The pila is where you wash clothes here in Honduras. It’s a big basin of water and has a concrete washboard. You rub soap on your clothes, wash them and rinse them out then hang them up to dry.
I met Michelle in 2014 when she was 14 years old. I showed up for three months, hoping to improve my Spanish and excited to spend time with the kids at Corazon de Cristo in Honduras.
Her story is hers to tell but let’s say the beginning wasn’t easy. There was brokenness and pain. But I didn’t see that when I met her. I saw a girl full of life. A girl full of passion with a huge capacity for joy and love. She is full of beauty and compassion, her spirit is light and it is contagious.
We bonded quickly, I honestly don’t even remember exactly how now. At the time I spoke some Spanish, but mostly on a child’s level, not enough to really hang with a teenage girl, but she didn’t care. She would talk and talk and I would listen, understanding maybe half of what she said. We adapted to each other quickly. My Spanish vocabulary grew and I could understand her even when she spoke super quickly, which she almost always did. She learned to read my face and would pause or change words when she knew I didn’t understand. I still credit her for my Spanish-speaking abilities. Those three months with her taught me more Spanish than years in a classroom. But the also taught me her heart.
We would chat on walks or hanging out at the soccer field, but our most significant conversations happened over the pila. The pila, where you wash your clothes by hand, quickly became my favorite place to hang out with her. On that first trip, she would always wash clothes in the evening. All would be quiet then and I would perch on the pila next to her and just listen. Listen as she told me about her dreams for the future. Listen as she told me about her family and her past. Listen as she told me her passions. Listen as she lit up and talked with such pride about her daughter. It became routine that in the evening I would chat with her at the pila, even if we’d had busy days we would catch up that evening while she washed clothes.
This week I leaned against a new pila next to the new children’s home building while she washed clothes. New pila but same friendship, same heart shared in a moment of quiet. As I again leaned against the side of the pila and listened to her talk about her life, it struck me just how much of life we have shared while washing clothes. 5 years and so many conversations later there is still something special about our chats by the pila. So much has changed since our first conversations all those years ago. She has grown into a confident young woman that I am so proud to call family. She knows who she is and whose she is. She no longer just needs an ear to listen but now we do this thing called life together. So much growth and heart and passion shared over this little concrete washboard. Who knew that the best gift I could receive is that of handwashing clothes. I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.
With love,
Kayla
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what a sweet story!