FEATURES
SINCE 1944
Five weeks in Guatemala
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n the spring of 2022, I spent four weeks teaching English to kids and teenagers in Guatemala, where I spent a total of five weeks, thanks to the B.E.S.T. Project Fund. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to say that. The B.E.S.T. project felt like too good of an opportunity to pass up. The second I found out about it, I started brainstorming project ideas. I am pursuing an honours in Hispanic Studies with a double minor in English and Teaching English as a Second Language. Career-wise, these three disciplines could lead me in very different directions. Undertaking an English-teaching internship in a Hispanic country seemed like the perfect balance to find out. During these five weeks, I was interning at the Colegio Americano Superior in Antigua, Guatemala, while staying with Guatemalan locals and discovering the culture. I worked with a devoted Guatemalan teacher; my students ranged from high-spirited, energetic fourth graders to more or less motivated 16-year-olds with very different levels of English; and my host parents and siblings introduced me to their customs and the marvels of their homeland. Between all of them, they taught me a lot. Francisco – the teacher I was paired with – deeply cared about his students. Learning English in Guatemala is not valued as highly as it is in most of
the western world; the official curriculum considers it a third language, after Indigenous languages – the main one being Quechua – and it is taught with various degrees of efficiency, taking into account the poor level of language of some teachers and the lack of proper training and resources in some cases. Therefore, Francisco did everything in his power to ensure the quality of his teaching, from weekend education and English classes at a university in the capital to endless hours spent on preparation to motivate his students. He cultivated a friendly class environment and maintained close relationships with his students, for whom he had individual nicknames and inside jokes. What he lacked in training and English proficiency he made up for with innovative pedagogical activities and an inch of fun.
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Christina Lépine, Features Editor » thecampus.features@gmail.com
Manu Bissonnette - Contributor
My fourth-grade students taught me resilience and patience. Their 8-yearold selves did not care about learning English; they cared about their teacher, me, and having fun. It became my job to match their level of energy and instigate enthusiasm about our lessons. They made me laugh as much as they made me scared, and I loved them for it. My middle schoolers taught me resourcefulness. Their lower intermediate level of English did not allow them much wiggle room for expressing their thoughts, and I could feel their equal desire to try and give up. I racked my brain to provide them with onthe-spot tools and innovative strategies to encourage them to keep trying. My advanced teenage students taught me to be creative. They were past the simple speaking exercises; they needed to be challenged and enjoyed stepping up to it. Most of all, they taught me you can learn and laugh at the same time. The family I stayed with consisted of Wendy and Francisco, born and raised in Antigua, with their two sons, 15-year-old Adriano and 7-year-old Carlo. On my first day, Wendy welcomed me into her home with a hug, and from then on, she made me feel at home. She accommodated my vegetarian diet to the best of her abilities, she gave me recommendations for places to visit, and she told me about her life. She told me about life at the foot of an evererupting volcano (volcán Fuego, which erupts four times per hour). She cooked traditional dishes, like pepián, a meat and
veggie stew with incredible spices, daily tortillas and black beans, and tamales, a papillote-style wrap of Indigenous provenance (the word tamal comes from the Indigenous language Nahuatl). As for her sons, they became my friends. I left Guatemala with a flinch of the heart but filled with joy and wonderment. Learning about teaching languages and Latin American cultures is all well and good, but nothing compares to experiencing it in real life. Especially when, months later, my professor mentioned the Tikal ruins and the Mayan legacy in Guatemala and Mexico, it felt incredible to know I had seen it with my own eyes. The B.E.S.T. project allowed me to understand a profession and a culture to a level that I would have never been able to achieve otherwise. I cannot recommend it enough.
Photos Courtesy of Manu Bissonnette
The Outdoors Club explores Mt. Mégantic perspectives Connor Kay - Staff Writer
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n Feb. 4-5 the Bishop’s University Outdoors Club planned a getaway to Mt. Mégantic, QC, where outdoors enthusiasts from all walks of life came together under the common passion of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. The trip was led and organized by co-leaders of the Outdoors Club Annabelle Nadeau Germann, Emily Crunican, Karen Halliday, and trip leader/marketing organizer Andrew Fergusson. The beginning of the trip consisted of snowshoeing up a 5km trail on Mt. Megantic to a timeless rustic cabin on top of the mountain to settle in for the night but not before a short snowball fight and some sledding.
When asked about how the idea of a cross-country ski and snowshoe excursion came to the table, lead organizers of the event Crunican and Nadeau Germann expressed that it was the first time the club had done something to this degree in a while and was thought up in conversation while the three organizers including Fergusson were on a hike. Soon after the proposal of an overnight excursion during the hike, a plan was put into motion with no speed bumps along the way due to extensive and precise planning. The success of the trip was soon to follow and displayed the growth and capabilities the club has made over the past few years including acquiring new gear such as snowshoes, headlamps, and other equipment to make this event possible. Without the carefully mapped plan of the club’s organizers, there would not have been the opportunity to see breathtaking sites during the travel through the hills on skis, bonding around the fire of a log cabin, and having a spontaneous snowball fight. While discussing with the club’s organizers, they mentioned their future plans to take the direction of managing more frequent overnight trips while making it as available as
possible for Outdoors Club members since there was a large amount of interest in the ski/snowshoe getaway. While the club promotes the active outdoor lifestyle, they also take action through initiatives like making equipment rentals accessible and affordable for students or offering to carpool when traveling to further destinations. Not only does the club promote fun activities at a low cost but it has been notable that firstyear students benefit by meeting
people with common interests in an informal setting and make new friends along the way while building priceless memories. Despite leading the two-day long trip, both organizing leaders Crunican and Fergusson wasted no time in making an appearance at the combined Outdoors Club and Figure Skating Club social get-together back in Lennoxville, displaying their driven dedication to the Outdoors Club and active outdoors lifestyle.
Photos Courtesy of Emily Crunican