Ballerinas and Poetry
If there is one thing I have learned over the last two years with the girls in the Hope House, it’s that you can always expect the unexpected. Each girl is unique, with her own strengths, interests, and personality. Each group of girls is equally unique, and the dynamic of the house changes annually when a new group of girls moves in and another graduates and moves out. This means, every year, every month, every day is different. Something new, something funny, something way out of the ordinary is always happening. Over the last two months, two such things stood out to me.
The first has to do with ballerinas. In my experience, the girls have had little to no interest in ballerinas. I don’t think they even knew what they were. However, this recently took a turn. At some point, they found out what a ballerina is and from then on were suddenly interested in all things related to the life of these floating dancers.
It all started one night when I walked in to my shift and found them watching a ballerina documentary. They had been off of school, so they were not in their usual homework routine, and another staff member had apparently decided it was a good time for a movie night! The girls were enthralled as they watched the screen. The dancers in the documentary were preparing to perform what is perhaps the most famous ballet of all time, The Nutcracker. Each girl stared at the screen wide-eyed, and I was a little shocked at how many of the older girls were in the room. They were as interested and amazed as the little ones. In a hallway off to the side, three of “the littles” as we call them were watching the screen while imitating every move. Each of them had put on tall socks to imitate ballet slippers and tried to slide across the tile floor like the dainty dancers of the screen. It was a sight to see! They twirled and slid while raising their little arms in the air, and they even fell a few times. It was quite funny, and very cute! Later that night I saw some of the older girls doing the SAME thing in a wider hallway! The ballerina obsession has continued to roll on since then. Every other week I host a movie night with the girls, and they often choose ballerina related movies now. I never would have expected this, but it has certainly been fun!
Another unusual thing that stood out to me happened when our girls put on a talent show in December. The girls often do this, and these little house shows are filled with dancing, singing, plays, and tons of laughter. They are easily one of my favorite parts of Hope House life because the girls get to showcase their creativity, talents, and personality. At this last one, one of our girls stood up to perform a Christmas poem that she had written. It was amazing!! She not only wrote a very solid poem, but she also performed it with feeling and emotion and movement as though she were performing in a theater. She took it SO seriously. I have never seen anything like it since moving here, either at school showcases and events (and there have been many) or at the Hope House talent shows. It was truly special, beautiful, and even funny to have our own little poetry slam during the talent show.
Both of these have huge significance in my opinion. So often, girls in our area, especially girls their age lose the chance to be little girls early on. So often, they miss all the little girl moments of life. There are no dolls or picture books or dreams or paintings or poems. They work real jobs when they are not in school at vegetable stores or bakeries, care for younger siblings continually, and statistically are ushered into womanhood way too soon.
At Ecuador Hope House, our girls are not only given the opportunity to study and have a safe place to live; they are given a chance to be little girls. There is singing and dancing and painting and picture book time. There are opportunities left and right to just be little, just be a girl, to just enjoy this brief and fleeting stage of life.
And this year, that means ballerinas and poetry.
