As I wished a good "Adios" to the woman on the corner selling oranges for the fourth time today and an English student who pedaled past stopped to holler "Hello Kristine, See you tomorrow!" ... I had this thought:
If a student wants to experience a new culture really unlike their own while trying to make a difference and do something totally unique than what they'd ever do on their own, this is the way to do it.
In big cities, you can get lost. Each face that walks past may never be seen again. It's like being an extra in a film.
El Sauce is small enough that the strangers have become neighbors, the students we teach English to stop to talk to us in the street and it feels like I've been here much longer. I ran into Wilfredo walking to dinner. He's another English student, a veterinarian technician, and he showed me how he was fixing his motorbike. Last night, Ileana invited me into her "cafetin" and I sucked down a very tasty and sugary orange Fanta as we practiced her English and she said she'd make lunch this week.
No one has much money so there's not a lot to do. Therefore everyone hangs out in the church lot or in the street. Entire families, playing checkers or sitting in rocking chairs, seeing who goes past.
We work with them, we get to know them — like the guy behind the counter at the corner deli, little by little.
El Sauce is a hot, dusty struggle sometimes; they live a tough life. But it is full of life and really warm people, who always go out of their way to smile at me, to work with me on my broken Spanish to communicate and who want to make it better.
Yeah. This is the way to go.
Kris- I couldn't agree more that if a student- any student, a college student, a student of God, a student of life-- wants to experience a culture unlike their own the best place to do it is in a small town or village. Spending nearly a month in Guanajuato, Mexico provided me more learning experiences than decades worth of a very expensive education ever could have. I made my mind up on the plane that I would allow myself to be completely vulnerable to my surroundings. Without that, I think that My bubble would never have burst, allowing me to actually live it, rather than just visiting.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read more of your blogs, friend!
OH, and by the way, that was CAREY, yo
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