I spent a year in Bogotá following my completion of an undergraduate degree in Latin American studies. I’d been speaking Spanish by that point for half my life, and I wanted formal experience with children. I say this to say, I felt that those things prepared me immensely for living in Colombia.
Colombia and Bogotá specifically is my second home! At the time, our team was small but mighty and I still keep in contact with the people I worked with back then. Everyone made me feel like family, even though I was so far from home.
I loved my school, which was in Soacha, and I made strong and long lasting relationships with my kids. I love them so much and every day with them was a gift. I feel like if you go into this experience with a full heart and want to give all of yourself to your students, you will walk away with no regrets. Many people I worked with had also never met a Black American person, so I loved sharing my culture with my students. In return they gave me so much love.
What was the most nerve-racking moment and how did you overcome it?
On my first day of school, a parent from the school was supposed to pick me up but he forgot. After a long bus ride to Soacha, I had to get a colectivo the rest of the way to my school, but I didn’t really know how they worked. I didn’t get off the colectivo and ended up outside the city. I asked the driver how to get back and he told me to wait and get on another colectivo. The thought of that overwhelmed me so much that I burst into tears, ran into a grocery store, and sat on a bag of rice for hours calling my bosses so we could get everything fixed!
Eventually they got my location and sent someone to get me and take me to the school. I pulled up to the school and they were like “ok let’s get you to your first class!” After all that, I still had to teach 😭
