After a week of work with AVACA in Casco Viejo, it is safe to say that many of us forgot that the theatre restoration was not our original project. When we began preparing for the trip last fall, we made a connection with Senator Marylin Vallarino, the President of the Commission for Women, Children, and Family in the Panamanian National Assembly. Mainly focusing on issues such as education and empowerment, Senator Vallarino devotes much of her time to installing sustainable educational programs and centers in some of the more poverty-stricken parts of the country. Our original project was the construction of a kindergarten in the indigenous village of Koskuna de Veracruz outside of Panama City, but when Faith, a long-time Panama City resident, visited the work site in December, she realized that funding had dried up and that the project would not work out. While Faith worked tirelessly (and successfully) to find an alternative project, we all agreed that we would like to somehow maintain the connection with Senator Vallarino.
While the funding for the Senator's kindergarten project dried up, she has been very successful with a community center called FUNDADER in the district of Arraijan, a city just outside of Panama City. FUNDADER serves many purposes, and we jumped at the opportunity to assist with English lessons offered at the Center. On Wednesday, Abby, Leah, Simone, and Faith left Casco Viejo after lunch and ventured to Arraijan to assist with an English class for students 18-26. They arrived back at Magnolia raving about the experience, so I decided to volunteer to go to Thursday's class. Hannah, Abby, Faith, and I took the twenty minute taxi ride to FUNDADER after lunch on Thursday and were immediately greeted by enthusiastic students eager to practice English. After a chorus of "hello" and "how are you," Lucy, the English teacher, introduced all four of us to the class and instructed the students to ask us questions. After a few minutes of shy voices speaking up to ask where we were from and how old we were, Lucy split the class in two and assigned us to smaller groups. Abby and I sat in the corner with ten of the students and took turns asking questions about their families and interests, and in turn answered their questions. After a brief period of shyness, the students began opening up, making jokes, and having fun. We talked about our parents, our pets, our favorite Panamanian food (arroz con frijoles, hands down), and more.
After taking a short snack break, the class regrouped for various vocabulary activities - the four of us acted out various daily actions and the students guessed the activities in English. After the more academic activities, Lucy informed the class that it was time to sing and the students immediately broke out well-practiced renditions of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "When the Saints Come Marching In," and even Michael Jackson/Lionel Richie's "We Are the World." Then it was our turn - the students begged us to sing them a song, so we decided to go with a college-party staple: "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey. After writing the lyrics on the board so the students could follow along, we swallowed our pride and performed our slightly less artistic version of the song.
I think what surprised me the most about my experience at FUNDADER was the familiar feeling of apprehension and nervousness when it comes to speaking a new language. While I've taken Spanish for most of my life, it was not until very recently that I forced myself to speak it while traveling instead of apologetically saying "no hablo Espanol" whenever someone talks to me in Spanish. The FUNDADER students, while shy at first, eventually became more and more comfortable and required less and less prompting from Lucy to speak with us in English. At the end of the class, Lucy asked us to practice our Spanish and explain our trip and project, and I did my best to start off the explanation. After a tag-team effort to describe our week, Lucy made a comment to the class about how we could speak Spanish because we just practiced speaking rather than shying away from the opportunity. Ironically, this statement affected me as much as it seemed to affect the students; I've spoken more Spanish during my week in Panama than I ever have when traveling to other parts of Latin America, and I feel so accomplished every time I have a successful conversation with a taxi driver or when I speak with waiters regarding our need for split bills. My feeling of accomplishment this week has been a direct result of exactly what Lucy was imploring her students to do: swallowing their pride and just practicing a new language.
My afternoon at FUNDADER was a fantastic learning experience and I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to interact with Panamanian students our age.
- Hillary Lundberg '14
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