I have always liked the act of sharing my knowledge with other people, whether it was helping my friends in high school before our class test, during revision week at the university or for my current job as a tutor. There is something truly special in seeing the exact moment of someone’s understanding, the flick in their eyes and a nod with ‘oh yeah, I get that!’. This was one of the main reasons why I was so excited for my LiA project, as I have been wanting it to involve access to education since the day I submitted my application.

The first day of classes was definitely nerve wracking. While sitting on the train with my fiancee, Finley, we both agreed that we had no idea what we should expect. After getting lost in Pablo Nogues, the town where the English school is, about a million times we finally managed to find the right building and shyly knocked on the front gate. Instantly, the doors opened and we were welcomed with the biggest hug and excitedly shouted ‘¿Cómo estás?’, meeting the woman who set up this school more than 15 years ago. Silvia turned out to be the loveliest person, chatting to us on our way to meet the students we would be working with for the next four weeks. Still a bit nervous, we managed to find our seats in a classroom filled with around twenty children, all chatting to each other and waving to greet us. I was instantly surprised to notice that the ages of children were really varied, from as young as five or six all the way up to the older teenagers. While introducing myself, I could instantly see how interested the kids were in meeting us, listening intently and asking tons of different questions afterwards. My nervousness disappearing instantly, I started answering all the questions about Polish culture and traditions, showing the pictures of my favourite dishes, among which pierogi and gulasz were definitely welcome with the most excitement. We all noticed how similar different cultures are, with empanadas, a traditional Argentinian dish, really resembling Polish dumplings. We also discussed all Argentina has to offer, with children offering millions of recommendations for exploring the city of Buenos Aires, with Barrio Chino, Recoletta and Palermo among many. I was even more excited to find out more about the children, asking them about their favourite foods (Pizza and burgers were definitely very high on the list) and dream destinations for travelling. Everyone was so involved in the discussion and sharing parts of our cultures that an hour went by without anyone noticing, only with a teacher interrupting and wrapping up the class for this day. One of the highlights of the day was later chatting to Lucia, one of the coordinators of the project, who said that she hasn’t seen the kids that interested and confident in asking questions in a very long time!

This was a perfect beginning to a definitely eventful week, filled with getting to know even more students day after day. As it turned out the day after, Finley and I were going to be the main teachers for our classes that week, helping everyone with their speaking skills, pronunciation and grammar. One of the main challenges I’ve faced was definitely adjusting my language to the level of the children I worked with- after all talking with A1 class will be very different than working with students on a B2 level. We also had to think of some creative ways of explaining the meaning of some new words as very often our explanation would involve more unknown vocabulary! In this case, Google images were proven to be helpful as well as giving examples of the word used in a different, easier context. Also, the teachers at the school have been a big help and been very supportive which has made the start of this experience a little easier.  

Aside from teaching Pablo Nogues, my days were filled with exploring Buenos Aires in the mornings. As it turned out, there is always something new to do in the city, from visiting a new neighbourhood (after all, Buenos Aires has 48 barrios!), joining a free Tour of the city or just reading Audre Lorde book in the iconic gay cafe. These countless hours of getting to know the city more and more definitely allowed me to deepen my understanding of Argentinian history and identity, slowly recognizing recurring figures on the murals and street art as well as understanding current political and economical situations in the country beyond what I have managed to read on the internet.

After watching Argentina 1985, a movie dedicated to the trail of the members of the last military dictatorship in Argentina, Finley and I decided to find out more about this period in the country’s history by visiting Museo Sitio de Memoria ESMA. ESMA used to be a naval military school, which was transformed into an illegal detention center, where political prisoners were captured, tortured and executed by the rising dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s. Reading the stories of hundreds of people, who after being violently kidnapped from their own homes were subjected to cruelty beyond imagination, was a powerful reminder about how easily history can repeat itself.