While this summer feels years ago, in the heat of the moment (quite literally), I found myself appreciating language, culture and even my own experiences a lot more. 

Despite being able to speak Bengali fluently, I had taken for granted that I would be anle to speak with everyone easily. I found often that my Bangla (Bengali is the English name for the language whil Bangla is the way it is called in Bangladesh - hopefull that wasnt too confusing...) was actually lacking. I mixed in a lot of english and found myself looking towards the english teacher to translate my Bangla. It was very humbling to say the least. I had gone into a class of students to 'teach' them but I definitely think I learned more. 

Which brings me to my second reflection. I had no intention of going into this as a teacher. My aim was to be a guide, or mentor at most. I believe that young people have a lot of potential to grow themselves but I had taken for granted that the children were equiped with a sense of independance. It is a systemic case of young people's sense of independance and voice being subdued. While there were a variety of characters within the class, there was always that question of "Miss, I can't do this." Initially this was extremely fustrating. I couldnt understand why after 3 or 4 rounds of explainations I couldnt convey myself to them. I definitely took it as something I was lacking. Turns out it was never personal. This realisation made me step back and view the bigger picture a bit better. I needed to work from the ground up, and that meant fighting the education system... and that was a bit too much to achieve in 6 weeks. So I decided I will continue doing this. Even after by LiA. Keep working with these kids, growing a connection and pushing them to get their voices heard. 

It made me realise that having adults that can listen to you is such a privilidge. There was so much I had taken for granted but there was also so much for me to do. And that left me with hope and a promise to do better.