Alumni Spotlight: Bushra Akram

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Bushra Akram is from Essex, England and currently works in Marketing in London. She enjoys traveling, weight training and reading. She likes to help out on voluntary work when she is able to.

Morning: Wake up and leave to get the subway at 8 to get to work for 9.00, grabbing a quick Nescafe from the local shops and then my colleague and I would walk to school. In class I helped the kids settle and then we spent the morning saying hello to all the children and them practicing the days of the week and numbers then helping them with their morning lesson especially with the children who struggled.

Afternoon: Supervising the children at lunch time and playing along with them. Getting them back settled into class after lunch we had another lesson where I helped them with their work where needed. Once a week I also taught them English and then it was time to get them ready to go home. Then back home where sometimes had committee with with VE or caught up with family back home or went to the gym for a spinning class.

Evening: Lots of social gatherings, spending time with flatmates or out in the evening as we lived so close to centre of town we could go out and walk back especially when in large groups. We also had weekly committee meetings with VE and when needed preparing for the next day.

Highlights: Watching how the English classes got kids excited, particularly when teaching them numbers; I used the song Once I caught a fish alive and the kids picked it up so quickly I was amazed and how they were so keen to learn English and picked up new words so quickly was amazing to see.

Overall coming back from a week away with fellow volunteers and on the boat back from South Chile, just watching the mountains in the distance was the most amazing sight and just made me realize how gorgeous Chile really is.