Goodbye

Street Children
Ted Ayson

¨A vessel amidst an ocean of indifference,
you see the world from a different stance.
From glassy eyes that has seen untold evils...
your cries from within are heard by no one.

Palms stretched out devoid of pride and spirit...
but nothing given, not even a passing thought.
Pangs of hunger grips you, but still you hope...
spare change from a kind stranger.

Suffer the children, whose innocence we rob...
whose future is as murky as the city sewers.
You lurk in the dark and travel restless highways...
where it leads to an unknown destination.

At the end of the dying day, you find no rest..
you lay your weary head on the street pavement.
Sleep dear child, and worry not about tomorrow..
I bid you goodnight and the sweetest of dreams.¨



I spent all day hanging out with two street children. Jose and Miguel. Although they will never know the impact that they had on me today, I remain shocked and changed after a wonderful, mindopening day.
At first sight, I was intimidated. They are very rough looking, appearing atleast twice their age and no one I would want to hang around with. But these appearances fade away almost instantaneously, as their roughness begins to fade and the child emerges from under their hard shells.
All day they clung to me. We laughed, we hugged, they confided in me, and we developed a five hour relationship that felt like they were a part of my family. It was hard to let them go, for me, and for them although they tried to hide it.
Four hours after saying goodbye to them, at 830pm, I remain sad. As we drove home from the all-day grafitti festival, Miguel clung to me, not wanting to let go of the love he was shown today.
But in an instant, he went back into his shell. He became tough again, back to his streetchild posture, and jumped out of the car. He didnt say goodbye, he just ran away.
I know I will see them again, they may not remember me. I have met them twice now. Things are always the same.
So I will remain the same. Appreciative of my time with them. Wishing I could do more for them. Thankful for the hugs, the smiles, and the love.

dancing on rooftops

Hola mis queridos amigos!
I think it has been over two months since I´ve written last. I have been very caught up in the swing of things, and have not felt too inspired to make any entries. However, I´m feeling inspired at the moment and want to share my inspirations and excitements as of late.
I will start with today. It is amazing how things can change so quickly. I started off the day nearly in tears from feeling extremely overwhelmed and frusterated with the way things are going. I won´t bother going into those details, instead I will get to the good stuff!
My coworker picked me up to go to our afternoon ¨bracelet making sessions¨with the kids in the poorest neighborhoods of Santo Domingo. When we are lucky enough to go by car, I feel extremely relieved. The busses here are, to say the least, scary and travelling in car is such a priviledge for me these days. We started out our afternoon a bit differently than usual, and went to a neighborhood called ¨12 de octubre¨ to pick up 10 kids and take them to dance class. The kids are in the process of practicing a dance called ¨la marimba¨ which is an afro-ecuadorian type of dance from the coast. On saturday they will be performing at a festival, which I will get to later. We spent atleast 20 minutes arguing, jokingly, with the kids about which kids were allowed to attend dance class. The kids who behave poorly during the week were not allowed to attend, and pretty much stampeded our truck begging us to take them. Once we got the 10 kids in the back of the truck, we drove them to a friends house who is a professional dancer and offered to help the kids learn. Dance class was on the rooftop, with about a 20 foot drop on all sides of the dance floor. Using an oldschool boombox, the kids tossed off their shoes and began to dance. I wish I had photos, it was incredibly sweet watching them try to learn the moves. It was pouring rain, but we danced and danced for about an hour, until it was time to head back.
Next stop was another neighborhood, ¨la Laura Flores.¨ I must say that this neighborhood is by far my favorite. I know these kids best, and everytime we drive in the kids coming running out of their shacks with barefeet to give us huge hugs and kisses. Unfortunately, my organization is out of money at the moment and we did not have the materials to make bracelets with the kids today, but we stayed for about half hour just hanging out with them. We showed up an hour and a half late, and it was really an unforgettable moment to see the looks on these kids faces when we finally showed up. They seemed to think we wouldn´t show up at all, and so when we did arrive they were ecstatic. Last Tuesday, we played soccer with these kids for over two hours. Ages 7-17, these kids can by far run circles around me on the field. It is amazing to watch them play soccer, barefeet and all! Although, I must say it is really fun to be able to show them I can play as well. Most people turn their heads and say, ¨pass it to the gringa!¨ I´m glad my soccer skills still come in handy.
In other news, I moved houses. I now live with an Italian girl in the house associated with my organization. It is amazing, and I just realized as I was cooking dinner how lucky I am to be with a truely incredible organization. The house is perfect, minus the rats, and...bugs. But, I dont mind because I´m happy! We also have a parrot that comes and wakes me up every morning. I love him.
Besides the challenges, which their are many, life is good. I would love for people to come visit me, and now that I have my own place that makes things easy. I have already started talking with a couple people about coming down...so, those of you who haven´t considered it, come on!! I miss you all so much! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for the amazing people in my life.
Hopefully will write again before another two months passes, if not, hasta luego!!