Nueva Vida After-school Program!

Today we were blessed with the opportunity to visit the Daycare Center and the Nueva Vida after-school program. We were in awe walking into the daycare center as we were greeted with all the young children lined up saying (screaming)¡Hola! It was such an uplifting experience to play with the children even though we did not speak the same language. Everyone knew how to communicate through body language which allowed us all to experience the basic levels of humanity. The children in the daycare ranged from 3 months to 4 years old. We all had such a blast playing, dancing, and helping the children during our visit. It was incredible to see how different the daycares are in Merida versus in the US. 

After the daycare visit, we headed to Nueva Vida where we were greeted with girls from the range of kindergarten to 6th grade. The girls were all so beyond excited to meet us and use their English skills to communicate as well as us attempting to use our Spanish skills. The girls had so much energy and wanted to play games like tag or hide and seek. They were so accepting of our language barrier and worked with us to help us understand their culture. It was amazing to see how kind and genuine the people of Merida were through their children. It speaks volumes to how their family’s values are reflected in their children at such young ages. Today, we all realized how important it is to let go of the bias that we grow up learning and expand our perspective to treating everyone as human beings. 

For dinner, we prepared a spaghetti dinner and it was fabulous!!! We spent time talking about our dinner and reflecting on our experiences at the daycare and Nueva Vida. It was great to hear what everyone enjoyed the most out of their day. Then, we went to a “park” (not the playground type of park). This park was a historical location and was embedded with culture. It was absolutely beautiful and we got some great pictures we can’t wait to share with you! Overall, we had a day full of personal growth that allowed us all to see the good in people. 

Mucho amor,

Mérida chicas

Maddie and Hayley