La Sagrada 11/3/10

Thursday afternoons are always strongly marked by the divine presence as it is the time when I teach basic literacy to older women in one of the poorer areas of Chimbote. Today was no exception as I spent most of my time working with Marcela (not my roommate). Marcela has the most difficulty reading of any of the women who attend classes and it is always a strong test of my patience to repeat the same exercises with her for hours. But thankfully the Spirit is working within me to give me the grace I need to be a good, loving teacher and move at Marcela's pace, not my own. These women really inspire me with their desire to learn when so many in their families tell them it is a waste of time or that they can't do it. Marcela told me she doesn't have a lot of support from her family and often gets frustrated that she can't remember what we just learned five minutes ago. But she keeps coming back, determined to push forward. Today we spent probably 30 min. trying to reinforce "ma me mi mo mu" so that she remembered how to pronounce each one by sight. I can tell when she gets frustrated or tired and try to provide enough breaks to relax her mind and eyes. It is tiring work because for her it is all new and requires new ways to use her brain, and for me because I have to have patience with the basics and try and imagine what it would be like to look at the letters and not understand. To a certain extent it is like learning a new language, but so much harder because you have no base language to work from with the ideas of vowels, consonantes, and sounds. So in the slow but loving progress that we make each week, and in the mix of patience, frustration, pain and joy, God is present and alive in this group of women taking a great risk and regaining some of their own personal power and worth.