MISSING from school: my favorite student.

  The past three weeks, I have gone in to school with my fingers crossed, hoping that Harbi has come to school.  My favorite student, the cutest 1st grader, my hardest worker, has been missing from school. Finally, after two weeks, I asked the ayudante at the school why he hasn't been coming and if she knew if everything was ok at home. "He's probably not continuing," she said so nonchalantly. Though this is quite common and I shouldn't have been so shocked, I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped to the floor because still, I don't understand why any child would suddenly just stop coming to school... or why the parents would allow that to happen... or why the teachers wouldn't inquire about this either.  When I probed more at Vanessa, the ayudante, about this situation... all she seemed to muster up when I was obviously so worried about his well-being was "who knows why... but it's not really important."  NOT IMPORTANT?  So here I am... two months in (p.s. can you believe that?!)... and still I am shocked at the lack of motivation from these kids to learn, the lack of structure and organization in the school... and the statistic that just under 10% of kids actually finish grade school. Ten days or ten months... I don't think this is one of those things that I'll come to accept and understand.

  Two months in: started with nine kids and I'm already down to five... though I do have two kids reading and a few more on their way; I have started an art project on Fridays with all of the classes at Elba Zamora and am about to revamp the tutoring 'classroom' with some of my own artwork; I have tried to put together a futbol team for a high school girls, but that has been a slow process and I'm still in the midst of trying to get something started (yes, even after six weeks. welcome to central america)... but in the mean time am playing pick-up with a bunch of kids every Monday and Wednesday after school.  

  At this point, as you could imagine, I have gotten pretty close to the kids who I am working one-on-one with. Though I am obviously not leaving them for another several months, even thinking about having to say good bye to them at some point makes me sad. I have bonded so well with all of them and have created a type of relationship with each of them that is so unique, to both them and me. When I walk in to school each day, I am still greeted with the same excitement and enthusiasm as I was within the first week... and every day I have my kids (and others who I do not work with) chomping at the bit to sit down to work with me.  I am pretty sure they are more excited about just spending time with me than actually having to do work because yes, they are such big complainers and whiners when it comes to having to focus on reading or doing math... but even still- it's a wonderful way to start my day, knowing that I am wanted there (because I already know that volunteers are much needed there)...