{"id":128795,"date":"2021-12-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nursingstudybay.com\/2021\/12\/20\/finding-maria\/"},"modified":"2021-12-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T00:00:00","slug":"finding-maria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studyproessays.com\/help\/finding-maria\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Maria"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The school was not formal, or exclusive, or neat; it was knowledge\u2019s humble house. We passed under the archway, and the humidity outside gave way to a sea of eyes, observing the foreign visitors. When a voice in the back shouted \u201cGringo!\u201d the room erupted in laughter. <\/p>\n

I nervously grinned and crossed the room. Taking a pencil and paper, I sat across from a young girl. Dark locks cascaded around her face, her brown eyes mirrored mine, and her mouth widened into a grin. <\/p>\n

\u201cMe llama Maria, y tu?\u201d she asked excitedly. My grin waned, as I searched my mind for the correct response. Immediately, my vocabulary shifted to a hybrid of Spanish and Latin: \u201cHola, me nomen es-\u201d <\/p>\n

I stopped midsentence. On this service trip to an Ecuadorian village 3,000 miles from home, I had utterly forgotten how to speak Spanish. <\/p>\n

Maria\u2019s smile did not falter. She took my hand in hers, and I could feel her enthusiasm as she playfully combined hand signals and words to teach me Spanish.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMe llama \u2026\u201d She pointed to herself. \u201cMaria.\u201d Her finger rotated and aimed at me. <\/p>\n

\u201cMe llama Juanathon?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Maria laughed, and I even managed a few chuckles as my fear began to dissipate. <\/p>\n

We began to study, she teaching Spanish and learning arithmetic, I learning Spanish and teaching arithmetic. The Spanish words for numbers began to return to me, veiled in memories of watching cartoons as a child on a warm, summer Saturday. The breeze wafts through the screen door into my house as Charlie Brown counts from cero to diez in his black-and-yellow shirt. <\/p>\n

Then Maria\u2019s patient smile brought me back to Ecuador. Our conversation turned from arithmetic to soccer to local politics. She spoke of dribbling a cracked leather ball with friends on dirt roads, shooting into imaginary nets demarcated by discarded shoes. She explained the spray-paintings that adorned crumbling brick buildings, displaying the names of popular political candidates. My mind was struggling to keep up, but the effort was enjoyable, exciting.<\/p>\n

Maria\u2019s innocent, exuberant grin ties me to her, despite our age difference and now our geographic separation. Her smile transcended the barriers of language, age, and gender. It tied me, a white Italian-Irish-American teen boy with a shamefully scant Spanish vocabulary, to Maria, a seven-year-old Ecuadorian girl. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely that I\u2019ll ever see Maria again, however, I will always remember her smile. It will always encourage me to seek the Maria in whomever I meet, regardless of personality or physical appearance or how difficult the endeavor may seem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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