EOD and two services

I did my first service in the Northern Chilean city, Iquique. I worked at a semi-private school, and there were three other volunteers in my city, one teaching at an all boys school, the other teaching in a semi-private school and the other teaching in a private school. I had fantastic students, and the staff at the school were friendly. The two English teachers I worked with were really kind, and both had their own style of teaching their classes.

My transition from orientation in Santiago, to Iquique and later to Concepción was really smooth.

My second service with EODP was about 7 hours South of Santiago, in a small town outside of Concepción, called Chiguayante. I loved it here because it had all the benefits of living in a big city such as Santiago, but with lots more open green space. I worked with one of the two English teachers at my school, which was a public school. There were not many material resources in this school. The English books were not sufficient, and very difficult to follow. In this case, the teacher and I worked together to make sure students were being challenged, and that they were learning the mile stone content needed to move into the next level of English. I would say my experience working at this particular school was a lot more challenging than the first school I was in, maybe, partially due to lack of resources, but I learned a lot from the students and I had a good time while I was there. I was left out of work for over a month while the public schools, including the one I volunteered at, went on strike.

My experience with the English Opens Doors Program was more than positive. Everything was not perfect, but all in all, the program is set up in a way to really help the volunteer succeed.

Each volunteer will have a different experience, no doubt, but my perspective and my goal of doing what I could to intrigue students to learn English, I found were important when things did not go as planned.

During my stay, I had time to travel and see Chile, and met wonderful people along the way who have made a lasting impact on me. I made great friends with the English teachers and their families and I keep in touch with them even today.