When I first started getting to know Billy, he would tell me stories of his time as a student for a semester at University of New Orleans (UNO). He did an exchange program with his home university with two of his other close friends. He regaled me with stories of parades, beads, absinthe, costumes, and swamps. I listened, my face showing my doubt. Wasn't New Orleans a wreck? Wasn't there a lot of crime there? Isn't it filled with homeless criminals? Hurricane Katrina had happened a few years ago and I remember the graphic images of damaged homes, the looting, all of the people left behind. The images made me uncomfortable and I decided not to spend my time thinking about it.
During Des's Jardin's summer break in June, we enrolled him in an astronomy camp at the Planetarium in Bogota. It was M-F for one week from 1-5pm. We had been going to a lot of the shows at the planetarium and doing a lot of the kids' projects hosted by the planetarium, so we were a familiar face. Desmond is really shy. He can barely greet someone he doesn't know, so entering a new situation with new people with him is trying, to say the least. However, the ladies at the planetarium who worked with the kids were extra nice to him and made sure that he felt included, even though his Spanish wasn't as good as the other kids his age. The very first day we picked Desmond up from the Planetarium, we saw him talking to a little girl. This little girl, Isabela, would be his best friend the whole week. She would give him a big hug and kiss when we would pick him up and drop him off. She was always by his side. I thank my lucky stars that there are little girls and boys like Isabela out there that will happily befriend and take care of a little, shy, blonde boy. His last day, he received an award and got to launch his very own rocket into the atmosphere. It was probably one of the greatest moments of his life (through my eyes, that is). What kid (or person out there) doesn't love his/her name being chanted over and over? |
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March 2016
AuthorJust a girl living her dream: traveling this amazing world with her husband and her two awesome sons. Categories
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