Twelve years ago when I was five years old I was living in a foster home in San Gil, Columbia with my foster mom Doña Flor before I was adopted to the United States.
I have a clear memory from that time of being a five year old going to school for the first time and having some college students come to teach us a little bit of English. Yesterday I was sitting in an after school English program for Mexican kids here in Todos Santos helping out with their lessons and I realized that I am now getting to be that person who is helping someone else learn. I liked that connection.
For the kids here, their English is pretty good because there is an after school non-profit called Palapas Society that helps them learn and there are also lots of Americans (gringos) here because of the tourism, so they hear it a lot. So I helped a little with past tense verbs (which I can remember learning) and thought back. We played some bingo and put letters in place. My life has been like that – putting letters into place, making words, making progress one step at a time.
-Joe (José)