In a school of 170 children where the vast majority come from families with limited economic means, Karen's family is probably the most impoverished of them all. Deeply shy yet naturally inquisitive, Karen (pronounced "Car-En") entered our kindergarten class well into the school year without ever having set foot inside a school building in her life. She had never opened a book to read before joining this class. She spoke rarely, and if she did utter any words, they were expressed in the softest cumulus cloud of a whisper.
Karen, her brother, and her parents live in a squalid concrete box a half mile from the school. Her dad is a woefully underpaid agricultural worker on the vast estate of Jeronimo Zelaya, the reputable local don who bequeathed a portion of his land to build SJBS on several years prior. Karen's mother spends her day cooking beans, washing clothes in the little backyard pila, and performing whatever other tasks befit the role of a loyal housewife. Karen's older brother is in the second-grade class and is one of the brightest and most charismatic students in his group of 28 kids. None of the other kids dwelt on the miserable poverty that he comes from, but Karen was immediately viewed as the "poorest girl in school," a sad little wretch whom all should pity. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Karen came to SJBS with an open mind and a gentle heart, and for the first week just sat in the classroom and mostly stared off into space, taking some notice of the buzzing scene around her but feeling reluctant to wade into it. Then, slowly, she began to sing with the other kids and state a few words of English out loud. The other kids did not treat her badly, but were also not terribly eager to warm up to her. Karen, for her first month, was an open book that only a few kids were willing to read (and these were, interestingly, the alpha girls of the class, who gradually took Karen under their wing).
Karen came to school on a full scholarship, and her parents, made painfully shy by the unspoken shame of their extremely humble material circumstances, at first needed some convincing that their daughter should be with us, doubting that she would fit in, doubting that she was ready. Yet she proved, with time, that she could love school, and that, despite her lowly position on the socio-economic ladder, she could take advantage of the same opportunity offered to her wealthier neighbors. Karen instantly became a favorite of our staff, and it was hard not to dote on her every chance that we got.
