gracias

For the last three weeks the library has been a flurry of paper mache, acrylic paint, and multiple readings of La Caperucita Roja (little Red Riding Hood), Los Tres Cerditos (The Three Little Pigs), and Donde Viven Los Monstruos (Where the Wild Things Are). The regular library employee has been out, I have been up late sewing little clothes, and the kids have been so wild that I have walked out of the library twice to calm my nerves, the kids following me down the road saying “Señorita, no te vayas, ¿que paso?, vamos a escucharle…." and I have said as a mantra, I will be so glad when this is over.

Yesterday we presented their puppet show to the community, and only one parent came. Luckily other people from the community with whom I have forged connection showed up to give audience to their beautiful, funky, artistic puppets and their hard earned reading skills. By the end of the show, the kids were absolutely exhuberant- they were shining. As I thanked the community for receiving us, thanked the kids for participating and being good friends to Cameron and I, I started to get choked up. I could barely receive the thanks, hugs, and heart felt eye contact from the adults because some tightly wound part of my brain was starting to unwind filling my head with random thoughts and my insides with loss.

Bayron Jose, who lives next door to me, twelve years old, growing rapidly, starting high school next year, took my hand, looked into my eyes and said, “You are leaving. Don’t go, please.” Part of me has wanted to leave Zuleta from the day I got there, but now as I look at my final three days and know that I am going to say goodbye to my little amigitos with whom I have passed so much time reading, struggling, playing, getting angry, crying, laughing, picking up from falls (emotional and physical), helping with homework, riding bikes, hiking in the mountains my heart balks and I know that I am leaving something irreplaceable that may never come again for them or me. And I feel so grateful for all of it.

As it is, the local worker is getting fired, and the library is closing until they find someone else. There are no volunteers coming again until late June. I hope so much that this wasn't just a brief bright spot, because as we leave it is ever more apparent that the library plays an important function for many of these kids. I hate to think all this work has no future. There is here such opportunity for growth, both for the children, and for those who come to be part of their world.