Practicar

 Practicando

I’m winding down for the night and have just brushed my teeth, changed into my pijamas and climbed into bed. Sweet relaxation! Well, aside from the 20 chickens that live next door who apparently were celebrating something by the noise their party was making outside my bedroom window. Despite the chickens, I decide to read a little before falling asleep, so the light in my room was still on when I heard a knock at my door. Instinctively I look at my watch. It’s 10:30 p.m. I’m sufficiently confused but answer with “si?” and my host mom asks if she can come in. I tell her of course and so she opens my door and as she’s standing in the doorway asks if I can give English lessons to a little boy that lives in our neighborhood because his mom would really appreciate that. I wasn’t sure why she had to ask me at this hour, sure I’d give the boy lessons sometime. We had even discussed the idea of me creating an English club in our neighborhood. So I tell her yes and she leaves. About 15 minutes later I get another knock on my door. I’m almost done reading as I’ve underestimated my tiredness level but again answer with “si?” and my host mom enters and asks what I’m doing. I tell her I’m finishing up reading before bed. Then she tells me that the boy and his mother are in the house waiting for me to come give the boy an English lesson. IN THE HOUSE! AT 10:45 p.m. ON A SCHOOL NIGHT. I was kinda of shocked. Well, really shocked. Such dedication. This little boy must really want to learn. In my surprised state I pulled on a hoodie and went out into the living room. And then my heart melted.  This little boy was adorable! He was so cute and sweet and polite. All the frustration and confusion I felt was gone. We hung out at our table, looking over his English book, helping him prepare for the quiz he was to have the next day. It was really fun and rewarding and his mother seemed to really appreciate it a lot. After a point we finished our conversation and practice and I was feeling decently confident that the boy would do fairly well on his quiz and was mostly just worried about the amount of sleep he’d get as pretty much the only factor working against him. I said goodbye to the boy and his mother, that it was nice to meet them both, to let me know if he ever needs more help and wished him luck on his quiz. A few days later, I went for a run and on my way saw the boy walking up the path I was running down. I waved and smiled and stopped for a moment to say hello, and asked him how his quiz went. He smiled back and said he’d gotten 100%.  Touché little boy, touché.  =)