Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Should I stay or should I go now?

My project is winding down. Yesterday, the ladies had their end of the year party. We danced Samba (they were pleasantly suprised to find that the gringa has rhythm), and ate cake. Everyone received and shared their books. I'll compile an little anthology for them as a new year present. Sucks to having a falling out with your university contact.

All of my fellow exchanges are preparing to run around the country to see the Northeast, Rio de Janeiro, the beaches, Carnival. I'm trying to find a farm a short bus ride away from a beach. Christmas and New Year will be quite for me this year, but I think I'll have a good time.

Ok. So I can stay here for an additional 3 months, and teach some very basic English to people who don't have much. I won't be paid, but I will have free room and board and transportation. Part of me really wants to go home and establish a long term home for myself. Another part of me says, it's not everyday/lifetime you get a chance to go learn from some people whose lives are vastly different from yours. And isn't part of this "experience abroad" about shifiting your own ideas of what you need--getting outside of the comfort zone? And didn't you come here to help? I think it would be helpful to give audience and new tools (barebones english) and the novelty of newness/foreigness to poor people (or anyone else).


My friend, Felix, said (in response to a completely different topic): the question we always face is this: how should we respond to our current situation in order to make it better? instead of dwelling on ourselves and our feelings, we should focus on our context and how it might benefit from our presence.

How frustrating that reality isn't static. The idea imbues us with so much responsibility. It means that we are not objects subject to some unfotunate and permanent way of being, but that we have the choice to change. And we all know how uncomfortable change (and necessarily(?) sacrifice) can be. So now I have to answer the ever present question. How should I respond to my current situation in order to make it better? How can my current context benefit from my presence? Well, I could spend some time talking to young poor people about how the world is in other places so that they can generate new ideas about what reality is--imagining is the first step to creating, right? This is why we value teaching kids, right? They have time that old people don't have to recreate the world--to develop it.

And why is it important to do this work here instead of say, teaching Portuguese in Chicago? It's important because English is a language that is spoken all over the world, not only in Mozambique, Angola, Portugal and Brazil. It is important because I am not foreign at home--I do no represent a far off and "exotic" place, and therefore do not function as a fixed point to give perspective on the breadth of the world. Of course, I'll continue working in literacy/writing/education when I get home. We have poor kids, too. So, if I can pull it off, I'll stay here for 3 more months, and then I'll head to Chicago for a little while to see if I can get a really amazing job/volunteer with this organization. If I get it, I'll do cartwheels and settle in for a while. If I don't I'll head to Virginia, to regroup.


Besides, this way I don't have to be in Chi for any of winter. Holler.