Ketia Valme
June 5th, 2018, that's when our journey to Guatemala began. I remember going
to sleep right after school the day before just so I could wake up to
pray and thank the Lord for making me one of the lucky ones to be able
to see the beauty in a country other than
the United States. I was very excited and happy, so leaving my family behind was the
least of my worries and I was especially not going to miss my escuela.
We got to Guatemala and that's when it hit me. I'm not in the U.S.
anymore, I'm in a whole new different country. It
didn't irk me though because it reminded me of my home country, Haiti.
It felt like I was at home and I loved it. We got to Antigua and got
introduced to our host family. My housemates and I were very satisfied
with our house given the fact that it was clean and it had WiFi. The food wasn't our favorite, but we were still always
very grateful for the little things such as; clean bathrooms and
rooms...and the fact that we had a microwave. The same day we got to
Guatemala, we went to visit our Spanish school; Sevilla.
That was when I was introduced to my Spanish teacher, Gilary. She is the one
of the sweetest teachers I have ever met. We bonded right away and
talked about everything from novios to why I'm always so tired during
her time with me. Gilary makes learning Spanish
seem so fun and that's why I will forever be grateful for her when I
hear "¿Tu novio sabe que tu tienes un novio aqui?" lol, silly her.
One day after we got to Antigua, we went to visit the school we would be teaching at in the town of San Pedro. I felt very welcome and my 1st graders were the most beautiful kids ever. I was dealing with very smart kids and I realized that when they finished every homework I gave them during class they would go crazy. That's when Mr. Simons (one of the teachers that attended the trip with us) helped me realize that it's because the work was too easy and they need something more challenging. I followed his advice and it went really well. I felt as if the kids were as engaged as never before. That made me feel so accomplished as a teacher. Communicating with my kids was very challenging because I don't speak Spanish very well and they don't speak English at all. I was teaching my kids the alphabet and I taught two 1st grade classes. To solve this problem I would often explain what I am trying to say to the teacher and they would explain it fully to the class for me. Only one teacher of my two classes understood English, meaning that I had to speak in broken Spanish to the other teacher. It's a good thing I was dealing with smart kids because they learned the alphabet song in 5 class days.
One day after we got to Antigua, we went to visit the school we would be teaching at in the town of San Pedro. I felt very welcome and my 1st graders were the most beautiful kids ever. I was dealing with very smart kids and I realized that when they finished every homework I gave them during class they would go crazy. That's when Mr. Simons (one of the teachers that attended the trip with us) helped me realize that it's because the work was too easy and they need something more challenging. I followed his advice and it went really well. I felt as if the kids were as engaged as never before. That made me feel so accomplished as a teacher. Communicating with my kids was very challenging because I don't speak Spanish very well and they don't speak English at all. I was teaching my kids the alphabet and I taught two 1st grade classes. To solve this problem I would often explain what I am trying to say to the teacher and they would explain it fully to the class for me. Only one teacher of my two classes understood English, meaning that I had to speak in broken Spanish to the other teacher. It's a good thing I was dealing with smart kids because they learned the alphabet song in 5 class days.
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