Im a teacher...of sorts

When I was reading the website describing The Cooperativa where I was planning to study Spanish I was happy to see all the things they do to give back to the community. They had mentioned volunteer opportunities, but they only had placements for the mornings when I was taking class and I didn´t want to loose my teacher. So this afternoon we were on our way back from visiting the family I´m sponsoring and when my teacher told me I could help out at a local school I was all over it.

I have come to understand that when your ability to fully communicate with someone is limited you should be open to whatever happens. So as I walked with the teacher through the school and took in all the kids´ gazes and heard their giggled he explained to me...in spanish...what the kids have covered in their english lessons (not a whole lot) and that I could help them with their pronunciation and basic introductions. So with very little to go off of, I went for it. I think that all my experience of working with children has lead up to this point in my life, to walk into a classroom of about 30, 15 year old students who speak little to no English and just dive into it. I felt like a legit classroom teacher for about 30 minutes. Writing phrases on the board like, ¨What is your name¨ and ¨Where are you from¨ then below writing the spanish translation and how to answer the question...¨My name is ____¨ and ¨I am from____¨. At the end of my time I had covered the white board with some basic introduction questions and answers. The rest of the class time consisted of me asking the students the questions about how many brothers and sisters they had and how old they were. It was kind of similar to the start of my Spanish lessons. Afterward I thanked them for having me and told them that I can understand the challenge of learning a new language. I can´t take all the credit, the teacher of the class is also a teacher at The Cooperativa and from what I hear is awesome. In fact, my teacher at The Coopertiva had him for a teacher when she was a student there. I was invited to come back again on Thursday to work with his class again. Awesome! I may try to teach them a song in English, not sure yet but it will be nice to have a bit of time to think about how I am going to approach them as opposed to coming in with no ammo.

Though my Spanish is coming along pretty well I think im pretty far off from understanding one of the 21 native languages spoken in Guatemala. One of which is common around San Pedro is Tz´utujil. With the help of my teacher I was able to ask questions to the mother of the four children. While the kids were busy eating the chocolate treats and looking through the school supplies I brought them I asked the mother about her lifestyle and how she was able to be so strong to support her family. She told me that her eldest children are very helpful in every aspect of life, whether it´s hiking down to the lake for water or gathering sticks to burn the fire they use to cook their food. The whole time she had a very straight face and didn´t seem to show much expression. I asked her what made her smile she said that being around people who were genearlly nice and kind made her smile. With this the corner of her mouth slightly curved up and a smile slipped out. I have a lot of respect for this woman taking care of her family and just barely getting by, but it seems that her family and friends around her are what really represents the quality of her life. It was great to see the kids so excited about their school supplies and I asked my teacher to tell them they should work hard in school even though at times it can be challenging. The eldest child responsed by saying he was glad to get to go to school and would work hard. Oh Education!