“Let us remember: one book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” by Malala Yousafzai

Hi, my name is Kelly Nguyen, and I am Day 5’s Leader del Dia. Our quote of the day was spoken by a women`s education activist who strongly believed in the power of quality education and the human right to access these resources in order to do so. Today, we compared and contrasted the education we have always known and received in the United States with the education that Ecuadorians in the rural community received. This particular group that we shadowed today as a group was the Abya Yala Elementary to High School in the El Troje community.

But before I can begin to express how this face to face encounter with these local students left a powerful, positive impact on our lives, I want to inform all those reading this about our packed and exciting agenda for today.

We rose at 7:00 AM today and walked to a welcoming breakfast café called Café del Tren. We were served a delicious guava smoothie and tea along with eggs and an Ecuadorian specialty breakfast corn based tamale. Then we headed back to our hostel in order to work on the design portion of our CAP Project. For those of you don`t know what CAP is, it stands for Community Action Project. We partnered up with a local organization called UTOPIA. The non profit promotes healthy food choices while protecting local farmers and one´s economic sovereignty. The organization’s fight is currently strengthening their impact in the community; however, their main building which they use for meetings is cramped and damaged due to the weather. Our discussion over the design portion of this projec enabled us to come up with a vision of different ways to help out the non-profit.
Our ideas were:
1) Fix up their backyard, build a shed for needed storage, concrete the floor, and design a garden full of fruits, vegetables, and flowers
2) Give a new paint job to their front entrance doors which were tarnished by weather, design a more colorful logo in front of their building, and add a mural to the side of their front entrance wall.
3) Clean up the kitchen, renovate the cabinets and walls with a fresh layer of paint, add shelves for additional storage.

After splitting up into teams to prepare a presentation plan to Utopia on each of the three topics, we were headed on a 45 minute field trip to face our Education Reality Challenge: head to Abya Yala High School. There are a couple of things one must know about this school. It is located in a rural community encompassing all grades from Elementary to High School. But here`s the catch: there are only 79 students in the entire school. We began our introduction to the entire school`s students and faculty with personal introductions and interacting with the students during their recess. When recess was over, we were divided into different classrooms according to grade. Some of us received bonding activities and games with the elementary students. Others received a comparative math lecture in Spanish with the higher grade students by the Abya Yala math teacher with the same math lecture in English from our very own GG Leader, Tony Tuttle. We agreed that there were three major differences between the schools that we attend and the school that they attend.
1) The presence of technology vs. the lack of technology
2) Large student population vs. small student population
3) Relationship between the teacher and pupil
  

But perhaps the most emotional part of the day was accepting the fact that it was time to say goodbye to the school children. These children, despite the language barrier and the little amount of time we spent with them, created a special bond with us that was hard to let go. As we loaded onto the bus, every student and staff member was smiling and waving upon our departure. While driving onto the road, we looked back and saw a young girl chasing the bus and reaching her hand out towards us as we were speeding away from the school. This moment allowed us to understand the big impact we left on the school, even if it was just for a portion of the day.

After having some free time to resettle and reenergize at our hotel, we prepared for day two of our English tutoring. After getting the chance to understand our students on the first day and their level of understanding on the English language, the second day went undeniably well for all of us. We were able to better formulate our lessons to fit our classes’ understanding of English. From what once used to be an obstacle for many of us turned out to be something we are growing passionate about. That passion is spreading the gift of education.

Each and every single encounter with one of the students and staff at the Abya Yala school touched our hearts and taught us a valuable lesson that quality education does not have to come from a first world country with state of the art technology. This lesson is further emphasized as we were put into the role of educators ourselves at our English classes. Instead, the quality of one`s education is measured by the teacher`s passion to teach and a student`s dedication to preserver and learn. We also took into consideration that although quality education should be accessible to all kinds of population, sometimes it is not accessible to children living under the poverty line, third world countries, or areas where it is discriminated for certain genders to attend school. This is what we, as Global Glimpsers, need to realize and advocate. Public education can drastically change a student`s life and a country`s path towards a better, promising future.

As a Global Glimpser and Day 5 Leader del Dia, I am grateful to be born in a place where public education is easily accessible to me with the appropriate resources provided. I am grateful for my parents for coming to a country in hopes of my brother and I receiving better and more accessible opportunities to academically succeed. I am grateful for all the educators in the world and those who consistently fight for accessible public free education to children all over the world. Now, it is our duty to represent that undying fight.

With courage, compassion, and commitment,
Day 5 Leader del Dia, Kelly Nguyen

Here are some shout out from RB2A members to our loved ones!

Kelly: Mom and Dad, Uncle, and Brother I miss you so much! I am being well fed and have been learning so much about myself and the world. By the way, Derek, I can`t wait for that Wonder Woman poster. Also I love you Interact, ARK, UNICEF, and my XC crew!

Sakshi: Hi Mom, Dad, Sona, and Lyss, I love and miss you guys! Pick up when I call!

Skyler: Hey Mom! I love and miss yall.

Hilda: Hey mom, I love you!

Daniel: Hey Dad, take care of Rocky! Make sure to feed him too. I`m buying Supreme!

Sage: Hi family! I hope all of you are doing great (including the dog). Love you all!

Karen: Hey Family! I love you and don`t worry too much about me. I am eating really well and I am going to bring back good stuff. Oh yeah, Hey Sovanny, I really miss you and reading your comment made me cry. I love you and I hope you`re doing great.

Justin: Hi Mom and Daddy, I miss you guys! I`m doing fine and found out that Lebron James got murked! 😀 Love you all!

Emily: Hi Mommy and Papi. I miss you all at home. I just wanted to let you know that I am having a lot of fun. I am learning so much. Love you all. Say hi to Danny, Michelle, and Spike.

Letty: Hi mommy and papi. I miss you guys so much. I love you guys so much I hope you guys know that. I can`t wait to see you again. I hope Alex, Lisa, Litty, and Jose are doing well. Love you, tu hija Letty.

Alejandra: Hey mom, I miss you so much and Ysenia, Carlos, and Kai. I love you all!

Fatima: Hola Mami, Pa, y Carina! I`m doing great. I`m having so much fun on this trip and I hope all is well at home.