“To prepare for
service and learn the nobility of serving”
I went to Argentina to
serve, to volunteer by teaching English, but it was I who learned the most.
“Can you believe that students in the first world have
laptops in every classroom, and all of the kids know how to use them?” said one
teacher from the school I volunteered at.
My friend Avery, who currently attends TCU, and I came to
Argentina thinking we had the skills and experience to teach these 6th
grade students something, to mentor them, but it turned out that our knowledge
and experiences of education were extremely limited. Both of us had tutored
middle school children, and had taken the same Spanish culture class that
focused on Argentina; but that did nothing but begin to prepare us for what we
would experience.
In 6th grade, I received my first laptop for
school—mandated by my school to purchase it. The bell rang for class, and we
all sat with our books on our desk, notebooks open and ready to use. Only those
bold, rebellious students even considered whispering to their neighbor in class,
and no one passed notes. Teachers stood at the front of the classroom for the
entire period, only leaving for absolute emergencies. Students never fight.
In 6th grade in Argentina, the students use computers
for the first time—given to the school by the government. The bell rings for
class, as students continue to sing, scream, and yell while standing on the
desks. All students talk and turn their desks toward their neighbors, when they
were not busy passing notes. Teachers leave the classroom frequently, standing
outside and talking to other teachers. Students fight constantly.
This stark difference in learning cultures made all of our
previous experience negligible. But that did not mean we could not help these
kids. It meant we would have to help them in ways different than we had
anticipated. Serving as teaching assistants, we had planned on helping the
teachers teach the students English. But we could not assume this role without
seeming to criticize their abilities and their culture. So Avery and I reassessed
our skills and our purpose; we thought about the gaps in their education. Yes,
we helped them learn a little bit of English: now they know how to say their
favorite animals, to greet people, and to form sentences. But, mostly, we
taught them about the United States, about another culture, about what lies beyond
their small town.
“Do you watch the Simpsons?” “Do you eat donuts and hot dogs
all of the time?” “Are there fights and drugs all of the time on the streets?”
These are only a few of the questions the kids asked us about the United
States. Just as our ideas of education and Argentinian culture were limited, so
were their thoughts on the rest of the world. Rather than emphasize teaching
them English, we chose to talk to them about American culture, increasing their
curiosity about other cultures and their desire to learn English. Most of the
students grew up in Villa Allende; their parents grew up in Villa Allende; it
is all they know, and at the time it was all they cared about. They did not
care about learning English—it seemed so irrelevant. But once we talked to them
about our lives, our experiences, our homes, they cared about learning English.
They cared about more in this world than what they had seen so far.
All of us had limited knowledge. Avery and I did not know
how other cultures learned best. The kids did not know why they should learn
English or anything having to do with the US. What was supposed to be a
learning experience for the students ended up being a learning experience for
all of us.
“To see beauty,
with its enriching influence”
To see the beauty of
Argentina, we had to see more than just the landscapes and buildings; we had to
experience the whole culture. And beauty anywhere stems from the people there.
In a two-hour horseback ride, Avery experienced and learned
more Argentinian culture than over the entire month. Though not normally a
service they offer, a local hunting lodge, Miles & Miles Outfitters,
organized a horseback ride with their all-around guy Tito and one of the Miles
brothers’ polo-ponies. Being from Texas, I had only ever ridden western saddles,
with their nice leather and hard seats. But in Argentina, not only do they ride
English saddles, as is done in polo, but they also ride their own kind of
saddle, one padded with fuzzy wool. A comfortable saddle? This was bound to be
a great ride. Well, different saddle meant different kind of riding, and
differently trained horses. Having only ridden western saddles before, I had
also only ever ridden western trained horses. Learning very quickly that western
horses ride in a different style than polo-ponies, I fell off of the horse
within the first 10 minutes. But why stop there?
After this first disaster, we continued on our venture and
began to navigate the town that Tito had lived in for over 20 years (I had
fallen off before we even left the property). We walked along a river and through
the historic neighborhood, passing old estancias and stops on the national
mailing route. All of the sudden, as we passed house after house, someone
yelled “Hola, Tito!” and we came to a stop. A family sat on their porch, eating
empanadas and drinking mate, a traditional Argentinian herbal tea of sorts,
which locals drink out of hollowed out pumpkin gourds. Before coming to
Argentina, everyone tells you about mate. Avery and I had tried it in our
Spanish culture class, hearing our teacher rave about its flavor and meaning as
a strong social activity. Just seeing this tradition take place was a treat.
But we did not only see it, we got to experience it. The man who had yelled
Tito’s name came outside and offered mate to all of us. Still on horseback,
Avery, Tito, and I joined in the gathering and passed the mate gourd back and
forth. Then, my heart became truly happy: “Quieren empanadas?” said the man as
the grandma of the house came outside with freshly cooked meat empanadas. In
that moment, I thought to myself, “if this isn’t Argentina, I don’t know what
is.” Mate and empanadas, while riding horseback on Argentine polo-ponies—a
snapshot of a beautiful culture with kind, welcoming people.
In a different world
for a month, I felt “love, the
greatest of all things;” love of Argentine people, love of friends,
love of family, love of learning.
ZLAM, Anna Anderson PC '14
Keep up with us:
Twitter: @TexasZTA
Instagram: @TexasZTA
Facebook: http:facebook.com/TexasZTA
Tumblr: www.texaszetataualpha.tumblr.com
Website: texaszetataualpha.com
Recruitment video: https://vimeo.com/128106277
