Discussion of a life time

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

As many days, my Edson’s class made my day today. Although my time here is winding down and I am looking forward to being home again, it is bitter sweet. I would have never thought in such a short amount of time I would grow such a liking to my students and them to me. Before my class started today one of my students handed me a gift, it was a woven African bracelet with my name on it. It melted my heart and reminded me for the first time that this was my last week here. I can’t stay forever (although I’ve thought about it), I just hope the torch is passed onto someone who sees as much in them as I do so they can continue to learn, grow and achieve all the things they want. And, I would feel even better about leaving them if I had a little peephole to watch them from afar.

Today’s class was dynamite exploding in the best way possible. We had a discussion day just to work on thinking quickly, speaking accurately and vocabulary. Thank God I recorded some of the discussion but I would kill to have the whole thing on tape. The topic was if you were the president of Mozambique what would you do. We hit every subject from HIV, taxes, over population, law enforcement and crime to education and values. We discussed what a poor country this is and that with money comes problems. Then debated whether life was better poor or wealthy, simple or elaborate. Last I had to approach the subject and feelings on wealthy countries helping out poor countries. The answer… 90% said they needed the knowledge to know how to do it themselves but did not need handouts. I was so impressed! I could have let them go on for hours. I couldn’t soak up enough information. My peers were so curious as they were teaching their own classes, heads were popping in left and right as they got an earful in the distance.

I hope that it has only been my misconception in the past, but I would have never thought that these people were so intelligent. I’m embarrassed to say that for anyone to see but I have to tell it like it is. The only thing they don’t have that many of the rest of us have are opportunities. Not to mention they have to work harder than I could ever imagine, just to get what little they do have. English is everyone’s third language, first being Shitswa and second is Portagees. They have to be more creative to find resources to learn from and work harder to make enough money to get an education. Once again they remind me how unbelievably privileged I am.