Journal #3

After having spent the past ten weeks or so helping at Escuela-Vieau, many facts have become apparent and transparent. We are who we are and our physical characteristics don't define us as individuals, but our dispositions do. From working with the kids at Vieau school, it's clear that they are comfortable with who they are, at this point in their lives. They were as readily able to look past the color of my skin as I was of theirs'. Hopefully, this experience has enabled them to let go of some of their own preconceived notions of white people, too. While we don't share the same ethnicity, having a common goal of working on a project either caused us to look past races or ignore them for the time being. Ultimately, working in a bilingual school has proven to be less 'ethnic' than I had anticipated, and in an area of town that is predominantly Hispanic, there was also more diversity within the school than expected. Odds are, that I will continue to help out at the school on a weekly basis in light of the fact that my presence has been welcomed. I do believe that the experience has been beneficial and educational for both the students and teachers that I’ve been working with, as well as myself. Yesenia and Ms. Her have been so nice to me, and nobody has seemed to mind me hanging around with surveillance equipment once per week.