Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Inspiring Students

Today we held the first meeting for Mosqoy 3. Mosqoy 3 is the third generation of Mosqoy students, one that will hopefully begin their studies in Cusco in August. It is not yet guaranteed that they will begin in August, as not all sponsors have been found.

Today´s meeting made all our work more real. It also made me realize the emotional roller coaster that this experience will be. I can hear thousands of blurbs about the students, read thousands of reports about why it would be beneficial to sponsor students...but nothing compares to seeing their faces, learning about them, and hearing the worry and hope in their voices as they talk about their future.

The meeting was short and informal. We had wanted to let them know of a few things and make sure that they are all aware that we have a big meeting on Sunday (with all the Mosqoy generations). It is very funny how these meetings are organized here- something like this would never work in Canada. It is all by word of mouth as not all students have emails and phone numbers. We had let the word spread that we had arrived to Ollantaytambo and would like to meet, and incredibly most of the students showed up on Wednesday morning.

In order for all the donors and world at large to hear the words of the students, I will be conducting interviews with all of their Mosqoy 3 students and documenting their stories. Today, we had booked the interviews and I begin my interviews (in Spanish!!! Slightly nervous about this) tomorrow morning. I am looking forward to this as these students have very interesting stories to share. Just in the short meeting today, I was so inspired both to help them and be better in my own life...as their anticipation, worry, and clear hope to help their communities and improve their lives through their own education and personal development was so raw and real. Sometimes, that rawness gets lost in our own lives.

Another very significant moment occured today while I was practicing English with one of the Mosqoy 3 students. We were playing around on Google Earth and he was wondering what my house had looked like. I had located my home and he looked at it a little bit. Finally, he started pointing to the different areas of my house and longingly said how one day he hopes his home has roofs like mine, and how he hopes his home has windows like mine as well. I don´t know how exactly to describe what I felt after that- I guess ´sad´kind of works. I was confused. I felt unfairly privileged. I felt like I needed to help. I felt like I CAN help. I felt like I could be more thankful, more aware, more ...

Mosqoy 3 meeting

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