About Teacher Training and Leading

After living in India for 6 months, and learning al I was able to learn there, and suffering all, and loving all, I came back to my hometown, only to discover that I missed India every single day. I saw everything through a different perspective, and somehow, routines that were so complicated in India, seemed super organized in Bogotá. The non-spicy food that was so scarce in India, was plentiful in 'my' city. The bed that I had left months before, seemed like the most comfortable place on earth after my return. And still, I missed India every single day, because that's what love does: you miss. You love.

Jobless and 'homeless', I decided to look for shelter at the place we lucky Latins do: family and friends. I always knew how extremely lucky I was, since many people in the world don't even have a family to go to, afamily they can really trust and rely on; or friends to spend time with...and I mean the real-real friends who will make room in their couch for you for as long as necessary. I checked the number of friends who ofered me their homes while I found my own place, and I was so moved that they would have actually hosted me for as long as I had needed, without expecting anything in return other than my sharing the stories of my adventures in India with them, an maybe the super Masala Chai recipe.

Then one day, out of the blue, over a coffee downtown (and I don't drink coffee), I got a job again, only this time, it was the job I had humbly and shyly asked the Divinity to give me. I would get to train teachers (both local and foreign) and travel all over my country doing so. In this job I learned that I could really become a leader, and I could create a project from scratch, always keeping in mind that the ultimate result will have to prove effective when applied in the classroom. It was not easy to deal with so many people involved, to face all the technical difficulties, to face the ineffective logistic issues that arose, and to keep a human communication with people who are mire interested in the profit than in education, but we all learned. We learned to work as a team no matter how hard times were. We learned to admit our own mistakes and to remind each other that every piece in our engine was necessary for the projects to work. We learned through subtle anger and private tears at time, but never though fighting against each other. I learned that intentions are not as valid as actions, that promises are not as effective as decisions, and that sometimes my work's worth (NOT my own worth) had been underestimated. I learned that by going beyond, by working so many long hours, again, I was at risk of going against my health and well-being, so I stopped. Due to so many hours of training and traveling, and public speaking sessions, I lost my voice, and I can no longer sing (the time for recovery starts right now). Once again, I knew I had nothing but my skills as an educator, and the most important thing: what was in my heart. So I left. I must say that the best part of this job was to train foreign teachers, to share about our Colombian culture, and to help ease their transition into it as smoothly as possible. Training them I was able to learn so much more about my own country, and about how important is to always be aware of explaining why you are doing what you are doing, why things fail when they do, and above all, to remember that in the worst moments and misunderstandings, a heart-to-heart communication never fails. After all, we are all humans who share the same human values and principles at the core.

The most rewarding part about this 'dream job' was to discover that there is no 'dream job', but that there is always a new way of approaching a job. You can either get intoxicated by everybody's stress around you, or you can resort to the strength of your spirit and try (and try hard! and keep trying!) not to get affected by the violent speed of the specific processes of a job. And from that point I discovered that that spiritual strength is the only thing that counts when dealing with the big challenges: training local teachers who, to many people in my field, are the most dificult, resentful audience any teacher trainer can have here. I was taking a Diploma course on Human Values on Education at the time, so I made it my mission to apply every single lesson I was learning there into my interaction with 'my teachers' ('mis profes', as I call them in Spanish, to add some affection to the term). I learned to listen to them, as much as I could , of course, and to try to understand the reasons why they are tired, frustrated, or reluctant to make changes at their workplace. I started to learn the hardest thng: not to take their negativity in, and not to take aaaanythign they said personally. These are teachers who work at public schols, so naturally, they have lots of issues with the government, the laws issued, the terms of their contracts, and the actual application of all of the above. Besides, they have to deal with a number of people interferring with their teaching practices, with scandalous numbers of students per classroom, and parents who don't necessarily see eye to eye with them when it comes to 'educating' children. They work with very limited resources, if any at all, and yet, they show up in class every day and every year, most of them, because they still believe that education is the solution to the problems of society. Communicating with them was not easy at all at first, but the more I learned about them, the more I visited their classrooms, the more feedback we gave each other, the more I was able to understand their side of the story. And finally, my work became a way of serving those teachers, even if for a short period of time. Getting to know them and their intricate jobs has been a great opportunity which I am grateful for, for I finally was able to get rid of my own reluctance to work with them. I can finally say it's an honor for me to work FOR the teachers in my country.

And now, that cycle ends, and a new cycle starts, hopefully guided the Divinity, to continue to serve education in Colombia, once again, preparing myself for whatever comes in the future.