A brief pause in her studies....

Yesterday afternoon at 2:30, Fran was surrounded by 3 ex-military dentists who worked together to extract her two lower wisdom teeth -- FOR FREE!  One of them has been her friend since last May, about 5 months before I met her.  Both of us met Fran by chance. 

How Fran met the Dentist: Fran was wandering around looking for a dentist's sign on the street because she had a pain in one of her teeth.  She happened upon the establishment of dentist Luis on Calle Doblado and presented herself in his second-floor office.  After talking to her for awhile, he was as impressed by her as I was, and decided to provide her dental care for very little money.  Once they became friends, he also gave her samples of toothbrushes, mouthwash and toothpaste from his office.  Later, when she needed this dental surgery he approached a friend of his who is a dental surgeon, another ex-military dentist, and they decided to perform the extractions free of cost.

She was in a lot of pain yesterday after the surgery (both wisdom teeth were lodged firmly in her jaw) but today she says she is pain free.  Another day of rest and she should be up and about.

Here are photos I took this morning.  She prepared the homemade icepacks a few days ago to have them ready!

Coming along excellently!

Hello friends!  We have been busy!

Fran has completed her study of algebra, is in the middle of chemistry, and is about to start mathematical functions and into calculus.  Meanwhile she is methodically reading 20 - 24 pages per day of a history book that she checked out from the Oaxaca Learning Center.  After her wisdom teeth are pulled (happening today!) for free by a kindly dentist who befriended her like I did, she will go join the city library and check out some books on biology, and more on history. 

I let her use my computer for a few hours each evening when things quiet down and she can concentrate.  She found high quality teaching videos on the internet in Spanish that really helped her as she studied algebra.  Last night, we found a few good ones that addressed the subject of functions. 

It is awesome to watch her, hour after hour, as she methodically goes through her study regime!  I have to pinch myself sometimes that I have encountered such a remarkable person -- even more so when she tells me stories about her life in the remote village where she was raised!

Yesterday she told me she had never heard of the Beatles!  I am thinking of getting her a scrap book to start collecting cultural items that she is exposed to and decides she likes.  But when I think about it I don't think she would take the time -- she is too focused on her goal of passing the exam, and that is good!

She is now sleeping in my storeroom which we cleared out as much as possible for her, but spends her time in the living room.  I now have 2 twenty-somethings living with me (Marisol is 27, Fran is 22) and it is working out beautifully.  The two young women chat with each other in Spanish a bit every evening, but they are both busy with their own lives.

I told Fran yesterday that I really do want her to stay here with us until after she passes the exams and to stop looking for another place to live.  We will cross the next bridge when we come to it!  Meanwhile she is secure and able to focus on her studies.

Next week Fran is taking exams at the Oaxaca Learning Center in all of her subjects.  They say that students who do not pass them will be dropped from the program.  I am sure she will pass, and I am glad that there is some rigor to this program.

Fran will be paying her fees sometime in June and I will give you the exact date when it is posted on the school's website.

Here are a couple of recent photos!

Fran with the needle-felted jesters and dolls I am making to sell.

Fran's beautiful smile (she had just French-braided my hair)

A disappointment: fraud alert

Fran came back from her 2nd, unpaid day of training full of news and enthusiasm for her new job.  She said that she was one of the 12 applicants still standing after an initial group of 50 applicants had dwindled.  After she described the situation, including that they were not allowed to eat or go to the bathroom for the 8-hour training (only the fittest would survive this day, and indeed 32 people left) I asked her to write down the name of the company and immediately looked it up on the web; "Grupo CELCA".  The first several entries were detailing why it is a fraudulent business that is victimizing the young and the poor and the desperate for work in Oaxaca.

Needless to say we were stunned.  We read and reread the information, and the three of us including Marisol talked about the situation until Fran was able to accept her disappointment and move on.  She did not want to believe it because the shiny promises they made to her were so attractive.

But how fortunate that we caught the situation now.  Tomorrow the plan was for everyone to turn over personal information to the Grupo including addresses and phone numbers.  Members of the Grupo said they were going to visit each house to see if it was suitable to hold certain goods, like boxes of cellphones....etc.  You can see where this might have lead.

Fran is taking a shower now, to wash off the day.  She will study a few hours tonight, and start job hunting an hour a day until she finds what she needs.  I told her if she is feeling afraid about having no pocket money, I can provide a little and not to worry.  Her focus is back on her studies, though I imagine it will take a day or two for the shock to wear off.

Fran's new bed!

With so much going on in Fran's life, Marisol (my apartment-mate) and I decided that Fran should live with us until she passes her exams in May.  We are taking the most positive view -- that she will pass -- although it is not uncommon for young people to have to take the exam twice in order to pass.  Unfortunately, they only offer the exams once a year, so if she doesn't pass this time, she will continue to work and study and for sure pass them next time.

But we think she is going to pass....

Living here for another 3 months will make it a little crowded, so Fran and I cleaned out my small (about 10 x 12) storage room and she used part of her school money to get a bed.  It is being delivered today.  It is the first real bed she has ever had, and I had to talk her into spending the money.  She was talking about getting a straw mat for the floor, but I told her that getting a good night's sleep was just as important as studying for her future. 

Fran's new job!

No matter how many times I encouraged Fran to focus on her studies and confine her search for employment to not more than one hour a day, she took every opportunity to drop into stores and coffee shops asking whether there were any jobs available. 

Day before yesterday I bought a local paper and she immediately opened it to the classified section.  That afternoon she made a call and showed up for an interview the following morning!  Of course they like her!  She just began a 4-day training period for which she will not get paid -- shocking to me, but that's evidently the way things are done in Mexico.  

I will learn more about the kind of company and the kind of job when she comes back tonight, but we know it will involved answering phones, which they will train her to do...a good skill for an office job.  She told me she never wanted to clean other people's houses for a living again, and considering how she was treated, I don't blame her a bit!

If she passes this 4-day trial she will be hired to start next Monday.  Her hours are part time, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. which is exactly what she needs to be able to study and attend classes.  Fingers crossed!

She is eager to start because she told me she has almost no money left in her private savings -- a disconcerting feeling.  I am happy for her, and we plan to celebrate this weekend if she gets the job!

"It's getting easier!"

Fran studies many hours every day and recently she has said several times "It's getting easier!" in respect to math.  Thanks to the time she spent with Eugenio, who gave her an ordered priority list of how to approach the subject.  It is paying off!

She has three classes now: math, chemistry, and English.  These are all preparatory classes for the exams in April to get into the university.  She says that chemistry is easy compared to math!  That amazed me because my memory of the beleaguered chemistry students at UC Santa Cruz, hunching over their chemistry tables in study hall, is still vivid.

She is beginning to say short sentences in English just recently, so she will be accelerating rapidly from here.

There is still nothing more fulfilling to me right now than to watch Fran take full advantage of every opportunity that is offered her, and to see her world change and grow.

Here is a photo of Fran studying in a coffee shop a week or so ago when our internet went out.

Fran is 9th from right, second row.  With her classmates at the Centro de Aprendizaje during a trip to Mitla, last Saturday.

Fran received a free 3-hour assessment in math and algebra from Eugenio, a Mexican engineer and friend from Oaxaca.  They worked while his wife and I relaxed nearby -- she reading and I felting.  Fran obtained valuable information about many things, including how she should order her studies to learn most rapidly and effectively.  After they finished, we all talked about possible careers for Fran and Eugenio shared his experience as an engineer.  His sister is also an engineer, so it was good for Fran to consider this as a possibility.  She is being exposed to so much information from so many sources that it is hard to say what her ultimate decision will be.  But it is all good!!