Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010

Catalina…

Among the various responsibilities the wee American Volunteers have and one of my favorites, is a program called “Erfa”.  The goal is to educate through the 8th grade level, creating a solid foundation – in the hopes of breaking the cycle of illiteracy.  The program is designed for anyone: struggling children, young adults or the elderly.

The program works by offering classes through the radio – they tune in 5 days a week for their lesson, and then complete their class work in their workbooks.  We meet once a week in the parish salon to go over their homework and address any problems.  Everyone is able to walk to the parish once a week, except for Catalina.

I know you’re not supposed to have favorites…but if I did, it would be Catalina!  When I first met her, I was walking with the other volunteers door to door explaining what the program was, when we arrived at her house – no one was there, but a few minutes later we saw her attempting to run after us “wait! My daughter and I want to sign up and I want to learn how to write my name!” 

It was a humbling. We are going to teach her!? – a 63+ year old woman how to write her name!? But, after they were signed up we realized Catalina was unable to attend any of the classes we offered.  During the day she watches some of her grandchildren (she has a total of 16!) as the parents work, while her eyesight is too poor to walk at night. So, we decided to make a little exception, meeting at her house on Monday mornings.

I love Catalina.  She is eager to learn, but she is also very patient with herself.  Her poor vision makes the work more difficult, but she’s always in good spirits, always laughing at her mistakes and eager to learn.  One beautiful example was last Monday: 

We were outside – surrounded by little baby chicks running around, while Laura and I were going over different letter shapes and vowels.  As an older man passed by and observed what we were doing, he laughed shouting, “ha, your learning the alphabet!” and rode away on his bike.  But, being the witty-fun-spirited grandma that she is, she smiled at me and quickly added, “Yeah, but he doesn’t know it either!”  Lol, sassy grandma’s are the best! :)

*If you’d like to help or want more information on adult illiteracy programs, the National Institute for Literacy has the following helpful link: (www.nifl.gov) – If you click on the “America’s Literacy Directory” you can find a program where you live. 

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read.”  - Mark Twain