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After 36 years in the film business including winning an Oscar and an Emmy, I got the biggest thrill of my life when I gave it all up to join the Peace Corps. With the Peace Corps came the opportunity to teach English to the village children in Guatemala. Although I wasn’t a certified teacher at the time, the good news for you is Peace Corps now has a high demand for TESOL Certified teachers with classroom experience.
Thousands of Peace Corps Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are currently formally teaching English in 76 countries in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, and informally in Central and South America. From the mountains of Azerbaijan to the plains of Zambia, TESOL certified teachers have a much greater chance of getting into Peace Corps than those without the certification.
My wife Julie and I entered Peace Corps service in Guatemala when we were 60 years-old, and it changed our lives. We were invited to a small village in Guatemala, San Cristobal- Totonicapan, for two years. We learned Spanish, became members of a community, shopped in the same markets as our neighbors, rode the same buses and lived in the same style housing. Most of all, we were able to work side-by-side with the members of our community.
I taught business practices in the village while my wife taught health and nutrition. We experienced real and authentic lives, people whose concerns were about family and community, not the latest cell phone or new HD TV. We experienced poverty, which I would never trivialize, but we also experienced the power of living in a real community. Many Returned Peace Corps Volunteers remark on how gratifying it is to work and see results--not in the sense of our working culture with strategic plans and Monday morning staff meetings—I got to experience real results working with real people.
However, one of our most rewarding experiences was teaching English. Every Tuesday afternoon after we finished our programs we taught English to the village kids. There would be a line outside our door with all of the kids from our village waiting for us to start the class. Their enthusiasm and excitement was very contagious and we all had a great time over our 24 months of service. We learned together; they would learn English and we would learn about their lives, cultures, likes and dislikes and improve our Spanish. Teaching English to these kids was such an authentic experience for me, the one on one, their need to learn, and most importantly, that the results were substantial in their increasing ability to speak English.
Julie and I also really enjoyed the time afforded to travel throughout a country where you've learned the local language and customs. Live as a local. Travel as a local. You are also a part of a community of other Peace Corps Volunteers who will share the best travel destinations, restaurants, festivals, monuments--and the most interesting ways to get there.
At the end of our second year, Julie and I walked up the hill from our home to the highway, got on the local bus heading north and off we went to Chiapas Mexico San Cristobel de la Casas for Semana Santa (Easter Week). Clutched in our hand were various notes from fellow volunteers: names of tour guides, vendors to seek out and those to avoid, and, most importantly, best places in San Cristobel to eat breakfast. We spent an amazing week seeing the elaborate Easter Processions in the streets, not only in San Cristobel, but in some of the smaller outlying villages suggested by volunteers. Then, off we went to visit Palenque, a collection of ancient Mayan ruins. If we were regular tourists, the trip would have cost at least $1,000 for the week, but our Peace Corps skills gave us a far better experience for under $200.
For those of you who would like to extend your TESOL experience, the Peace Corps needs your skills. You could work with your own classrooms, train local English teachers, develop curriculum where none exists, or work at the university level. This experience can take you in many directions. You only work where invited, and only on projects their host communities themselves request to improve their quality of life.
Our service was also difficult, frustrating and lonely at times. I am sure those of you who have lived and worked overseas this is all too familiar. You go through days and sometimes weeks feeling like an outsider even though you live in the village and helping them everyday… and then you have just one great day and it is as if you never had a bad day...and you are able to move on.
Peace Corps changed my life forever. Upon our return I was more interested in working for non profit organizations than show biz. This experience ultimately inspired me to seek my own TESOL certification in order to be a more effective teacher to those who want to improve their lives with better English language skills. |
From 11 People
