Making the Connection

Hello, Patch Readers,

The past few days have been really interesting. I'm definitely glad that we had the chance to slowly accustom to Guatemala and its people through meetings and orientations, but thankfully today was the day that we finally got to work in a school, because I was getting anxious to actually start.

However, despite all of said meetings, we didn’t really have a good idea of how we would be working. All we knew is that we were going to a school. So the previous night, Mr. Chisnell and I put together a rough lesson plan in case the teacher of each classroom wanted us to take control. 

After we got to the school and were shown around a bit, we split into pairs and were shown our respective classrooms. Dallas and I were given a group of smiley energetic second graders that jumped out of their seats to greet us when we entered.

Though there were only about 15 kids, the room was decently sized and brightly painted. The concrete floors and grated windows did nothing to dull the enthusiasm of the students.

When the teacher got the kids settled, she turned it over to me and Dallas. The thing is, she didn’t speak any English. And we were reading Spanish straight from the script Chiz and I prepared. So when they didn’t understand our plan, we were totally stuck, and were reduced to mumbling awkwardly to each other in front of 15 pairs of eager eyes.

Luckily, just then, it was time for recess. A bell rang and all the kids yelled with delight and sprinted out the door.

I then used the little Spanish I have to start a game of soccer. I asked for a ball and picked teams, and they were all over that. This was definitely in their comfort zone.

That was our big icebreaker. Afterwards, we had kids hanging from each arm, flowers stuck in our hair, and a barrage of questions about who we are and where we're from.

The kids were so friendly and open minded and sweet. They shared their crayons with us, played with Dallas's hair, and gave us constant hugs. Communication after that was surprisingly significantly easier. They felt comfortable asking us questions, and we knew that there was no pressure to have the right words to say all the time.

In fact, Dallas definitely learned more Spanish from those kids than she did during the rest of the trip combined. Which, granted, was not hard to accomplish, seeing how much she knew before. Haha. Love you, Dal.

But it was really cool to be so readily welcomed and accepted by a group of kids who didn’t know anything about us. We formed a relationship with all of them so quickly, despite the language barrier, and I am so grateful and excited that I get to see them the rest of this week.

Hasta luego,

Delaney Ryan