more towers based on colors. During this, I was amazed to see how you do not need much to learn things. Also, by letting the students explore things on their own, they are able to make their own discoveries and think of things that maybe the teacher would have never thought of.

We then received a short tour of the community and walked by many of the houses. Many of the families have only one or two beds in their house for four or five people. Walking through the community made me feel so grateful for what I have been given in my life and to see people living out of a small tin house full of hope made me feel so blessed. I can't put in words the emotions that were running through me the entire time we were there. These people who live in this community are living with close to nothing, but hoping for a better future for their kids. In the words of the painting on one of the houses: Ninos de la esperanza...Nuestro futuro! (The kids of hope...Our future!)