I had just started a position as a curriculum and enrichment coordinator in a rural school in Guatemala when I was given the opportunity to join a tour with visitors from an organization in the U.S. This group of volunteers came down every two years to deliver school supplies and modest funding to some of the poorest schools in the district and I was eager to join them and learn more about my new community. I was working at a private international school in the district, which was absolutely beautiful, but accessible to a only to a small fraction of the population. The town was not an easy place to live – crime was very high, the heat and mosquitos were relentless, and there was little to do outside the safety of one’s own home – but my school campus was incredible. The large slated glass widows in each class opened to let the breeze and surrounding greenery pour through the rooms. The playgrounds sat in the shade of tall trees atop well-watered grass. The computer labs were pleasantly chilly with luxurious air-conditioning. All the classrooms were outfitted with technology. And the outdoor pool was simply grand. With several guards at each gate, this biophilic campus was a well-fortified paradise. Though I had been mildly aware of the economic inequality in the country, my trip to the local schools opened my eyes wide to the extent of the economic divide and scope of poverty within the area. One school in particular made me want to abandon my new position at my prestigious school immediately and devote myself to the beautiful smiling children who clearly needed teachers so much more than my current school. Of course, the reality of my economic obligations at home would not let me do this, but the idea of finding a way to help this school stuck with me. The school was located on one of many municipal dumps in the country to where many Indigenous people from the highlands fled during the country’s civil war. The school originally consisted of two cinderblock classrooms with narrow windows on one side and were topped with well-weathered slate metal paneling that protected very little throughout the six month wet season.
Several months into my new position, I met with the high school principal to discuss some behaviour problems that were occurring in one of our high school English classes. The issue, I came to realize, was the diverse English level of this particular group. The advanced students in this class were simply bored and needed a greater challenge as their teacher worked with the students who needed more language support. With the encouragement of my administration, I decided to start a pilot project with this group of seven students, creating a self-directed project at the school at the municipal landfill. The students knew that they would be completing their senior community service project at this school the following year and were eager to meet the children and get to know the needs of the community.
In one of the first reflections they did, one student wrote, “I know this is a project, but I want to do it for the kids, not the points.” I knew at this point that we were on the right track. Though the project did not evolve the way the students (or I) had envisioned at the beginning, they took their work at the barrio school very seriously and provided their students with an incredible field trip at the end of the year. They also worked hard on their documentary, formally interviewing the director and teachers at the school, as well as several parents and students to gain a better understanding of what life was like living at the landfill. They reflected weekly in various formats and supplemented their hands-on learning with additional research on our library days. Some of the students were quite upset with what they learned about the realities facing many Indigenous groups in their country, and in the end, the documentary was not published do to privacy concerns. However, the experience was more powerful than anything we could have done in the classroom and gave the students an opportunity to see the impact that they could make on their local community.
Though each day at the barrio school was extremely rewarding, one of the most surprising moments of this pilot project came towards the end of the year when a father of one of my students came to my office. He had not been terribly keen on allowing his daughter to join the project as the barrio we were visiting was not particularly safe. My Spanish was still quite poor at this point and I thought he was upset as he was speaking to the high school principal, who interpreted for me: “I don't understand exactly what you were doing with the students at the dump, and I still don't know how safe it was to take them there” he said, “but my daughter has completely changed in the past few months and I am grateful for her experience there.” He then described how at home, she had become kinder, calmer and had begun thanking her parents for the things she had. I could see this change in attitude throughout the group, especially when reading and listening to their individual reflections, but had not realized the full impact that this project had had. We continued and improved the project the following year and expanded the idea to include some of the younger classes. We had to begin taking an armed guard with us on each visit, as my concerned father’s fears were unfortunately not misplaced, but the benefits that emerged from the collaboration between our school and the barrio school, were immeasurable. Upon first seeing this barrio school, my initial impulse was a great desire to leave my school and go volunteer at the barrio school. This project showed me that it is possible to work within the system to effect big changes as well as inspire future change by increasing understanding. The students at my school are likely those who will run businesses, vote in elections and possibly even join government. I believe that many of them will do this now with a better understanding of the needs, challenges and talents of a broader scope of the population of Guatemala.
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AuthorMs. Rycroft is currently enrolled in the post bacc B.Ed. programme at Vancouver Island University. Archives
October 2018
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