Street Kids I Know

Just the other day and today, I ran into 3 of the students I was working with at the first school I was at for 3 weeks.

The first girl I ran into was sitting on the steps of a house with her baby sister sleeping next to her. Her mother was just down the road selling stuff. She said hola as I was walking by. I stopped and asked her why she wasn´t at school. She said she had to help her mother today and pointed to her sister. This little girl is no more than about 6 years old. She can´t read yet, and the kids make fun of her as she just got here and doesn´t have the proper school uniform yet. I believe her family tried to get away to Mexico, but just got deported back to Guatemala. I gave her the chips and pop I was holding....wanting to give her more, but knowing this would not help her situation at all.

Today, as I was entering the supermarket to buy a bottle of wine for tonight...I hear this hola from these 2 young girls sitting with other young girls on the street selling fruit of some kind. They are the only 2 indigenous girls at the same school I was at. I stopped and asked them whey they weren´t at school. One of them answered that they couldn´t go today. I gave them the cheese pops I was eating and later bought them some cookie wafers for the family. They have 10 brother and sisters in their family.

The older one thanked me by name.

I did not think they really remembered me, other than me being the gringo in class.

It feels so great when your name is remembered.