 Elizabeth Weaver with her Mojondita village students |
Providence High School 2007
Charlotte, North Carolina
Adjusting to the lifestyle of a third world country was not as easy as I had anticipated; but getting stuck in cow traffic jams, remembering to throw away rather than flush my toilet paper, and learning to barter for goods in a foreign language were the least of my worries. The responsibility to teach Ecuadorian village kids English presented me with quite a challenge. I was more than familiar with the Spanish language, I had just finished my third academic year of Spanish in my high school; but I was by no means an elite Spanish linguist. To be honest, I struggled with the language, but the language barrier and all of the other obstacles I faced seemed trivial compared to the vital urgency of the kids passing their exam at the end of the summer, allowing them to enter high school.
I went to Ecuador with the Village Education Project, an organization committed to raising money to send children to high school as well as gathering volunteers to actually educate the children. In Ecuador, as well as many other third world countries, primary education ends after seventh grade. For many children, this is the end of their education altogether, consigning them to the same cycle of poverty they were born into. However, if the children continue their education into high school, there is true hope of their rising above a destitute lifestyle.
The volunteers from Village Education Project were divided into groups of two's and three's, each group assigned to a different village. In my particular village, Mojondita, we found that teaching in stations was most effective. I was the designated English teacher and over two weeks taught the kids vocabulary, verb conjugations, as well as some grammar. There were about twenty-five kids in my class, ranging from ages five to fourteen.
I had high expectations for my kids and taught them a lot, but I think they taught me just as much, if not more. Seeing their passion and determination to learn showed me how often I and millions of other American high school students take our guaranteed high school education for granted. For these kids, high school is their one chance at a different life, and many aren't even awarded the opportunity of going to high school. Even though in the United States high school is known to be a drag, homework incessant, and grades stressful, these kids that are so avid to learn taught be the true value of education. As I watched their looks of confusion as to why "ella bonita" translates into English as "pretty girl" (rather than "girl pretty") turn into to looks of understanding, I was truly aware of the gratitude teaching presents. I have never experienced such fulfillment as I did during this trip, realizing with their mastery of a certain topic "I taught them that."
As I alluded to before, my epiphany that education is a gift every child should be given was not reached without challenges. Our luggage was lost for the first four days of our trip, which added a fair amount of stress to our travels. Teaching in a different country was an adjustment as well. On one occasion, I was teaching and a dog walked into our open classroom and urinated in the corner of the room! All of the hitches along the way such as these brought me even farther out of my comfort zone and exposed me to a way life completely new to me. The lessons these diligent and hard working children taught me were as valuable as those I taught them.