Winter Vacation & The Importance of English

I just returned from 14 packed days of travel, and every moment was fantastic. My friend Hal and I started the trip off in the driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert, in northern Chile. There we visited some huge dunes, saw a breathtaking sunset over La Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley), woke up before sunrise to view geysers more than 4000 meters above sea level, and took a dip in a natural thermal bath. From San Pedro we then took a three day tour into Bolivia, driving through spectacular scenery in the Andes mountain range, freezing our butts off in some rustic refugios at night, and making great new friends. The final stop of that trip was Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world. We stepped out of our jeep onto a sea of salt – white in every direction for as far as the eye could sea. It was really quite a sight, and my friends and I had a good time using the white backdrop to take some cool photos.

After Uyuni Hal and I headed up to La Paz, Bolivia with two Brazilian friends. A capital city located in the heart of the Andes, La Paz was bustling with cars, people, and tourists. Bolivia’s poverty was extremely apparent in this city, unfortunately, as there were so many people living on the streets and begging for money. The number of children on the streets, working and begging, broke my heart. I had never been in a place with so many hungry, dirty children, and it took all my strength just to keep on walking by the kids and not scooping them up and taking them home with me.

La Paz itself is a beautiful city, though, full of life and colors and wonderful markets. While in the capital we did get to catch a glimpse of Bolivia’s President, Evo Morales, along with his visiting friend and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The two walked out of the Presidential Palace to roars of cheers and support from the crowd that had gathered outside, and it was definitely a sight to see.

We also took time to visit nearby Lake Titicaca and the much revered Incan island Isla del Sol. The lake itself is quite beautiful with the Andes off in the not too far distance, and on Isla del Sol we explored an old Incan temple and learned a bit about its history. Near La Paz we also checked out Tiwanaku, the site of temple ruins that were constructed well before the Inca civilization. After La Paz we headed back to Chile and spent the last couple days in the warm weather town of Arica. There we explored some old caves, relaxed on the beach, and tried to avoid the fact that our vacation was coming to an end.

I came upon a couple realizations during this trip. I didn’t really realize how developed a country Chile is until I went to neighboring Bolivia and was faced firsthand with stark contrasts. My trip to the other side of the border made me not only thankful for all that I have been blessed with in my life, but also thankful for all that I have here in Chile. The experiences on this trip also reinforced for me the fact that English is an extremely important language. Regardless of where we were, as Hal and I traveled around and met people from all over the world, the common language was always English. I met people from Germany, France, Denmark, and Brazil who didn’t know much Spanish but spoke great English, and that’s the language they used to get by as they traveled. During one tour I even did a bit of pro bono work as I translated what our guide said from Spanish into English for two girls from South Korea. Tourism is such an important part of the economies down here, and knowledge of the English language is a key component of successful tourism. I sometimes find myself wondering what kind of good I’m really doing down here by teaching English when there are so many health, poverty, and general education issues that need plenty of help. English knowledge has the power to move people up in the world, though, and provides for much greater opportunity. It was nice to see people seizing those opportunities firsthand on my vacation, and now… back to work! Four more months of teaching left, and plenty more stories to come!

A Great Day

Some days at school are harder than others. Some days a lesson plan that I thought would be fantastic turns out to be a disaster. Some days the kids are bouncing off the walls, getting into fights, and some days I just don’t have the patience for it. Some days I can’t handle the fact that my co-teacher’s idea of “teaching” is writing things on the board and sitting down at her desk. Some days I just don’t have the energy. I’m sure all teachers in every corner of the world experience these days, but boy is it hard to remind myself of that some days.

But then there are days like today. I had one of those “some days” yesterday and pretty much had no interest in coming to school today. However, as it usually works out, today ended up being a great day. After my first class I was in my room cleaning up when a bunch of students came in. They always come in during recreo, or recess, because my classroom is off of the dining room, where they’re all getting their free warm milk and sandwiches. I have an electric heater in my room and let whoever wants to come in and eat in front of the heater since the dining room is SO cold (I’ll have a whole separate post on how cold my one hundred year old school is at some point…). Anyway, once recess ended the kids all said their goodbyes and ran off to class, and I turned and looked at the board where they had written “Miss Kelly cools” (cool was one of our slang words of the day). Not exactly perfect English, but it was awesome to see and definitely slapped a smile on my face.

Later today, I had one period with a seventh grade class that I teach on Fridays. I have to miss their class this week, though, because I need to head to Santiago tonight to get my visa squared away. When I told my students I’d be missing tomorrow’s class, you would have thought I said I’m never returning… which is what some of them thought, I guess. They ran up to me with their pain-stricken faces to make me promise that I’d come back. That slapped an even bigger smile on my face.

Then today at lunch my host mom told me a story that made my day. My host mom works for the city of Los Angeles, and she is responsible for handing out vouchers to single mothers – part of a government welfare system. A poor, single mother can come in every month and pick up $5.500 pesos (about 10 bucks) per child. A lot of the students at my school come from poor families and neighborhoods that I’ve been told I should NEVER go to alone because they’re so dangerous. Well a woman came in to pick up her vouchers from my host mom today, and my mom asked her where her kids go to school. After hearing that they go to my school, my host mom asked her if they take English. “Ahhh, Tía Kelly! Yes I’ve heard alllll about Tía Kelly and her fun classes.” The mom went on to say some really nice things that her kids said about me, but I won’t bore you with the details J

The point of writing all this is that I could care less about all the struggles I had with my classes yesterday because today reminded me that I am having a positive effect on these kids. Sure, there will be days that don’t go well, but why dwell on the negative when there’s so much to be happy about? The fact that my kids are writing in English and going home and telling their parents about me is a great reminder of why I’m here and the impact I can have. A BIG thanks again to everyone who made this experience a possibility! Here’s to many more great days!