Episode 13: Volunteering at EFTC as a career launching point -Voices of Hope Podcast

“Hola a todos y bienvenidos. You’re listening to the Voices of Hope podcast. Each episode we have a special guest who has been part of our journey and the fundamental success of our school. These stories will inspire you and we hope you'll learn a thing or two about our wonderful country of Guatemala along the way. Let’s get started!

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Julia: ¡Hola! Welcome to our thirteenth episode of Voices of Hope, my name is Julia, and I am the Social Media and Communications Intern at EFTC working with our team in Guatemala, the US and the UK offices spreading the word about our wonderful foundation and inspiring people to visit us here at the School of Hope. Today, we are talking to our English classroom assistant and volunteer, Katy! She is a college graduate from the UK working towards a career as an English teacher in Central America. Katy has been with us for seven weeks now and will head up to Mexico in three weeks in search of her next teaching opportunity.

SEGMENT 1

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Julia: Hi Katy, we are so happy to have you share your story on the podcast today!

Katy: Hi, thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Julia: Lovely to have you. So first of all, why Guatemala? Was there a specific thing that led you here?

Katy: So basically I was just looking to learn more Spanish and also to get some experience working with children, and when I was looking it up this was the perfect place.

Julia: Wonderful. How did you hear about EFTC?

Katy: Actually it was just through Google. I was just googling volunteering opportunities in Guatemala and Central America and this is one of the first ones that came up and then I read about it, looked amazing and then yeah, I just filled out a volunteer form and then they got back to me really quickly to say it would be okay.

Julia: Can you talk a little bit about your day to day in the classroom with the kids?

Katy: Yeah, so when we first get in there, the teacher, the English teacher, he writes the information on the board explaining what we're going to do. I usually help him think of some of the questions in English and then together we help translate them into Spanish. And then afterwards the kids start to get on with the work and we go around making sure they know what they're doing. And I'll explain it a little bit more to them if any concepts are a little bit confusing. And then also it's just nice as well because we can just chat, I just get to chat to them whilst they're doing the work to get to know about their lives as well as their school life.

Julia: Wonderful. Has there been any happy moment that stands out to you during your time in the classroom?

Katy: Generally I love just when they really understand the concept and they get really excited because I'll say, oh, that was like perfect. You've answered everything correctly and just to see their faces look so happy. And then for me particularly, when it was my birthday, I had it here and some of the children, they'd like wrote letters for me and made cards and it just made my day really special.

Julia: That's super special. How's it been working with the faculty and the staff at the school? How have you been able to learn from them and do you think they've taken anything from you?

Katy: It's been amazing. Everyone here has been so, so helpful. Particularly the people in the office, as well as then the English teacher I was working with. Like, he was so helpful and because my Spanish is not great, he's been there to translate as well when I get confused. Yeah, everyone's just really explained to me every day what's going on. Nothing's ever felt confusing. It's just been a great time, really.

Julia: That's awesome. I know working in a second language from personal experience can be challenging. How have you been able to navigate that and how have you prepared for that?

Katy: So before I started here, because I only really had basic Spanish, I did a couple of weeks in a Spanish school here in Antigua, which was amazing. And it was one-to-one for like six hours a day for two weeks, which really helped give me a little bit of confidence and also just practicing all the tenses and their teachers helped me with vocab specific for school. So that was really helpful. And then whilst being here, as I said, the teacher's been really helpful, the English teacher, translating anything I don't understand. It's been great for picking up a few words here and there. And I feel like my Spanish is slowly getting there and getting a bit better.

Julia: What's it been like working in a foreign country? Have you had any past travel experiences that really led you here or have you been kind of going with the flow? What's your style of travel?

Katy: Yeah, so last year, I traveled South America with a friend for a few months. And that was what made me decide that I wanted to actually learn Spanish properly and would love to live on this side of the world. Because from last year, just being in South America, the people, the lifestyle, the cultures were just…really appealed to me. And I love it. Guatemala has, I did think is quite similar to the places in South America as well in terms of how friendly the people are. And their lifestyle and how relaxed it is in comparison to England, which is really nice. So that really helped. Like I was very, the minute I got here, I felt very settled. It's a really nice city to live in. It's very safe and yeah, I've really enjoyed it.

Julia: Yeah, I agree. The lifestyle here is a lot calmer and like there's a lot less stress in the day to day life. How have you spent your weekends?

GUEST: So when I'm in Antigua, one place I really loved, I've been a couple of times now, it's a place called El Pilar where you can go on a walking trail and then there's swimming pools. So that's really nice for when you want a little bit of nature. Then also there's some really nice cafes, bars, and restaurants. That's just good for when you want like a chilled weekend. You can just go from one to the other because also everywhere's in walking distance. So it's really good from that sense. You can just decide on the day. I also like the market as well, because there's so much there. Yeah, it's just good for a relaxed time.

Julia: And how about your weekends outside of Antigua? Have you gotten any travel in? Do you have any future travel plans?

Katy: Yeah, so far I have went to El Paredon, the beach, which was amazing and I highly recommend it to anybody. It's beautiful, it's a bit hotter than here in Antigua. You can surf, you can relax, and there's good food there. Also I've done the volcano Acatenango, which was amazing. It's the best thing I think I've ever seen, watching the lava erupting. And then we plan to go to Atitlan, the lake, and to Flores as well to go and see Tikal.

Julia: Wonderful, can't wait to hear about your adventures. And what's next for you? How do you plan to go from here?

Katy: So after here I'm going to go up to Mexico to see if I like it there. This job has definitely confirmed to me that I still want to work with children and continue to learn more Spanish. So the plan next I think is to look for a teaching job, teaching English, but now whilst I continue to improve my Spanish and then hopefully I'd love to in the future work somewhere like here again, I'll work somewhere very similar once my Spanish is better because I just love the setup here. I love the way that it's a non -profit school where everything is done for the children and only the children. And yeah, I just love the way it is. So I'm going to continue working with children and improve my Spanish.

Julia: Is there anything specific that you'll take from your time in the classrooms here? Anything that you learn from the teachers or from the staff? Or just from being around the kids that you think you want to take into a classroom of your own some day?

Katy: Yeah, I love the relationships here that the children have with the teachers. I think it's very special here in comparison to what I've seen particularly in the schools I worked in in England. I just think it's really nice. They've got a really good balance of like a teacher -student whereas also I feel like you could always trust all the teachers with anything if you were a student. And it's just a really nice, friendly, positive environment which is definitely one of the most I've seen in a school for myself.

Julia: What kind of advice would you give to any future volunteers at the school? Any tips or tricks?

Katy: Yeah, I think if you're like me and you don't have much Spanish ability beforehand, I would definitely recommend doing some classes beforehand. It just gives you a bit more confidence and gives you more of an ability to be able to speak with the children, speak with other staff and just know what's going on a little bit more but you'll always get support if you don't have any Spanish knowledge at all. Like it's not to worry if not but yeah, that's something I would suggest. I think it really helped. And then yeah, I just think do it. If you were questioning whether to volunteer here, definitely do. It's been amazing that I honestly couldn't think of a way to fault it.

Julia: Amazing, I have to agree with that one.

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Julia: Now it's time for our special segment. You have 15 seconds to share the best gem you know about Guatemala, either a place, food or a tradition.

Katy: So for Guatemala, one of the highlights was definitely when you're in El Paredon, depending on the time of the year, but at this point I believe it's between September and November. They're releasing baby turtles into the sea and you can go in the morning, it's free and you just get to go and watch the turtles get released into the sea and it's the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Julia: It is in fact really cute. I agree with that one, what a great gem.

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LAST PART (Call to action)

Julia: Before we finish our episode, we want to invite you to follow all of our socials, @eftcfoundation. We are on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok every day so you can stay up to date on what is going on at the school.

FAREWELL

Julia: Thank you Katy for sharing your insight into what it’s been like to volunteer and live in a foreign country and with EFTC. I have seen how much the kids adore having you in class and I know the foundation is so so grateful for your help.

Katy: AWW well thanks so much for having me, it’s been great, and yeah I just can’t recommend it enough.

Julia: We’ll see you on our next episode, stay tuned on our socials!

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“Thank you for listening to the Voices of Hope Podcast. Follow us on our socials @eftcfoundation and find us at EFTCfoundation.org.”