my welcome to Marshall

My first day of school was yesterday at a small school in the Mission. It is located 1 block north of the 16th street BART station in what at times is a gritty, very urban part of the city. As I was walking to work yesterday you could smell along along parts of the outside of the school where men relieve themselves. In the not too distant past prostitutes and drug dealers loitered outside the school.

But it is a beautiful little school of about 250 students and 12 classroom teachers. The school has a small playground and the building frames a small courtyard. The staff has been very welcoming and open. But yesterday the students came in. They are among the sweetest children I have seen. They get along with each other, they like each other and are kind to each other--at least that is what I witnessed in the cafeteria. They are largely Latino, maybe a quarter are white and a handful of African-American children. A sizable portion of the Latino children are Mayan as evidenced by their family names like Dzul, Potoc, Us Cool. The speak Spanish fluently enough. I don't know if they speak Mayan languages but it is cool that they have retained their native identity. I have a grateful heart.