Happy birthday, Teacher!

Meghan Vandermale, WorldTeach Rwanda volunteer, writes about spending her birthday with her students!

One of the first weeks of class, one of my sweet S1 girls asked when my birthday was. I told her and the whole class smiled and nodded in response. Then, on Monday, two days before my birthday at the end of class as I was about to leave, S1 asked if I would come to answer questions for them later in the week. (I have been going up to their classroom about once a week to give them a chance to ask questions individually). I proposed coming the next afternoon. "No, teacher, it is not possible, there is someone else coming that day." I thought that this was a bit strange since I had rarely seen another teacher come back to the school that late, but I proposed coming Thursday instead. "No teacher, Thursday is not good. You should come Wednesday." Well, I don't teach on Wednesday and was going into town in the evening, when they wanted me to come, so I told them I could come during the lunch break. "OK teacher, that is good because we need your help."

The next day, one of the girls came up to me and reminded me "Teacher, you are going to come tomorrow? We have MANY, MANY questions about math. It is VERY difficult." At the time, we were learning about adding and subtracting fractions which is never pleasant so I believed her. On Wednesday, my birthday, when I finished lunch with the teachers, I walked down to the S1 classroom. When I opened the door, I was immediately surrounded by my students shouting and throwing copious amount of confetti on my head (made from shredded old homework assignments). I was handed a large bouquet of flowers and several small ones were put in my hair. I was ushered to the front of the classroom while they sang a song to me. Then a few girls came up and did some Rwandan cultural dancing. To their delight, I attempted to join them. Afterwards, in typical Rwandan fashion, came a speech. The head of class came up and expressed her profound desire that I have a wonderful day of my birth. They were very proud of themselves that they had been so sneaky to ask for my birthday at the beginning of the year and then surprise me by remembering. I had to admit; I was very impressed and said so in the response speech I gave. Then, they asked me to sing a song for them. Unlike Rwandans, I just cannot bring myself to sing in public. So I tried to stall. "I don't know what song to sing."

"Teacher, do you know any Usher?"

"No."

"What about Kanye West?"

"No."

"What about Neyo?"

"No."

"Do you know Father Abraham had many sons?"

"…yes, I do know that one."

So, the class joined me in singing Father Abraham had many sons.

I left with a handful of flowers, homemade cards and various things made out of paper. My hair was covered in confetti and paper flowers and as I walked back to my house, I left a trail of confetti. Every year, at my house, my family has a competition to see who will get the most birthday cards. We put them up on the mantle to keep track of them. Every year, it's either my Mom or Dad that wins. But if I was home, I would definitely win this year. I wouldn't be able to fit all of my cards on the mantle. Here are some of the comments that were in my cards:

-"My good teacher or my dear friend or my homey. The first I salute you and God be with you everywhere you go…and when I was mature, I will come to American to see eye to eye." (Then she included a list of American singers: -Jackson Durrly, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, T.I, Rihanna, Alicia Keys.)

-"God bless you my love, you explain math very very good."

-"I love you, I will never forget you in my lif."

-"Have a good day and I see you, you become a good wife for your husband."

-"you are so beautiful to the body and to the heart."

-"I will never forget you because you know to teach mathematics and I want to go in your country for visit my uncle."

-"We love you because of your characteristics. I think, our country Rwanda is very good. We wish you to have a good life in Rwanda, even if you will return in USA."

-"teacher, I told you don't forget this card post is your card for your day of birth."

All in all, it's a birthday I won't forget. If only everyone could be so lucky to have such warm birthday greetings!

Meghan's birthday flowers

US Ambassador Brownfield meets WorldTeach Colombia

WorldTeach Colombia has once again been featured in the local news on the occasion of US Ambassador William Brownfield's visit to the coastal city of Cartagena. Check out the clip below, which features volunteer Monica Ralston and the rest of WorldTeach Colombia in the last minute and a half.

The ambassador speaks with some students

Blackboard Garden

Jane Brokaw, WorldTeach Rwanda volunteer,writes about one of her favorite students and inspiring her class to open up their creative side!

"My S1 boys are so cute they break my heart. JMV took 2 hours to finish his history exam (everyone else took about an hour). He is so careful and hard-working that it makes me want to cry. I honestly have to restrain myself from hugging him. I mean that literally. I have to talk myself down “Jane, not a good idea to be hugging school boys out of the blue… They already think you are a crazy Muzungu (white person), it would probably traumatize the poor kid.” I just want him to be home with his mom. He looks way too young and fragile to be in boarding school. The children tend to be quite reserved with their smiles, but JMV never smiles and always gives me a Bambi in headlights look. Some of my other S1’s are teeny tiny too but no one brings tears to my eyes quite like JMV.  

These pictures are from our creative class today. I started by drawing a flower and then they all filled in with their own. They could have drawn anything but maybe I didn’t make that clear enough. Regardless, the result was beautiful."

Weekend at El Puerto and La Playa

WorldTeach's in-country orientations provide a great opportunity for volunteers to get to know one another and form a solid support network, creating strong bonds in just a few short weeks. Once volunteers are scattered across their varying sites, they have numerous opportunities to visit one another and explore the country together over weekends and school holidays, sharing their disparate experiences and accumulated stories. Below, Chile volunteer Heather Tang shares some photos from a weekend spent in Valparaíso with a group of her fellow volunteers.

"Valparaíso (Valpo) is considered Chile's most important port and even though the entire country is coastline, it is the gateway to the Pacific.  As a World Heritage Site, the city is eclectic and cultural, characterized by its many hills and bright, colorful buildings lining the harbor.  To get up the steep hills more easily, pedestrians can take one of the 16 funiculars to the famous hilltops.

On our first weekend after splitting to our placements, a group of the WT volunteers met up in Valpo to see the tall ships festival and explore the winding cobblestone streets, undulating landscape, and sample the abundant seafood.  Even though it had been less than a week apart, we had already experienced the new ways of life we would each be adjusting to and hopefully thriving in for the rest of the year and had plenty of stories to share. 

We stayed overnight at a creaky little hostel up in Cerro Artillería and the next day, hung out on the beach in neighboring city, Viña del Mar, where we had a little fun with the cameras."

Old Prom Dresses Live a Second Life in the Marshall Islands

Sarah Lipson, WorldTeach Marhsall Islands volunteer, has been collecting old prom dresses from friends back home to throw a memorable party for some of her students. Below she shares the touching story and beautiful photos as she prepares to wrap up her year of service.

The much anticipated Prom Dress Party, or PDP, was a huge success and a reminder of the remarkable, and for a brief time, connected worlds to which I belong.  Home in Boston.  Home in the Marshall Islands. Seeing Sarah B’s prom dress on a Marshall Islands High School senior was indescribable. My childhood friend sharing from a world away.  Seeing my own prom dress on a skinny, skinny MIHS girl was also indescribable (but in a very different sort of way).  In all seriousness, the evening was truly incredible.  There were over 130 dresses for the girls to choose from, in all styles, colors and sizes.  The event was scheduled to begin at 5pm but, in an outcome somehow both shocking and predictable, the students began showing up at 3pm.  I hope their smiles, the ones you see below, stay with me forever, inspire me forever and touch me, forever and ever.

The Prom Dress Party was the very beginning of my effort to complete an impossible task – saying ‘thank you’ to the students I have come to love so deeply. Oh, did I mention that I am planning the MIHS Senior Prom? One thing sort of led to another and the seniors ended up asking me to take the reigns.  May 28th – MIHS Senior Prom. Stay tuned...

Mona transformed the warehouse of her store into a fashion expo.  I love adjectives but there are very few that could really capture Mona’s combination of generosity, creativity and determination.

Working the red plyway (our version of the red carpet, made from 2x4s painted a lovely shade of crimson)…

Kommoltata jen tu mulal in buruo (thank you from the bottom of my heart).  The girls sang me a song with these lyrics at the end of the party.

"This is your last chance"

As many of our year-long programs prepare to depart this summer, our current volunteers in-country are faced with looming goodbyes and the end of their time at their schools and communities. Below, WorldTeach China volunteer Jolie Lee reflects on her last weeks as an oral English teacher at her school.

My students received their last batch of pen pal letters today.

"This is your last chance," I told them. "Think hard about what you want to write."

My students were surprised that we would not continue writing letters next year. I broke the news that I was only teaching at their school for this year. After that, there would be a different foreign teacher.

"No!" they cried. "Too soon!"

One of my students wrote to her pen pal, "Tell you bad news. My oral English teacher Jolie will leave. So we also keep in touch by ourselves. When I heard that, I'm very sad."

I was touched, and it occurred to me that these last few weeks would be my last chance too. I must make the most of the remaining classes with my students. It's strange. The first few months of coming to the school seemed to drag on interminably, but the last few have rushed by me. I've barely been able to stop and really absorb that this experience will almost be over.

Lately, I've pondered one question: Have I done enough? My self-evaluation depends on the day. On bad days, I am reminded of some students who still can barely read a simple sentence or say a greeting to me. I wonder if I have made any difference. On most days I know I have had some impact, even if the results of my teaching are not so tangible as a grade. At the same time that there are students who seem to be stagnant in their English learning, I see others bloom. I notice them take the initiative to speak to me in English, whereas last semester they hung back or only used Chinese. And instead of pausing every few words when reading sentences, they push ahead. I notice less fear.

I've learned in my own life that the biggest obstacle to anything is your own self. Lack of confidence can be crippling, and I don't want that to be the reason my students don't succeed. I have my one year to show them it's possible for them to speak English, and then it's in the hands of the next volunteer.

10 New Ways to Say Hello

Kenny Short and Nick Mikolenko describe how they and their teammates are commonly greeted in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Here is Adonis, the local fruit and smoothie vendor, standing proudly in front of his stand.

Top 10 things said or yelled to a WorldTeach Colombia volunteer on their walk to and from school:

1) ´Profe, Profe, Profe´ Yelled by one of the students of our school, whether we know them personally or not, as they walk to school, one hand waving furiously, the other holding the hand of their smiling mother or father.

2) ´Gringo´ Said and yelled, it is the obligatory, ubiquitous and unavoidable Latin American characterization for all things estadounidense. In Colombia and particularly in our neighborhood it is generally said with all the good intentions and wonder of a young child upon first meeting Santa Claus. Other times it is stated in passing as flatly as a fact, as in ´That is a tree´, ´Those are cars´ and ´You are a gringo´.

3) ´Hi, friend´ Said to me as I pass by the man with the grease-monkey hands and the bear-like build who fixes motorcycles and sells fruit under the shade of his one acacia tree in front of his modest, pink house.

4) ´MangoGuineoPatiaPapayaZanhoria...´ Yelled through a megaphone at rapid fire speed so that it sounds like one incredibly long Spanish word to the untrained ear. The megaphone hangs from a covered, wooden cart pulled by a sad, sweating donkey, which serve as a mobile produce stand. Generally, two teenage boys take turns advertising their stock as they ride in the shade of the cart with their flip-flopped feet dangling near to the ground.

5) ´¿Como le ha ido?´ A traditional Colombian greeting roughly translating to ¨How´s it been for you?¨ Said to me by Adonis, the local fruit, smoothie and patacón relleno street vendor, always with a brilliant smile, always wearing his traditional Costeño sombrero volteado, and always ready with a tuti-fruti drink for the next, overheated bus driver who passes by.

6) ´Good morning, how are you?´ Usually yelled by a gregarious, over-achieving student at around 3 in the afternoon as you pass the student sitting in the shade of his or her front porch. Forgetting the temporal greeting mistake, you yell back ¨Fine, thanks¨ and it is true, as you well up with pride for a second at the sounds of English being spoken in a previously Spanish-only community.

7) ´Subate´ or ¨Get on¨ in English. Said by a moto driver as he lifts the visor of his scratched helmet and gestures to the worn back seat of his bike. Occasionally, we are obliged to refuse the offer of a free ride from an unknown moto who happens to be the father of a student. Occasionally, we are obliged to take them up on the offer.

8) ´I went to US 15 years´ Said by Antonio, the local arepa street vendor, before starting in on his life story or offering you a sample of his arepas despite your repeated admissions of not caring for them personally, but thanks anyway.

9) ´Hey white girl, put on a hat´ Said in English to one of our particularly fairer-skinned, female volunteers by a local neighbor as we sweat and squint our way to school in the early morning Caribbean sun. It is a good-natured reminder of our ´gringo-ness´ and how a freckled blond can burn in the Barranquilla sun even at 8 in the morning.

10) ´Thank you, Beautiful´ Said usually in passing by a male moto driver to a female volunteer. It is occasionally accompanied by a honk, and it is generally benign and culturally accepted.

Teaching in Rwanda: Beyond the Classroom

Meghan Vandermale, WorldTeach Rwanda volunteer, writes below about her teaching endeavors outside of the classroom: both with her Rwandan co-teachers and others in her community.

 The view at Meghan's site: the blue roof in the foreground is her school

In the Staff Room

Since many of the students have to take all of their classes in English, that means that the teachers have to teach in English. But they are starting at the same point that the students are with the added disadvantage of being older and having less of a capacity for learning new languages. This is why the country had a month of mass intensive English training at the beginning of the year, putting off the start of the school year. I can't imagine writing lessons in a foreign language and then having to teach it in that same language, but somehow the teachers here do it. It helps that the standard teaching method here is "chalk-and-talk" (write on the board and explain what you just wrote while the students copy down what's on the board into their notebooks.) But even so, many of the teachers spend twice as long on their lessons so that they can give them in English. Some of them sit down with a dictionary or at the staff computer to look up the words that they need.

To help with this, Katy and I try to give informal lessons whenever possible. On Wednesday afternoons we hang out in the staff room for an hour or two and sometimes give a lesson on administrative or classroom vocabulary. Other times we look over lesson plans for other teachers to make sure that they are using the correct terms in English. Sister Martha, the headmistress, teaches a religion class and I read her notes into a recorder so that she can play it back and work on her pronunciation. Most teachers do fairly well with writing down what they need, but their speaking skills are much poorer. We are constantly being asked by the teachers to teach them how to speak better. For me, not having much training in teaching speaking skills, I've found that the best aid for this is to just talk with them. With some of the teachers it is difficult to strike up a conversation other than the standard greetings and questions, but a few I've been able to talk with a little more. Yesterday I talked with Dominique, another math teacher, about geography and weather for about an hour and a half. He also studied geography at University and I was curious about what causes the rainy seasons here so he explained it to me. Afterward I realized that that was a perfect lesson in English speaking for him.

Inside Meghan's home

Around Town

Many of the people that we see in the community also are earnestly looking to learn English. It's hard to help most people who ask for it (on a typical outing to buy groceries and sit and drink a cup of tea, I'll get asked by one or two strangers to teach them English.) But there are a few people that I have regular contact with and I teach them a few words each time I see them. The tailor in Mukinga is working on his tailoring vocabulary, Alexandre, my moto driver is working on his moto driving vocab. And the woman who owns my favorite convenience store is learning greetings.

The reason for the English learning craze is Vision 2020, a set of goals written after the genocide for the country to meet before the year 2020. The project is meant to strengthen the economy and boost Rwanda's competitiveness in the global market. Technological advancement and bilingualism (English and Kinyarwanda) being the most important goals of the project. These goals are visible everywhere you look here. Billboards give friendly reminders, advertisements are made on the radio and it's hard to go anywhere without running into a business named Vision 2020. In Musanze, the nearest town to me, there is a Vision 2020 Tailor, a Vision 2020 foodstuff store, and a Vision 2020 buffet (the best in town). If I ever get my haircut here, chances are it will be at a Vision 2020 Saloon. (Don't know how the extra "o" got added, but whoever did it first started a trend because there are no salons, only saloons. And haircutting is no small market here, Saloons are to Rwanda as Starbucks are to Seattle.) It's pretty astounding actually how the country is communally putting forth such a great effort, or at the very least, wants to put forth a great effort to meet these goals. It makes us, as volunteers, feel useful. Which is always a good feeling.

Teaching & Dancing in American Samoa

A couple of months ago, we posted an entry from Kate about her school's celebration of Samoan Day, and now have video footage to share that she was only recently able to upload given her limited internet capabilities on the island. The first three videos below show her students' performances, put together after weeks of hard practice!

This last video, Kate writes, is the first that she took in American Samoa, and shows the boys in her WorldTeach group bravely performing a traditional dance they learned that same morning at a local museum and cultural center as part of their orientation.

Speaking of videos, we want to encourage all of our volunteers (and alumni!) to participate in this year's video, photo, and journal contests! Find the details here and send in your submissions! We're looking forward to hearing from you.