Today, I woke up at 7:30 and took a shower. The water is always freezing cold and the pressure isn’t good if someone else is showering at the same time but it’s a shower and I’m thankful for having access to that. Plus, freezing cold water bright and early in the morning really wakes you up! Today, we had oatmeal and melon for breakfast. It was very, very good! After breakfast, we all headed to school for our first day of teaching!! The school we are teaching at this week is called SJPS and it’s about a 6 minute walk from the O360 facility. We got to the school and prepped for the first class. I was shocked when we walked into a computer room! These schools are definitely trying to give their children the best possible opportunities to learn. We walked into first grade this morning and we all sat down beside a student. The young boy I was beside was named Cristopher. He was dropped off at school one day and no one knew who he was and he won’t tell anyone his name so everyone calls him Cristopher. This young boy was a smart cookie but he had an attention span of about 4 minutes. All he wanted to do was make crafts and he kept asking me for scissors. It was very difficult trying to interact with him as he knew minimal English and I knew minimal Spanish. These children have one English class per day (just as we had one French class per day growing up in Canada). It’s very difficult to interact with the children but with Cristopher, I kept a smile on and stayed positive and I think it really made him feel more comfortable with me. After first grade, we had our first recess with the children. Wow, the children here have energy! It’s almost like they don’t feel the heat! Every volunteer was running around playing with the kids and every once in a while, they would break and stand in the shade for a moment but the children kept running around regardless of the heat. After recess, we got to meet the children in second grade. Celeste and Jocelyn, along with another volunteer began their lesson as all of us other volunteers assisted the children. The boy that I helped in this class was named Yeudi. He was such a sweet boy. He loved my baseball bracelet and he was so well behaved. This class was so quiet and so eager to learn with us.
After second grade, we headed back to the O360 facility for lunch. We had steak, eggplant, rice, beans, and HBE. Once lunch was over, we had some free time to begin lesson planning for the next day and we then headed back to the school for afternoon classes. Third grade was up next. John is one on the main teachers for this grade and he did a fantastic job. He really thrives in this environment. This class was very well behaved and knew more English than I thought they would have thought! During this class, I worked with a young girl, helping her learn colours. She picked up a crayon and wrote “te amo” on her piece of paper which means “I love you” in Spanish. She pointed at the paper and pointed back at me and it hit me like a brick wall how much of an impact we have on these children, regardless of how long we are there for. This moment inspired me. These children are so grateful that we are here, helping they learn English so they can have a choice at a better future. After the third grade was over, we moved on to the fourth grade. I was super excited because this was my class! The class was fairly rowdy before we walked in but once we walked in, the class settled. We started the daily routine (a series of songs that teach numbers, days of the week, etc.) and the class began to grow louder. We started teaching and it was a disaster. No one was listening, and everyone was super distracted. A few boys actually had to be taken out of the classroom because they were misbehaving. Once the real teacher came in, the class settled a tiny bit and once the male gym teacher came and stood in the doorway, the children grew more quiet. No matter how stressful the teaching situation got, we stayed positive and got through the lesson. After this class, we went to our last class of the day-grade five. Multiple things happened during this class. First, the boy I was sitting next to kept bugging another boy in the class to pass him something… It was a liquid glue bottle that was starting to dry and he pulled out the glue and started playing with it. Next, the same young boy took out a baby doll and started hitting it. He kept laughing and passed the doll to another boy who pretended to pull out the baby’s hair. This was eye opening for me.
After the fifth grade, we had the option to either head back to the O360 facility to lesson plan or to attend the O360 after school program. 4 of us volunteers went to the after school programs and it was incredible! These children were much more fluent in English and it was so great to be able to interact with them! The classroom was outside so it was a different atmosphere for learning and it was great to be able to keep teaching. I loved every minute of this class. After school, we headed back to the O360 facility for lesson planning and dinner. For dinner, we had rice, beans, and pineapple. After dinner, we headed across town to get some ice cream. It was super hard to order as they only spoke Spanish but we managed. I got chocolate and it was sooooo good! Once we got back to the 0360 facility, we had an optional reflection. My whole team participated in this and I was super proud of them for doing so.
Today, my eyes were opened. When that young girl wrote “te amo” on that piece of paper, I was so inspired. These children are so thankful for Outreach360 and everything that they provide. They have such a strong love for the organization and for each individual volunteer. Tomorrow, we are up and leaving at 6:30 for a morning hike to catch the sun rise over El Morro. It’s going to be beautiful, just as everything has been so far.