By: Rachel Sloane
When you travel, you leave home with specific intentions… to understand a culture, to fill a void, to find an adventure. And sometimes, you won’t discover your purpose of travel until you are well immersed within the journey.
Doing outreach work with Wendy and Candelaria has brought purpose to my experience abroad. I alternate between accompanying Wendy to schools in the urban center of Santiago and working with Candelaria in the rural schools.
It isn’t the lesson plans or my fulfillment of doing a good deed that makes me leave with a smile; it is the children. It is witnessing their desire to learn, watching their participation, appreciating their wealth of intelligence and creativity and most of all, feeling welcomed.
While the villages I visit with Candelaria are poor, I’ve been touched by what the communities have come together to offer for their children. In the small village of Panabaj, everyone knows each other. There is a community approach to caring for children and while working there, I have been able to contribute to the love and support that most adults provid for the community children.
The children now know me by name, they greet me when I enter the schoolroom, and they gaze at Candelaria and me with wide eyes as we share stories with them. We all try our best despite the poor conditions to encourage the children to grow and learn. Chickens parade through the room as we work on projects, and rain dribbles through the roof as Candelaria reads. Children slosh through the rain and mud to participate in story hour. Nobody complains because a great story in a leaky room is much better than no story at all!
Doing outreach work with Wendy and Candelaria has brought purpose to my experience abroad. I alternate between accompanying Wendy to schools in the urban center of Santiago and working with Candelaria in the rural schools.
It isn’t the lesson plans or my fulfillment of doing a good deed that makes me leave with a smile; it is the children. It is witnessing their desire to learn, watching their participation, appreciating their wealth of intelligence and creativity and most of all, feeling welcomed.
While the villages I visit with Candelaria are poor, I’ve been touched by what the communities have come together to offer for their children. In the small village of Panabaj, everyone knows each other. There is a community approach to caring for children and while working there, I have been able to contribute to the love and support that most adults provid for the community children.
The children now know me by name, they greet me when I enter the schoolroom, and they gaze at Candelaria and me with wide eyes as we share stories with them. We all try our best despite the poor conditions to encourage the children to grow and learn. Chickens parade through the room as we work on projects, and rain dribbles through the roof as Candelaria reads. Children slosh through the rain and mud to participate in story hour. Nobody complains because a great story in a leaky room is much better than no story at all!
My experiences working with rural youth in Santiago have showed me how resilient the youngest people can be and how incredible the power of community togetherness is. I’ve never worked with children before. These small revelations have showed me that working with kids really is good for my soul.
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