I went to class today in Zone 2 to take some photos and to catch up with the kids, since I had missed a couple of classes last week and this week. There are two brothers in Zone 2 that are kind of my favorite kids. I guess I shouldn't call them kids, the older one is almost the same age as me. But "participants" sounds so dry, clean, clinical... They are my favorites because they are the kinds of people that light up a group - they are happy, they make other people happy, they are fun.
Halfway through the class today, as we were moving from classroom to soccer field, I noticed that they were both very quiet and very serious. I hadn't been in their classroom for the first half, I had been in the other, so was unsure what had happened with them. I went over to talk to the older one, Leonardo, who is a bit more composed and mature, and who has been very friendly with me. He wouldn't tell me what was up at first, but when I pushed him a bit to share if he wanted, he talked about how everyone in the class thought of them as class clowns, as centers of attention, and he wanted everyone to just treat them the same as everyone else. Boy oh boy could I relate. Didn't I go through this same situation in high school? I told him that. I told him that the three of us (the brothers & me) share a lot in common - we have a lot of emotion, a lot of energy, and it comes out in a slightly uncontrollable way sometimes. I really felt for him/them, because I feel like they have something really special - their ability to affect those around them, to brighten a room, to make an otherwise mundane task somehow fun - but sometimes along with that ability comes unwanted attention, and sometimes an escape is deserved, but impossible.
After a while of sulking, their fun-loving positive attitudes came back (thank goodness, I didn't know how to console in Spanish!), and they continued playing with the rest of the group. I told Augusto about their "identity crises" on the right home, and he proceeded to introduce me to his judgmental and rather ugly side:
In an effort to warn me, and "prepare me for my imminent disappointment," my neighbor/taxi driver Augusto declared that people from the lower 2 classes (in Colombia people are openly identified based on their socio-economic standing) are ungrateful. That my work will be a waste. That giving things for free such as shirts to participants only increases their greed and laziness, that the minute these kids stop receiving they will go back to being "bums on the side of the road," that it is this ungrateful, greedy & lazy personality that makes it impossible for people and countries to develop.
Sorry Augusto, but I DISAGREE. I think sometimes people let their situations get the better of them, and it is a sad fact indeed, but I think a.) people are born into circumstances rather randomly - it isn't fair that I had so much opportunity and some people have little to none, and b.) people who are unfortunate in their lot in life DO have the power to work for a better life for themselves & their kids. I don't believe that "10 out of 50" of our kids will even finish the program, like you say. I believe that the kids we selected are motivated to have a happier and healthier life. And they are working towards that by participating in this program!
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