Four months ago I walked into a school expecting to be a volunteer teachers assistant and help 3rd grade students learn English, only to find myself alone in a classroom with 35 kids looking up at me. The director said, “Teach them something” and went on his way. Since then I had been going to The Arusha School every Tuesday and I did my best at breaking an apparent language barrier and dealing with my lack of teaching experiences. We wrote letters to America one week (Thanks Trina!!!) to a 3rd grade class with the hopes of a response. The 35 letters on green construction paper filled with stories and drawings from Tanzania were off.
Just before the program trip to Zanzibar I taught the class like I did every Tuesday morning expecting to return after the break. The class was dismissed at lunch and as they all ran out the door, one student stayed behind to say she would miss me and that she didn’t receive her letter from America yet. I told her that I would only be gone for one week and then I would return with the letters and my sister to give them to her and the rest of her classmates. That was when I found out that the school would be closed for the month of April. Standing in an empty classroom completely unprepared for the information that was so abruptly handed to me I had no idea when or if I would be able to see the students again or when I would be able to give their letters to them.
Yesterday I was able to go back to The Arusha School with letters in hand prepared to finally give the students of 3B what I promised them. Sitting outside the headmaster’s office I heard “Teacher Brittany!” and a few of the students came running, filling my heart with an indescribable joy. I went to the classroom only to find it had been padlocked shut and no one had opened it or known that it was closed for at least a day. So we gathered in another room, with as many of the students that we could find, and I handed them their long awaited letters…
Although I was not able to teach them for the month of April or properly hand them all their letters and have them write responses to the students in America, I was able to witness the power of connection. People are the same everywhere – while we may grow and learn in different environments and battle different roadblocks we can still all share in the same simple joys of life.
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| The Classroom |
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| School yard |
The doors connecting people are everywhere; will you keep them closed or open them all?
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