Nina’s Vignette

A week of stomach sickness, homesickness, and heat had drained me emotionally. It was Los Jazmines, smack dab in the middle of the trip, and I was getting in my head. I came home stressed out and upset after a trip to the hotel to try to call my mom proved unsuccessful, and I was feeling pretty down. I sat down all alone to drown myself on pity as I worked on a friendship bracelet, when the two little cuban girls who lived in my casa sat down with me, clearly curious about what I was doing. As I showed them how to make the bracelets, they taught me how to say the colors of the strings in spanish. They then proceeded to do my hair, show me their favorite music, and ended up staying up to spend their night with me. From then on, I spent every night with those little girls, and they turned Los Jazmines from a stressful experience to one I will remember and value for a long time.