Nuestra Señora de Altagracia

Two days ago the principal came to our class and asked me to choose 2 students with the rest of the class to go on a field trip the following day to an all-girls orphanage to interview some girls. We held democratic elections including campaign speeches, nominations, and a secret vote. Two great kids were chosen. Later that day my principal asked me to let her know if there were any teachers who wanted to go and chaperone. Naturally I wanted to.

Yesterday at 10:45 I took about 20 middle schoolers down to the cafeteria to eat lunch and we went with a few parent drivers to the orphanage. It was about a 20 minute drive and we went into a not-so-nice part of town. We got lost on the way, but we finally found it. When we walked in there were 65 girls sitting at long cafeteria tables in blue shirts with khaki skirts on. They seemed to be sitting according to age with the youngest girls in front and the oldest in the back. The kids were asked to interview 4 girls and ask them questions about their lives and Christmas wishes. At first they were really nervous, and none of my little sixth graders wanted to work with the high school girls, but finally we walked over together and they got started. It started out with all of the Ashton School kids on one side of the room and all of the girls from the orphanage on the other, but shortly after the kids starting interviewing the girls everybody was talking and laughing and mixing together. It was a really cool experience for the kids and for me.

We are supposed to be going back later in December or in January to give them some things, and I am really excited to go back with the kids. It was such a good experience and all of them really seemed to enjoy themselves. I'll try to post pictures on my blog soon.

Love you all.