From Jacob

Before I embarked on the service trip, of all the different activities planned, the one which I most looked forward to was teaching at the school. I couldn’t wait to meet the kids and help them to learn. However, on the first day when I actually entered the fifth grade classroom, I found that I was more nervous that I had expected. I felt as though I had forgotten what it had been like to be in fifth grade myself. I couldn’t tell whether or not the kids liked me, and at times, whether they were laughing with me or at me. When I was teaching, I worried that they weren’t paying attention or didn’t understand. In any case, I kept on with the reading and math activities given to me by the teacher. Even with my nerves, I was still glad to be there.

After the first class, I went to lunch with the class, and found that as we talked and laughed together, we all became more relaxed. They asked lots of questions about me and where I came from, and seemed genuinely interested in my answers. By the end of this first lunch, I felt much more at ease.

On the following two days, I was asked to teach math lessons to the entire class. They were working on geometry, and I explained how to find the area of a triangle. I still continued to wonder if they really understood my explanations. I felt most valuable when I was able to work one-on-one with a student. It was in these situations that I realized that many of them did understand the concepts, even if they hadn’t at first. However, even more than helping the kids to learn, I felt that my presence, as someone new and different from far away, mattered. The tutoring was interesting, but perhaps most of all it was just the time I spent getting to know the class that meant the most to me and them.

Though there were many parts of the trip I loved – visiting beautiful places, spending time with friends, learning about the culture – it was the people I met that I will remember most.