"It doesn't take much to change the world a little"
Volunteering in PeruúEnglish project in Magdalena de Cao
I am now in the fourth month of my six-month stay as a volunteer in Magdalena de Cao, Peru.
It didn't take long at all for me to feel at home in this village. Its inhabitants gave me a very warm welcome and despite initial problems with understanding - my knowledge of Spanish left a lot to be desired - there were hardly any reservations.
I'm staying with Señora Ana, a single woman who rents out rooms. She looks after me very lovingly and looks after me like her own daughter.
I still remember my first day here in the village very well. Señora Ana introduced me to all sorts of people and also took me to school. José and Frank, the school janitors, then introduced me to the individual class teachers. When I saw my pupils for the first time, my heart immediately warmed and I was greeted with hugs and kisses. The principal of the school then worked with me to draw up a timetable for the English lessons.
My working week looks like this: Monday to Wednesday I teach in the Primaria, all six school levels, two classes per day. In total, there are 80 pupils who take part in my lessons. On Tuesday evenings I offer an English course for adults in the Casa de Juventud. On Thursdays, I make preparations for the coming week of lessons and write a weekly report. Sometimes I use the weekends to run errands in Trujillo, the nearest city, or I travel to get to know as many places as possible in this special country. When I spend the weekends in Magdalena, I give private lessons on Sundays.
"School" works differently here; the majority of children arrive at school far too late. Lessons never start on time. It took some getting used to for me at first, as I attach great importance to punctuality. But I quickly realized that this is not the case here at all, not just at school, but in general. The lessons at the school are very varied and never boring. In the first few lessons, I gave the children time to get to know me and get used to me. Teaching was also a new challenge for me, as I have no pedagogical training. However, I quickly realized that I didn't necessarily need this - emotional intelligence, empathy, a lot of patience and social skills were much more important. Little by little, I found out how I could organize my lessons in the best possible and most efficient way. Drawing and writing, for example, has an incredibly calming effect on the children. They love filling in and coloring a worksheet. It's really nice to see how concentrated they can work and how proud they are when they hold their finished worksheet in their hands.
I quickly realized that the children lacked independent creativity and imagination and that this needed to be encouraged much more. A very formative experience for me was when I drew a fantasy figure on the blackboard to learn the body parts with the children, they all asked me what or who it was. I explained to them that it was a fantasy figure and a third-grade boy then asked me what fantasy was... It is very important to me to start here and work on encouraging the children's creativity, imagination and independent thinking.
Sometimes it is a great challenge to meet the different needs of the children, especially in classes with around 20 children. There are also many children with difficult family backgrounds and problems who need a lot of attention and, above all, love. These children also seek constant contact with me and it requires a great deal of sensitivity in dealing with these children.
Even though the lessons are sometimes exhausting, there is nothing more rewarding than the children's laughter and smiles with which they "pay" me every lesson. For me personally, it's very exciting to see how I grow in my job from lesson to lesson.
The lessons with the adults are a bit more complicated. People here are very lacking in motivation to learn something new. They find it very difficult to overcome their shyness and accept the offer to learn English for free. I have four people in my course who come regularly. In general, the participants vary a lot. In the beginning they were different than they are now. It takes a lot of skill to adapt the lessons to the individual students, as of course the language level also varies. In the beginning, I was very worried about why so few people took up the offer. But now I no longer worry about it, you can't force anyone to learn English. For those who want to learn, I try to organize the lessons in the best possible way.
I am currently planning the "Vacaciones Útiles". This is a project to organize meaningful vacations, which my predecessor Angela brought to life. With the support of two teachers from Magdalena, I will also be teaching at the school during the vacation months of January and February. Apart from that, I will also organize a tree planting project to raise the children's environmental awareness. I would also like to offer creative days where the children can do handicrafts, paint, etc. We will also go on excursions.
Basically, I would like to say that it is a wonderful task and experience for me to work here in Magdalena. I would like to thank LoKa very much for organizing this project, which makes a valuable contribution to the future of the residents of Magdalena de Cao! What I learn here every day is that it doesn't take much to make a small difference in the world.
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