Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to our volunteers, readers, supporters, students and friends near and far! Wherever and whatever you are celebrating, we hope you enjoy your holiday. Come back for new updates from us after the new year!

Teaching the Teacher in Poland

During your time as a WorldTeach volunteer, you may find you are learning more than you're teaching. Every day in the classroom offers a learning experience not only for your students, but for you as well. Cindy, a WorldTeach Poland volunteer, recounts how she came to see this paradox.

If you want to really learn something, try explaining it to someone else! I'm convinced the teachers are the ones who learn the most in the classroom. It's gotta be true for me.

Last week was the most challenging as far as classroom management goes. I discovered quickly that the group is older than my previous groups -- some just graduated from Primary School so consider themselves to be Secondary School students, and wary of anything too childish. Although self-conscious and reluctant to speak, it was obvious to me that this was not the tender and easily tearful group of previous weeks. I would have to work hard to devise a whole new set of exercises and games to engage this group.

Win-A-Trip 2012

Nick Kristof, blogger and writer for the New York Times, just announced his Win-a-Trip 2012 competition. Take a look and send in your creative writing and video samples. He also gives a shout-out to WorldTeach as an organization to consider when looking to make a difference abroad.


http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/announcing-win-a-trip-2012/

WorldTeach Chile Radio

Eva, a WorldTeach Chile volunteer who just finished her 9-month service this week, created an NPR-like radio show with her extra-curricular students at her elementary school with the help of her father, who has a radio station in Tennessee. He is going to air the show publicly on their local station and we were given the opportunity to air it here for you. Take a listen!

 

There Is Always Room

During her WorldTeach experience, Caitlyn realized that family takes on a whole new meaning in Thailand. 

One of the best things about living in teacher housing for the past year has been living in such an inclusive community. I live in a two-family house and our neighbors are Pi Khom, Pi Prayat and their adorable but mischievous daughter, Katjang.

After moving to Pla Pak last year, I quickly realized that family structures in Thailand are a bit different than what I’m used to in the States. Neighbors seem to be family by default, as everyone takes part in caring for each others’ children. Katjang loves to run up and down the street on our “block” and all of the neighbors perform a sort of caregiver relay, passing her from one person to the next until she is safely back in her mother’s arms again. One of my favorite aspects about living in this community is its openness, literally. Doors are open from the time everyone arrives home after work until well after the sun has set. This allows for people to easily run into their neighbor’s kitchen to borrow an egg, as Pi Khom often does when she doesn’t have time to go to the market. I also love how this living arrangement allows for conversations through the concrete block walls; for the first month or so, Steph and I were really confused when Pi Yok (our roommate) would talk to Pi Khom while they were in cooking dinner in their own respective kitchens, because we thought she was trying to speak with us! I’ve now acquired enough Thai to hold my own brief conversations with Pi Khom and Katjang when they hear me in the kitchen.

Tonight is a perfect example of why I will miss living in this neighborhood. Around 5:00pm, Pi Yok shouted up to my bedroom window to come downstairs, and when I stepped outside I was surprised to find a Korean barbecue dinner set up as a going-away party. Several of our closest neighbors and high school teacher friends were there and we ate delicious grilled meat and boiled vegetables. And whoever passed us on the way home was also invited to the table, because at a Thai dinner there is always room.

Interested in being part of such a community? Check out WorldTeach Thailand here!

Hospitality When You Least Expect It

Sara, a Marshall Islands WorldTeach volunteer, reflects on the hospitality of her new neighbors and community.


I don't think I have written much about how hospitable people here are. Today I was reminded of that during my run.

I was running the causeway, which at some parts is literally a dirt road in the ocean and at parts closer to the islands it gets wider to include little beaches and trees. As I was on my way back to Guegeegue I noticed some young boys off to the ocean side of the road. They seemed to be playing on the rocks near the shore. As I ran past them they motioned to me, so I stopped running and said hello. One of the boys offered me something that was in his hands. I automatically assumed that it was something from the ocean and asked, "What is that?" He looked at me funny and answered,"Chicken." At first I didn't understand, because I thought the black and brown object in his hand came from the ocean. I figured I misheard him, which happens often. I got closer to the boys and looked at what they held. "Maybe some sort of jellyfish or the insides of a giant clam," I thought to myself. Instead I asked, "What is that?" again. The boy just held the thing to me. That was when I got a whiff and realized, yup that is chicken like he said. I laughed a little at myself and told them, "No thank you, I can't eat when I run." The boys smiled at me and I ran away.

I couldn't help but smile at the encounter with the boys. Can you imagine going for a run in a park in the states and someone coming up to you and offering some of their BBQ? That is exactly what happened. The Marshallese culture has really shown me what it means to take care of people. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the generosity around me.

I developed a new rule in my classroom this semester because this generosity was interrupting my class. Our school has a "no food in classrooms" rule, but I don't make my students abide by it in my classroom. I figure the people selling the food benefit from the students buying food, learning is easier when a person isn't hungry, and eating helps the students maintain their energy so they don't sleep. The problem was every time a student had food they were sharing it with the entire class. If a student on the right side of the room wanted some chips from another student on the left side they would do one of three things: 1. yell for the food to be passed, 2. get up and walk straight across the room, 3. ask the person next to her to ask the person next to him, and so on. All of the above were disruptive to the classroom so I made a "No Sharing" rule for my class. That goes for food during class and for pens, pencils, and erasers during tests (yes two students will pass back and forth one pen during their test). Funny to go from trying to force 2nd graders to share to implementing a "No Sharing" rule.

Understanding the Asian University for Women

Bangladesh is one of WorldTeach's newest partners, and the Asian University for Women, where our volunteers teach, is a very young school. John, a WorldTeach Bangladesh volunteer, explains the vision and goals of the university and how it is changing the lives of women across the world.

Three women from three very different backgrounds with three powerful voices who delivered three equally inspirational speeches and all of whom provided their audience with a vociferous testimony of one common cause. The Asian University for Women.

It dawned on me recently that I’m in Bangladesh teaching English at the aforementioned Asian University for Women but I haven’t yet provided any explanation of why or any real insight about exactly what this institution is all about. It’s a fairly vague title in some respects and from it we can ascertain that Bangladesh is the host country of a university exclusively for women from Asia. However, this barely touches the surface, as I found out this week, as the university hosted a special ceremony which brought together a number of influential domestic and international figures. The ‘Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony’ was a significant point in the university’s development as it marked the laying of the first stone and thus the commencing of construction of the new campus on the outskirts of the city. Currently the university functions in a temporary home in downtown Chittagong.

Holiday Season Away From Home

Even though many WorldTeach volunteers spend their holiday season away from their home and families, they certainly do not spend it alone. Alyssa, a WorldTeach China volunteer, recounts her non-traditional Thanksgiving surrounded by her new friends and colleagues.

Winter has finally arrived here in China, but without the typical holiday festiveness in the air. Holidays are the hardest time while living abroad and you need to make sure you find ways to make it your own. As I sit here, freezing my little buns off because China has yet to discover central heat or insulation, and because winter in Changsha consists of rain, lots of it and a constant temp between 39-45 degrees F, I realize I am still happy to be here. This past week was Thanksgiving and although it felt weird and not nearly like a normal Thanksgiving, it was still special.

Thursday, I taught my two classes of students, who were very eager to learn about Thanksgiving, (Gan En Jie) and even gave me gifts and cards to share their appreciation for Miss Alyssa. It really moved me and made me realize how much of an impact I have on these childrens’ lives and how important it is they grow up knowing more than what they are surrounded by. After class, Jack and I hopped on our usual gyspy bus to big bus route and made our way into downtown for an expensive but much needed all you could eat Thanksgiving dinner buffet at the Sheraton hotel. 

A Lesson in Courage

Embarking on a WorldTeach volunteer experience takes a lot of courage, but it will be worth it when you complete your term of service. Matt, a WorldTeach Tanzania volunteer, reflects on his experience as a teacher in Tanzania and how just a little bit of courage helped him take the initial leap into this experience and how that paid off immensely. 

Looking back and reflecting over my experience as a WorldTeach volunteer in Tanzania, one of the most important pieces of wisdom and lessons that I learned and can give to future volunteers is that the experience of living and teaching as a volunteer abroad is truly what you make it to be. As I prepare to return home, I leave with a feeling of genuine pride and fulfillment about what I have accomplished during this experience, and it was more than I ever could have hoped it to be. As both a traveler and a teacher fully immersed in a foreign culture, I reached many personal and professional goals, overcame a lot of tough obstacles and experienced plenty of highs and lows along my journey. Thinking about all the innumerable challenges and rewarding moments I’ve experienced over the past year, I have discovered that the key to success as a WorldTeach volunteer means facing every new challenge and opportunity that you encounter with a courageous mind, heart and soul, even (and sometimes especially) if it makes you afraid. Living and teaching in a culture so unique and so different from your own brings with it daily experiences that are all new, exciting, demanding, emotional and sometimes scary. With each of these experiences comes the acknowledgement of fear and the choice to have the courage to overcome that fear so that you can truly make a difference in and out of the classroom and make the most of every moment that an adventure like this can bring.

Growing Accustomed to Guyana

Your term of service with WorldTeach will certainly be an adventure full of new and exciting experiences, but if you are really lucky, you'll also get into the routines of your new home and accept it as your daily life. Corin, a WorldTeach Guyana volunteer, did just that and found that she was as comfortable in the routines of Guyana as she had ever been in the states. 

I realize now that the reason that I don’t blog frequently while here is because my daily life has become just that, daily life. It is a good thing that life here has become routine, and I have developed habits and practices that are just like life anywhere else. This I take as a sign of integration and acclimation to the culture in Guyana.

Of course, lets not get ahead of ourselves, I still long for many things that were part of my routine life back home like coffee shops, hiking, and ice cream, but for the most part life is just life here. I guess I don’t write because I have stopped becoming surprised by many of the cultural and social idioms that were once new but now I have even adapted myself. I have even started to think in Creolese. I don’t always speak it, well actually I rarely speak it because it sounds sort of ridiculous coming out of my Pacific Northwest mouth, but I still have thoughts that are phrased in Creolese. For example, I was packing for the Easter Break trip I recently went on, and thought “should I carry me own shampoo?”

There are additional things that I have grown to love or simply become accustom to that I thought I should take time to reflect on. Phone conversations, greetings are never “Hello” it is usually “Good Morning” or “Good Afternoon.” Conversation are short and curt, not intended to be rude or indifferent just to the point, and usually consist of much “a-huh”-ing. And NEVER do Guyanese people say “good-bye” on the phone, usually at the end of a conversation they may say “alright” or “good” but usually once the point has been gathered and received they just hang-up. This is very different from the way people address themselves in person however. Whenever you run into someone you know, or are greeting an acquaintance or friend there is a lengthy “good-morning,” a hug and usually kiss on the cheek, then an inquiry into how you are. I know I posted some time back about turning Guyanese but recently reflecting on the transition that will happen in a few months time when my year of service is up, I realized that I have a life here, and leaving it will be a harder than I think.

As life has become more routine here, I realise how different and difficult it will be to transition back into the culture of home. There are so many things that I miss about home, mostly friends and family, but I know that there will be many things here from Guyana that I will long for once I reach back to the states. Life is slower here, people are not in a rush, and time is something that isn’t used up or wasted, gaffing with others is a serious and necessary pass time and there is never an excuse for not being willing to have a good time and celebrate.

People work, but it is not their lives. I know that as I resume my life at home, the rush and push of the American culture will give me some anxiety at first. I will have to readjust to “right now” instead of the Guyanese “just now”-which could mean anytime in the next month. I will have to re-realize that people revolve their lives around what they do, their careers and all things that are tied to working, making money and adequately cushioning their lives with material possessions that declare their “wealth” to all those around them.

Please, don’t take me the wrong way, there are many challenges to development in this country that are tied to that very social attitude that I was just fondly describing, and there are of course benefits to the American work ethic and mentality that I often miss when attempting to make something happen at my job here in Guyana. But I think that moderation is the key to life. As American’s we push ourselves so hard to succeed and gain and make all our dreams come true. Hats off to making those dreams a reality, but as we push ourselves to do so we fail to experience the life that we are living in that moment. We push and we run and we move forward so hard that when we get to where it is we dream of being we have aged 35 years and forgotten to recognize what each of those days has meant to us. Here I often find myself just sitting, gaffing or hanging in my hammock. There isn’t a TV to zone out to, an internet to aimlessly surf or a damn place I have to be; no appointments to be kept, meetings to attend or papers to be shuffled. Work is left to be done at work (not that I follow that rule at all because the work ethic that my parents instilled in me gets the upper-hand when it comes to completing assignments and proactively planning ahead) but home is where life is lived, and uncompleted work gets done on the next workday.

All I am saying is that the next time you get a free moment in your lives, turn off the TV, hibernate the computer, switch your cell phone to silent and just sit. It may feel like torture at first, you may even develop a slight twitch as your body adjusts to the unaccustomed “off” mode, but with time you will come to love the feeling of freedom from the push and pressure of the American grind.