I have been studying English to be a
teacher in the London University for four year. The last year when I was
graduated, the Dean of the University came and told us, that many
countries where needing teachers as a volunteers. So I decided that I wanted to
go to the South East Asia but the only place left was in Malaysia Borneo
(Sabah).
He told me that the life there could be
difficult but I told him that I was going. The week after this I search about
Malaysia and put myself in contact with that school and the students and
teachers sent me a card telling me that they were really happy about receiving
me.
Sabah
is one of the 13 member states of Malaysia it is located on the northern
portion of the island of Borneo. It is the second largest state in the country
after Sarawak, which it borders on its southwest. It also shares a border with
the province of East Kalimantan of Indonesia in the south. I will be
teaching and helping in a village near by Borneo.
There
are only 200 habitants in the village and only 40 are students and the rest are
adults.
When I told my parents that I was leaving to the South
East Asia for a year, they were really upset and I was too. But I explain them
what I was going to do and who I was really helping.
I thought that those children and teenagers were
waiting for me more than anything in the World. I was expecting a really poor
village with nothing and only little things. I knew that in Borneo the
landscape was beautiful and fully colors but I didn’t have a clear image of
that in my head. I knew that I was going to miss my family and friends but it was for a good
reason that I was leaving London for the first time in my life.
Once I was about to land in Borneo I saw
all that landscape and mountains but when I saw the color of the water I was
more than amazed it was like a postal card.
The director of the school came to the airport
and pick up me.
During the trip from the airport to the village, really a very long distance, I could apreciate a beautifull landscape at the rainforest fully of colors and animals as monkeys and birds.
When I was finally in the village all the
students were running and knocking on the window of the car. It was a
really nice sensation that those children gave me, because they were happy that
I was there and I was happy for them. They even receive me with a huge poster
saying welcome to Borneo. I wasn't the unique teacher from oversea; they
were teachers from Australia, Spain and from France.
The students showed me their classroom and the works
that they have been doing, they also show me their pet it was a huge orangutan
called Betsy she was 12 years old. At first I was a little bit scared that this
huge monkey was around us but they explain me that she was very nice and polite
to new people.
At the beginning it was a little bit hard to teach these children because they were very nervous. But once I had time to knew them better, they started to be less active.
The
habitants were really nice to me they even invite me to have a dinner at their
home without knowing me. They also gave me a little tour around Borneo's lakes
it was really nice.
We decided with my other teachers friends than this children needed to have more fun in the school and new ways to learn.
We talked to the
principal and explain her that these children were not learning because they
didn’t like what we were teaching them.
We told her that we
were going to put new ways of teaching and she agreed. So we started new
methods of learning with new activities, sports and other fun things.
