The Hidden City

Laura and Noelia, always sit in the front of the class, pay attention, but are much to shy to ever answer any of the questions, first. Diana, is sassy, smart, and a show off, as she loves to raise her hand before I even finish asking the question, and likes to whisper the answers, when I am asking one of the other students. Jesus and Alexis are buddies that always arrive to class together, albeit constantly a few minutes late, and always sit together, but elbow each other almost the whole duration of the one hour class. Natalie, is a mix of all the others combined, always smiling and shy when she doesn’t know the answer, but excited and eager to participate when she does. My class started with these six kids when I arrived on my first day, as the profe (professor), of the level B students, aged 9 to 12. Since than, my class has grown to an enrollment of ten, with the addition of the sister-brother team of: Noelia and Nahuel, clearly the brightest, in terms of current knowledge of English, in our class. And Christian and Osuald, who just started the last week.

The classroom is small, and I have to steal chairs from the common areas, when the kids all show up, on the same day. As the English class, is free and not a part of any mandatory program, many of the kids show up here and there, but I have been lucky, with the majority of the kids showing up almost everyday day. Conviven is an NGO, with a centre located in Ciudad Oculta, translated as the hidden city, due to the level of poverty and it’s forgotten existence to those that live outside of it. On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, the centre offers four English classes free of charge, two at 3:30 pm, and the other two, an hour later. One class at each hour is catered for the younger kids, level A, while the other is for the older kids, level B. During those times, adults also stroll in for both group and individual lessons, based on the number of students their knowledge, and the availability of volunteers that particular day.

The volunteers come from all around the world, with many from non-native English speaking countries, such as: France, Norway and Denmark. Then there are those of us from English speaking countries, but are often reminded of how different our language really are from each other, starting with the letter Z (zee to those from the States, but zed to those from the various Commonwealth countries).

Although the actual hours for the majority of our group are short, 3 hours a day, 3 days a week, the trek to and from Conviven makes for a very long day. After taking Spanish class in the morning from 9 to 1 pm, I have about 40 minutes to grab something to eat and run any errands, before hopping on the 103 bus for Conviven. After an approximately 45 minute bus ride, I am dropped off at a corner in Barrio Mataderos, and cross the street to wait at the snack shop of the local gas station, to join the other volunteers, as we are picked up by the staff of Conviven, to walk to the centre together. Apparently, the neighborhood is not the safest, and the staff at Conviven does everything in it’s power to make the volunteers, feel safe and protected.

My first class starts at 3:30 pm and is followed by the tutoring of some adults, along with Courtney starting at 4:30 pm. Last week, I have also been given the privilege of teaching Carmen, a sweetheart and one of the managers of the centre, for her first formal (or informal in my case) English lessons. Than, at about 6:15, I hop on a bus headed back for the MicroCentre of Buenos Aires, and finally make it back to my home away from home, at half past seven.

Having never taught English, as the primary lead teacher, I am constantly kept on my toes to read the students, and to adapt the class to keep the kids excited and interested. These kids, from homes and poverty level, that we are fortunate enough to never know, or ever understand, have great energy and thirst to learn, that I feel obligated to keep them interested and motivated to return to class each week. The tough part, has been, that they come from different knowledge base of this foreign language, and have an amateur teacher, who is developing their lesson plans on the fly. I just found out that Nahuel and his sister Noelia are actually world class tournament chessplayers, with Nahuel competing in the World Championships in Turkey, earlier this year. That clearly explains how diverse the students can and may be, but obviously Nahuel and Noelia are the exception more than the norm, in any city of any country, rich or poor.

The best feeling has been, when you see that light bulb turn on in the eyes of the kids and adults, and after only a few weeks as their profe, I feel as proud as any of their relatives might feel. The hardest, has been when you feel that you might have failed, when a couple of the kids feel completely lost, and you have no other idea of how to teach that material to the kid, as your knowledge of Spanish is limited, and you can not jeopardize the attention of the other kids in class. Luckily for me, the kids mostly all get along, and the ones that easily understand and learn the material, seem eager to help the others who don’t.

Although, I have described mostly about the kids, the adult class is very much the same, but with the work load and other commitments that being an adult requires, their attendance seem to be a lot more sporadic. Courtney and I, do have one student, Gilberto, who probably the age of our father, has the excitement to learn, as much as the kids. Starting with the basics, of ABCs and 123s, he constantly surprises me each class with perfectly pronounced sentences, that he has learned from television. His motivation to learn and speak English, now, is because he just found out that he has a sister in the States, and somehow they got connected from the internet. Now, he wants to learn the language, so that one day, he can have an in-depth conversation with her and learn about who she is and about his new extended family.

It is truly a humbling experience, being a novice volunteer, when surrounded by those who have a lot less, and are probably more appreciative of everything that they do have. And more so, knowing that you are just passing through, as if browsing through the window into a part of their life, not knowing if you should feel lucky, previledged or guilty, for everything that we do have.

And, once again, there are the true volunteers, those that commit: months, years, if not their whole life to organizations such as this. To talk to the other volunteers and to hear their resume of helping out, and their aspirations to save and change the world, makes you wonder if you could really be from the same species, as they clearly have something that you don’t. But, they never let you doubt the importance of your role, no matter how little it is. In some ways, when you compare yourself to them, you feel like a parasite/a leech, as you backpack across continents, in a quest of self fullment to see the wonders of the world, they/others stay behind to make a difference.

Since the beginning of this trip, many have asked me: what are you searching for, or running from? My answer has always been the same, I just want to see the world. But it’s experiences like this, that makes me ask, myself the same question.

Conviven’s website: www.centroconviven.blogspot.com