Hero School Intern - Noémie PASLIER 2022
I’ve been working as an intern in the school, meaning I was supporting educational activities in and out of the classrooms, also helping in organising extracurricular activities such as national celebrations animation. I was the first long-term intern at Heroes School so I was a bit nervous before my first day. However, since every member of the educational team gave me a warm welcome, I felt part of the Heroes School family very quickly. When I was introduced to the students, they got all so interested about my home country and my culture that they asked a lot of questions about it. I had no trouble in becoming integrated in the school. I had further opportunity to teach about my culture as I gave some French classes as an extracurricular subject. Even though the chance of using their new French vocabulary in Comalapa is pretty low, my students were very active in class and learned the basics of French fast.
I also experienced a very different relationship between teachers and students: there is a relationship of trust, a relationship based on exchange and communication. Therefore, the education that is transmitted here is an education where the young people can express themselves without fear, where they feel listened to, where their opinion counts. This feeling is reinforced by the democratic projects – investigations and research to find solutions to the problems they face – carried out by the students, which encourage them to get involved in their community. In the end, I can say that this experience made me realise that sustainable and democratic education works incredibly well when the teaching team and the students are willing to work together for more awareness and concrete action.
Now, let’s get to the living-on-campus part. First, Comalapa is a very cute village, full of street art that depicts the Mayan history and heritage of the village. Moreover, the people are very kind, welcoming and always willing to help you. Then, the house – as every building here – is absolutely breath-taking: from the imagined design to the atypical end result, including, of course, the materials used for it (tyres, plastic bottles filled with compacted waste, glass bottles, etc.). The house is very pretty and well decorated by the volunteers and local artists. Living here is a 100% part of the experience. You learn simple ways of living, you learn to care more about the amount of water and electricity you use, resources taken for granted but that are very precious. Finally, the construction. Every other day, interns join the volunteers and the builders to learn green building in practice. Having to work with local people is a great way to achieve cultural exchanges. You can practice Kaqchikel, the local Mayan language, while learning more about the local way of living.
During those six months of internship, I met beautiful and touching people, I made friends, and I learned a lot about my lifestyle in my home country and myself. This is definitely a life-changing experience.
