Privilege

Today was our last day at Maya Center and working at St Jude's School. We had to say goodbye to all our new friends which was hard but we still will have the memories of them. Today I got to help out in the Kindergarten classroom where they were taking their phonetics exam. It was very different from the classrooms I am used to. There were so many kids in one room and it was hard for the teacher to control them. The teacher sometimes had to step out of the room and I was left in charge. They all began to talk and came up to me with complaints of biting, kicking, and punching. They were passing their exams to each other so they could look at eachother's answers. I wasn't really sure what to do so I just told the teacher of the complaints.

Watching them take their exam was also very frustrating for me. Most of the kids can't read and they are not fluent in English. I looked around at their papers and saw wrong answers everywhere. The teacher told me to go around and read the questions to them. She said to give them a couple opportunities to get it right. There was so many kids and even with four of us it was hard. I don't know how the teacher does it by herself. When I went around and orally asked the kids the questions on the exam, most of them new the correct answers. They would know the answer but they circled the wrong thing because they can't read.

One girl that I got close to named Andrea had a whole paper full of wrong answers. I had to sit with her for a while and repeat the questions multiple times, but she got all the right answers. This made me very sad. If no one had done that then she would have gotten a really bad grade on her exam. All the kids are very smart, it's just the teacher can't just sit with every one of them until they get it. This gives these kids a disadvantage.

I realized I am privileged because I was taught how to read at a young age. I went to a school with a reading teacher and I had parents and grandparents who exposed me to books and helped me to learn. These kids did not have this privilege. This made me think about how I can use the privileges I have to help others. It really felt good when the kids I helped figured out the right answer. Though it's a couple of questions on a kindergarten exam, it meant more to me and I am really glad I had the opportunity to work with them.

Hi Mom and Dad,
I am having so much fun in Belize! I can't wait to see you in a couple of days. I hope you are not too depressed without me. I love you and I miss you.
Keshini
PS: There are a lot of chickens here.