Only Everyday

There are many things that make a typical day at the SPDY school completely atypical; tuk-tuks, stopping to buy jasmine flowers for our office, languages, and adventures while trying to negotiate walkways teaming with tiny, adorable faces. Not every moment is easy or expected and sometimes challenges or insecurities lurk in the strangest places. However, without a doubt, there is a continuous and palpable sense of caring and commitment here. I was a stranger, and now I am greeted as a friend, a generic face that is now recognized.

How many times in our daily lives are we absolutely awestruck, and I mean that in the literal, stop in your tracks and pause to drink in the view sense? I can tell you that every day, if not a few times a day I am able to poke my head over a balcony or into a classroom and be amazed by the dedicated and caring way my co-volunteers are working with kids. Very few of us have ever formally taught, but everyone can connect, teach and learn from these kiddos. One day a teacher was absent and a volunteer and I took on the fifty kid classroom. To say I was not feeling the bravest as I stood in front those fifty sets of eyes is a mass understatement. The assignment for the day was to read and discuss a poem which we tackled by breaking down the verbs and adjectives and acting out each stanza. What started as a lack-luster, tentative read-through evolved into the roar of excited actors.  We had teams for each stanza and it was unreal to see the ownership each team had for their verse and actions. That day, just watching the other volunteer bring this group to life, seeing the kids leaning over their tables, straining to hear his instructions, I couldn’t help but marvel at how lucky I was to be there.

That afternoon I was looking for the same volunteer and came upon him sitting with a bunch of students, huddled and hushed over a book. There is something incredibly beautiful about seeing humans work together and just be so vested in one another’s adventures that the whole rest of the world disappears for a moment. That is something I see most days, that is what makes my everyday completely atypical. 

/ Heather

Only Everyday