Revived!

Did the reunion eat me? You may ask. Where have I been? I do not know. One thing I do know: I haven't given up on Robo in Rockville.



Lesson of the day: we have more of an impact than we know. Recently, my coworker and I conducted groups in a local middle school. They were for families who had been separated and reunified--in most of them, parents came to the U.S. first, then brought the kids 2, 5, even 11 years later.

At the end of the groups, we did a field trip to Great Falls National Park. We hiked, grilled, ate enormous Costco cupcakes, made t-shirts, raffled off Subway gift cards. We laughed at me mistakenly calling a "waterfall" a "puddle" (FYI: a waterfall in the Dominican Republic is a puddle in El Salvador: charco. "Look at the giant puddle!" they guffawed), and other glorious moments of cultural integration.

Jason and his big, warm, culturally competent heart joined us. Even without the group leaders around, the families told him how much the groups meant to them. And what struck me most were the T-shirts the kids made at the end:

It says "El Salvador" and "I love my family." The kids each made T-shirts, on their own, displaying pride in their heritage and in their families.