Volunteerism

Yesterday I found out something neat about the Access teacher (Edwin) whom I work with (who also helps me with my community class).  He was talking to the students about some vocabulary words, one of which was "volunteer".  He shared with the students that he used to not like to work for free because he knew that his time and energy was valuable, but after working with me and knowing that there are approximately 200 PCVs in country, as well as other U.S. organizations that send volunteers, he has "changed [his] views".  As I have mentioned before, he has been volunteering in my community class that I teach in the evenings  (co-teaching with me and helping students) and he told his Access students that he does this because he realized that he wanted to be a part of the students' learning/education and he was excited to help other people and see them improve. 

I was so glad to hear this after writing that other blog post before about what a great help he was and how I was so surprised that he was volunteering to help me without pay when he was so busy with so many other things.  I was impressed by his willingness to volunteer and support me in this.  I hadn't asked him to do it, but I had mentioned it in class and he asked me if he could participate, which was awesome! 

Also, one of our Access students came to the community class Monday night to help out & I was very impressed by her.  She was eager to help the students with the exercises and even taught a part of the class.  She also talked to them about the importance of English and how they need to take responsibility for their own learning--this is our star student (I wish I could take credit for her haha). 

Anyway, I was happy to hear what Edwin had to share in class and it made me realize that just my job of being a volunteer really means a lot.