Lesson Learned In Guatemala by Joshua Elysee

16 years of age, fashion fanatic, neat freak, are some desriptions that make up my character. I didn't want to be in Guatemala, but it was definitely better than being in school. Little did I know, I had to let all of this loose during this trip. I realized this when I walked into my classroom filled with eager children ready to learn. My markers were dried out, there were mosquitos all over the classroom, I could not feel any more uncomfortable than I had already felt. These kids were shouting "INGLES, INGLES, INGLES!" as me and my teaching partner were getting settled down. My transition made me all the more nervous, remembering that I was one of the only people in my advanced spanish class that wasn't a native speaker, and then became the teaching partner that knew all the spanish. The kids asked me to translate words that I hadn't understood and I didn't know what to do, then I realized it was only 5 minutes into my class. Yet, as I got started, the kids sat quietly. They immediately took out their notebooks, they wrote down everything I said and listened to my instructions carefully. These 1st graders had the greatest yearn to learn which I still don{t seem to understand. One of my students approached me after that class with a letter filled with drawings of me and words in gibberish which I assumed was his attempt to write in English. He told me that he appreciated that I am teaching him Enlgish and that he would study every night to be on top of his game. In that split second, I learned a lesson from that little boy. He was a 1st grader who took class more seriously than kids twice his age in the U.S., and I was one of the kids twice his age.