Teacher Day
The way people treat teachers in the states sometimes really gets to me. Teaching not only carries the immense responsibility of shaping the future leaders of our country, but also requires a strenuous work ethic. However, as we all know, teachers could never support a family on their salary. For these reasons I was super pumped when I was told that Ecaudor celebrates a ¨Dia del Maestro,¨where everyone in the country honors their teachers for all their hard work. Little did I know, however, that teacher´s day in Ecuador would end up being one of the coolest days of my whole life.
It started out pretty normal. I had been covering Ally´s classes for her while she was in the states, and since she hadn´t given me anything to do with her morning class I entertained her morning advanced students with a stirring game of Monopoly in an effort to practice our bargaining skills. I was also in a good mood because I knew that Thursday would be my last day of teaching at CECAMI before I started my new job. That´s when I received the first of many suprises. While I was teaching Ally´s class, my students invited me to come into my old classroom to receive a present.
I walked into my class and every student was lined up, with the president of our class holding a picture frame with a bow on it. The class president commented on how much they appreciated my work efforts and then gave me a present. When I looked I was stunned. I saw a photo of me with all my students at CECAMI, but couldn´t remember when we had taken the photo. I thus asked my students when we had taken the photo. They chuckled and pointed to Fernando, a student in my class who works as a Graphic Designer. Fernando had actually spliced a photo of everyone in our class into the background of CECAMI´s school grounds. I was immensely touched and hugged each and everyone one of my morning students, thinking that it would be the last time that I would see them for a while.
Oh how I was wrong. When I returned to teach Ally´s afternoon class, the secretary of our school told me to go wait in a classroom for a special treat. Suprised I went to the classroom to help on of my students with her English homework. Ally´s afternoon class finally came and got me about an hour later. They were all dressed in their nicest clothes and giddy to escort me to CECAMI´s lecture hall.
Every single student from CECAMI was packed into the lecture hall smiling at me as I walked in. I was escorted to the center table at the front of the room. Balloons covered the ceiling and everyong was giddy with excitement. My students had thrown me a suprise party to congratulate me for my promotion and thank me for my work at CECAMI. Here´s the list of the night´s events:
-The party featured a television camera and a preofessional photographer that documented the whole event. I was promised a copy of the CD with all of the photos and video in about three months.
- The director of my school opened the program by sharing some incredibly nice words about my work at the school. He was followed by the president of the Student body at CECAMI who awarded me a hand knit sweater and clock to put in my apartment in Quito.
-After the president of the student body spoke, the mayor of Ibarra´s private assistant awarded me Ibarra´s Medal of Distinguished Service, honoring Academic Merit and committment to the Township of Ibarra. He later gave me a certificate signed by the mayor of Ibarra thanking me extensively and offering Ibarra as a home for me whenever I needed to return. The mayor had originally planned to come himself, but had to attend a special emergency conference in light of Ecuador´s political elections (I´ll let you know the results by the end of this week).
-Each class then presented a special dedication for me that they had been practicing for weeks. My morning class sang me a Spanish song about friendship. My night class hired Mariachis. My afternoon class performed the song ¨You´re Beautiful¨by (which by the way is the most popular song ever in this country). Ally´s afternoon class had written a poem about why they like learning English which they read in front of the whole audience. I didn´t know what else to do besides give standing ovations to each group.
-The mariachis then made me put on a gigantic sombrero and dance in front of every single students. I was probably tomato red, but did my best rendition of the Steveo swing.
-Next every single person got a cup of champagne and and representatives from each class gave a toast.
-Next everybody in the whole room danced together after I gave them the official invitation to come to the dance floor. We clearly formed a congo line and cha cha chad around and around.
-Then everyone sat down and asked me to say a few words to the whole group. I gave the best thank you I could muster in Spanish.
-Then my students presented me with a guitar and demanded that I sing. I naturally sang ¨Let it Be¨and closed the song by having 100 Ecuadorians repeat the chorus all together one extra time.
- Then every student asked to take a picture with me.
-Then we ate Fritada (which if you check Ally´s blog is her favorite food).
I mean what can I really say. It was an amazing, generous, caring, unbelievable, awesome, emotional party. I have never been so taken aback by such an outpouring of affection in my life. All in honor of Teacher´s Day.
The States needs to get on this one stat. I can´t tell you how hard it is sometimes to be a teacher, but days like the one I had make everything whorthwhile in an instant. I was unbelievably touched and proud of the work I had done. For those of you reading please make sure to take time out of your day to honor your teachers. We at least owe that much to them.
PS I am actually writing this letter from Quito! I start my new job tomorrow.
Take Care!
Kanetrain
It started out pretty normal. I had been covering Ally´s classes for her while she was in the states, and since she hadn´t given me anything to do with her morning class I entertained her morning advanced students with a stirring game of Monopoly in an effort to practice our bargaining skills. I was also in a good mood because I knew that Thursday would be my last day of teaching at CECAMI before I started my new job. That´s when I received the first of many suprises. While I was teaching Ally´s class, my students invited me to come into my old classroom to receive a present.
I walked into my class and every student was lined up, with the president of our class holding a picture frame with a bow on it. The class president commented on how much they appreciated my work efforts and then gave me a present. When I looked I was stunned. I saw a photo of me with all my students at CECAMI, but couldn´t remember when we had taken the photo. I thus asked my students when we had taken the photo. They chuckled and pointed to Fernando, a student in my class who works as a Graphic Designer. Fernando had actually spliced a photo of everyone in our class into the background of CECAMI´s school grounds. I was immensely touched and hugged each and everyone one of my morning students, thinking that it would be the last time that I would see them for a while.
Oh how I was wrong. When I returned to teach Ally´s afternoon class, the secretary of our school told me to go wait in a classroom for a special treat. Suprised I went to the classroom to help on of my students with her English homework. Ally´s afternoon class finally came and got me about an hour later. They were all dressed in their nicest clothes and giddy to escort me to CECAMI´s lecture hall.
Every single student from CECAMI was packed into the lecture hall smiling at me as I walked in. I was escorted to the center table at the front of the room. Balloons covered the ceiling and everyong was giddy with excitement. My students had thrown me a suprise party to congratulate me for my promotion and thank me for my work at CECAMI. Here´s the list of the night´s events:
-The party featured a television camera and a preofessional photographer that documented the whole event. I was promised a copy of the CD with all of the photos and video in about three months.
- The director of my school opened the program by sharing some incredibly nice words about my work at the school. He was followed by the president of the Student body at CECAMI who awarded me a hand knit sweater and clock to put in my apartment in Quito.
-After the president of the student body spoke, the mayor of Ibarra´s private assistant awarded me Ibarra´s Medal of Distinguished Service, honoring Academic Merit and committment to the Township of Ibarra. He later gave me a certificate signed by the mayor of Ibarra thanking me extensively and offering Ibarra as a home for me whenever I needed to return. The mayor had originally planned to come himself, but had to attend a special emergency conference in light of Ecuador´s political elections (I´ll let you know the results by the end of this week).
-Each class then presented a special dedication for me that they had been practicing for weeks. My morning class sang me a Spanish song about friendship. My night class hired Mariachis. My afternoon class performed the song ¨You´re Beautiful¨by (which by the way is the most popular song ever in this country). Ally´s afternoon class had written a poem about why they like learning English which they read in front of the whole audience. I didn´t know what else to do besides give standing ovations to each group.
-The mariachis then made me put on a gigantic sombrero and dance in front of every single students. I was probably tomato red, but did my best rendition of the Steveo swing.
-Next every single person got a cup of champagne and and representatives from each class gave a toast.
-Next everybody in the whole room danced together after I gave them the official invitation to come to the dance floor. We clearly formed a congo line and cha cha chad around and around.
-Then everyone sat down and asked me to say a few words to the whole group. I gave the best thank you I could muster in Spanish.
-Then my students presented me with a guitar and demanded that I sing. I naturally sang ¨Let it Be¨and closed the song by having 100 Ecuadorians repeat the chorus all together one extra time.
- Then every student asked to take a picture with me.
-Then we ate Fritada (which if you check Ally´s blog is her favorite food).
I mean what can I really say. It was an amazing, generous, caring, unbelievable, awesome, emotional party. I have never been so taken aback by such an outpouring of affection in my life. All in honor of Teacher´s Day.
The States needs to get on this one stat. I can´t tell you how hard it is sometimes to be a teacher, but days like the one I had make everything whorthwhile in an instant. I was unbelievably touched and proud of the work I had done. For those of you reading please make sure to take time out of your day to honor your teachers. We at least owe that much to them.
PS I am actually writing this letter from Quito! I start my new job tomorrow.
Take Care!
Kanetrain
posted by ecuadortraveler at 9:33 AM
6 Comments:
this is an incredible, once in a lifetime experience (except for others like it that can only happen to you....) I only wish I'd been a fly on the wall - especially to see you redfaced doing the steveo swing...So glad you have both a photo and a video on its way - WOW!!!!!
dap dap dap dap dap dap
ET:
It has come to our attention that you sang one of our songs ("Let It Be") at a major, televised event in Ecuador -- WITHOUT sending us any royalty payment. But we are not going to sue you because: (a) 2 of us are dead and (b) the rest of us are so impressed we've forgotten our lawyer's number. So just forget about the royalty thing and sing our songs whenever you want to while you're on the long and winding road in Ecuador.
-- the beatles
Esteemed gents who taught my Dad how to wear his hear long,
Thanks very much for your insights, and I promise that I gave credit where credit is due before striking the first chord.
Can't tell you how much I appreciate the support.
-Ecuadortravler
WARR-I-ORS! WARR-I-ORS! WARR-I-ORS!
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hruby/070517
made me think of you...
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