Thursday, May 27, 2010

Antonia (Shelisa at the Aldea)


Antonia is one of the mothers at the orphanage and is very mature for her age. I love seeing her with her baby, which she takes care of very well. I have never seen such a child so loved by a mother and at the age of 17, that is quite exceptional.


She is striving to learn more every day and is always asking what some words mean in English. The other day during computer class, Antonia came up and asked if she could learn some more. So the other intern and I allowed her to come in and learn how to turn on and off the computer and how to use some programins including Word.


In the process, we found out that even though she has the dream of being a schooltecher and going to college some day, she does not know how to read or write. She is very outgoing and a strong woman when you talk with her, but when we got her in front of the computer and asked her to click on a "file" in Spanish, she did not know where to click and she became very shy and told us she did not know how to read or write. She has a great deal of potential and I think after a lot of education, she will become a great teacher. She just needs the assistance to get her up to the educational level she needs to be at at her age.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

a bit about Benjamin (Shelisa at the Aldea)

Benjamin is such a joy to be around. He always has a smile on his face and it just makes your heart melt, especially because one of his front teeth is missing. He is such a handsome boy. One day during football, Benjamin was running to get the ball and one of the boys, in excitement, pushed him to the ground. Benjamin had scuffed his knee and was on the ground crying so I went over to comfort him. At the time I was wearing a hat that my father had given me from his work and that Benjamin had taken a fancy to. So to cheer him up, I gave him the hat.


I must say he looks much better in the hat than I ever will.


Getting to know him, I have learned that he is very athletic and loves to play any sports he can. He is always out with his little gang of friends, all boys about his age. Everyone gets a long with him quite well because of his easy going personality.


He also loves to be tossed around while swimming and has fun playing sharks and fish.