Wadood+Reflection+Essay

To quote Indian liberator Mahatma Gandhi, “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”. Prior to this year of service, I would not have understood what Gandhi meant by this. I spent my year teaching Sudanese teenagers subjects such as English, Geography and Math and I grew to learn that I improved their chances to learn more and better themselves. When I began, little did I know that not only would I help a group of Sudanese boys and girls grow, but I, too, would also grow. I improved my knowledge regarding the subject of service, acquired new basic skills, improved the quality of life at Found African Children’s Learning Center and finally, I believe strongly that I had a positive influence on the issue of lack of education and educational depravity, albeit to a minor extent

During my time at FACLC, I improved myself quite a bit without knowing it. I acquired some basic skills and reached a different level of thinking that I have grown to realize are quite useful and will be even more so in my everyday life. I learned how to think like a teacher and how to be able to “read” the student per sé, in the sense that it is much better to know who you are teaching in order to fully get the message across in an easier way. I improved my communication in that regard as well, as I was forced to use various methods of communication in order to get a certain idea across such as speaking in multiple languages, drawing diagrams and making outside references. On a more intrinsic note, I learned about the subject of service and it’s importance on myself as a student and those who I am assisting as it promotes unity, amity and goodwill while further bettering the world around you in order to give people certain opportunities that they never had the chance to experience in various acts of selflessness. I enjoyed showing these children that despite being lucky enough to have practically every necessity in life brought to me on a silver platter, I do care about those less fortunate than I.

While I feel like I grew and improved a lot, I also believe strongly that my service group and I had a real impact on these students. In a place where the school is the ground floor of an apartment building and there aren’t enough textbooks to go around, outside help is very useful and our access to the most advanced teaching materials really helped out a lot. Mrs. Lantz would bring various textbooks, worksheets, shapes, props and sometimes animals to get the kids to be able to talk about these things. We found that our help, coupled with the dedication of their admirable teachers improved their quality of life at the school and really made a difference with these kids. Our various activities seemed to get them to want to challenge themselves, especially since we provided multiple incentives for them to do so. We even tested them after every lesson to show them that they really had learned something in the little time we spent with them. However, we also made a difference in the sense that we made them happy at school and made them want to learn more; we would bring them to school and play football at times after they had finished school and we would laugh and make jokes during our sessions and we felt that this joy played a very important part in our visits to FACLC.

To reflect on the bigger issue is no simple task as it may raise doubt if someone says “I really did make a difference”. However, I strongly believe that making a difference need not be on as large a scale as building an institution or funding a school. Each of the volunteers at FACLC intensely impacted the issue of lack of education by going out of our way to teach children things that they would need to function in our modern society. We gave them the basic tools that they could use to create their own opportunities and we gave them senses of hope and happiness simply by teaching them things we know. Our actions tackled this issue from its very core as we ourselves taught these children, helped them every way we could and eliminated, albeit temporarily, one of the main reasons behind lack of education; inaccessibility. However, it is true that others, such as poverty and corruption still exist and those are things we can do nothing about for the time being but we, the FACLC volunteers as a dedicated group, are sure to tackle these problems in the near future in order to further improve the oncoming generations’ chances of successful living.

This year of service has taught me a lot, and it seems I have taught others a lot as well. I now realize the importance of service like I never did before and this realization, along with knowing that I improved some people’s lives while influencing a much larger problem to a positive degree, brought me bliss. I have come to understand that while it remains voluntary, service should be a necessity and should be performed by every person who is able to do it. As boxer, entrepreneur and political activist Muhammad Ali would say, “service is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth”.