Access Field Trip 1

If you’ve been following me for the past 11 months, the name English Access may sound familiar to you. If not, let me give you a speedy update. English Access is a micro scholarship program funded by US Embassies around the world that supports economically challenged youth by giving them access to a 2-year intensive American English course. The US Embassy pairs up with a host institution and has a permanent teacher who works with these students throughout the two-year period. The students meet regularly each week and even have a 2-week intensive camp where they are speaking only English from 8am-5pm every day for the 2 weeks. The students have guest teachers and lecturers. They participate and organize service projects and take leadership courses. The Access program is a tightknit community during those two years, and it’s not uncommon to find Access alumni still active in the English teaching community. In fact, my best friend in Madagascar is an Access alumnus.

Needless to say, I like teaching the Access students. They’re bright, capable, funny, and incredibly motivated. This particular cohort finishes their program in December, which means I will have been with them for a little less than half of their time. In the past 11 months, their English has improved by leaps and bounds. Moreover, I like to support their learning in fun and creative ways. We did a two-part series on economics and entrepreneurship where they had to create their own theoretical businesses. Some were more realistic than others. I remember going to one group, “What problem are you going to solve?”

“The cold,” he said.

“The cold?” I asked inquisitively. “How do you plan on solving the cold?”

“We’re going to sell jackets,” he responded adamantly.

“Solid plan, my guy. Solid plan.”

Another time I had them learn about different American accents before really learning the New England accents. Believe me you, there are few things more entertaining than teaching a bunch of Malagasy high schoolers that there “er”s and “ere”s now need to be a higher inflected “ah” sound. A popular phrase was “I kid you not” or “Yah can’t get thah’ from heah’”. This little lesson made it all the more worth it when, upon returning from my break in the United States, I showed up with t-shirts gifted from my high school cross country coach. Being from Maine, the shirts naturally say “York Wintah Track”. Accompanying the shirts were short biographies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a few American flag keychains.

More recently, however, we’ve begun to take some field trips outside of the capital city. A few weeks ago, we headed out to an artificial geyser. The bus ride was long, but like any good bus ride, it was filled with laughter, music, and plenty of games to keep the happy times flowing. When we got there, the girls went to check out the water while the boys and I went off to play soccer. There were, in typical Boy Scout fashion, two teams: team one and team B. Team one won with a score of two to one over team B. And naturally, had there been a third and fourth team, they would have been team III (roman numeral 3) and team rectangle (because it has four sides).

After our time in the geyser, we stopped at a little waterfall a short hike from the road. The students waded through the water and took probably a million photos under the cascade. Sometimes in moments like these, I like to sit back and just watch. There are moments when I should be involved and others that I should just let them do their thing. I kind of like the latter moments. They’re calm and I rather enjoy watching them interact with each other. These kinds of trips are so different than their typical and daily lives. In this particular instance, I just sat on a rock in the middle of the river and laughed along with them as they human chained themselves together and slithered across the shallows like a long snake.

This group of students is always my favorite to teach. I often reflect about my role for them. The likelihood is that they will never see me again, and especially not in the capacity of their teachers. I’m not intending to teach English my whole live. Nonetheless, there seems to be an increasing possibility that such a life path will come to pass. Not in the near future, but down the road. Time will tell, I guess. For now, however, I try to take my role with the Access students seriously. In the classroom, I’m their teacher. I try to make my lessons fun, but they are also challenging. They like to ask me all sorts of questions and are very interested in my life. On field trips like this one, they get to see adventurous Mr. Bald, the side of Mr. Bald who teases them, turns off their phones when they’re watching videos, laughs at silly things they do, and plays soccer with them. Whatever it is they learn from me, my goal is simple, at least in words; be a good role model.

Anyways, enjoy the pictures of our adventure together. And as always, know that you are in my prayers each morning. All I ask is that you do the same for me.

May God be praised.