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Adventure for our intern from Luxembourg!
By Simone Posted in Uncategorized on 14 November 2019 0 Comments 12 min read
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Photo Blog by Laura Shummer Nomadic Hands Intern

January 2012

As we were packing up our things to leave, Jean, one of the teachers, called me into her classroom. She said the kids where too distracted for class, so maybe I could just come in and answer their questions.

I had just applied sun protection and insect repellent; it was the usual 30 degrees outside, so you can picture me, I looked particularly sticky in that moment. That is how I made my entrance, I apologized for my shiny skin, but explained that I needed to put special cream on it to protect it from the sun that is too strong for it. One boy said, in IIlongo, that he had never seen anyone like me.

Hmmm. Yes, I guess, if you don’t have tv, you walk for two hours through nature to get to school, then I guess yes, you may never have seen anyone like me, pink skinned and blonde. We continued, they asked questions in their language, Jean translated. They wanted to know where I come from (we looked at the globe, all there was, was the usual three letters LUX covering a dot – my country is too small to put the name in), what its like over there and if I was married (everybody wants to know that). They sniggered a lot, other kids crowded at the windows to watch. I felt like Lady Di. This was fourth grade. They learn English from a very young age, it is a national language in the Philippines (which makes it rather easy to travel here). Yet these kids needed translation. I asked them if they understood me, some nodded, so I encouraged them to keep it up, they were doing really good.

Later on it occurred to me that maybe they have never heard anyone but their teachers talk English to them – by bringing people up to the community, these workshops will really bring a lot more than the workshops alone.

Halfway through my ‘intervention’ Ramke strolled out of the comfort room (that is what, ironically, they call the toilets here – it was in the classroom, and with an open ceiling) – he later said that he’d heard the girls whisper to each other that ‘she’s so pretty’.

I’ll finish on that note.

Click HERE to view further information about the ‘Connect, Create, Conserve’ project.


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