Corazones Abiertos

Well. School starts tomorrow. Nervous tummies all around. All except for Boaz, who after months of tearing up every time we mentioned "school in Guatemala", is thrilled about his new class. 

We visited for open house on Friday and he fell in love with the bright, spacious room, very reminiscent of his Montessori inspired pre-school at home. Legos, costumes, a painting area, baskets of blocks, shells, and beads, a play kitchen, and lots of friendly faces. Teachers Seño Isa and Seño Febe are warm and welcoming (and speak some English too!) and knowing that our neighbor and new friend Cooper (visiting from Miami for a couple of months) will be in his class has made the whole prospect of "school in Guatemala" much more appealing. Of course, we'll see what happens tomorrow at drop off, but for now, we are relieved and hoping for a less traumatic transition than anticipated. 

Zadi's teacher, Profe Martín, is one of the few male teachers at the school. Sweet and soft-spoken, he also speaks some English and is excited to work with the 10 third graders on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) projects.  The school days (which run from 7:30-12:30 - a bit early for someone who often rolls out of bed at 8 AM to catch the 8:30 bus to school in NH!) are packed with a range of subjects: Tzutujil (the local Mayan dialect here in Santiago), English (she's pretty confident about this one), Expresión Artistica, Medio Social y Natural (social and nature studies), formación ciudadana (I'm thinking civics), yoga, reading, computers, gardening, and cooking, in addition to Math and Reading. The majority of the day will be in Spanish, but luckily Profe Martín speaks some English, and Zadi has a bilingual classmate, Maya.

I learned during the parent meeting (held the day before) that this 3rd grade class, most of whom have been together since pre-school, is very special. The school directors, Amanda and Juanita, noted that this class in particular is very tender-hearted, empathetic, and close. I gather Zadi is very lucky to be part of this group. 

During the same parent meeting, I learned a lot more about their wonderful school, La Puerta Abierta (more on this in future posts). At the start of the meeting, Amanda and Juanita asked all the parents the same question they ask them at the start of every school year: What are your hopes and dreams for your child this year? Some responses were specific (I hope my shy boy will come out of his shell and be less timid), some more general (I hope for my child what I hope for all children: that they develop a deep curiosity about the world and have opportunities to explore and discover every day), but all reflected a sincere appreciation for the way this school (in contrast to the other more traditional educational opportunities available) inspires children to dream, create, and engage in the world. This question forced me to articulate (and in Spanish, no less!) what I hope for Zadi and Bo by throwing them into this completely different world and expecting them to swim (or speak). While we talk about this experience mainly in terms of language and cultural immersion – they’re the right age to learn a new language, we want to expose them to a very different culture and way of life, etc. – it’s really more than that. 

What I hope for both of them is that they can approach this new experience with open hearts – que tengan los corazones abiertos – hearts open to making new friends (even if they can’t quite speak to them yet), open and curious and accepting about how things here are different, without judgement, open to new challenges and feelings of discomfort, open to making mistakes and laughing at themselves and trying again. Ultimately, I hope this experience will help cultivate an open heartedness that they will carry with them throughout their lives as they explore this beautiful world and themselves. Stay tuned – the tuk tuk leaves at 7 AM!