In a couple of weeks time I will be jetting off to Chile to teach English in the capital city of Santiago for 12 months. I will be teaching in the poorer suburbs of the city and living with a Chilean family who only speak Spanish. My project partner and I will be teaching 4-17 year olds in a school with around 550 pupils. I start off my year as a language assistant and as I become more confident and my teaching skills improve I will be given more responsibilities in lessons until Im a fully fledged teacher.
I am going with the organisation Project Trust. They are the oldest gap year organisation in Britain and I decided to go with them because in my view they are the best. They are an educational charity that sends just over 200 school leavers to over 25 different countries. What made Project Trust stand out to me was the personal input they have. Volunteers have to go to the Island of Coll on the west coast of Scotland where they are selected over a 5 day period. This aspect of the organisation really stood out to me because you have to be a certain kind of person to go away with the charity. They have guided me throughout the fundraising process and on all the other aspects of my Gap Year.
I knew I wanted to go to a country that was new and exciting to me and Chile isnt a country you automatically associate with typical South America. I have to admit, apart from knowing about Pinochet and the vast geography that Chile has I dont know a great deal about it (which excites me but also makes me slightly nervous!) However I feel that no matter how many books I read or documentaries I watch I simply cant get an impression of Chile until I step off the plane.
I come from a large family (myself being the youngest of 6) and I know that I am going to miss them. The conversations over Sunday dinner have been that bit more emotional and the hugs that bit longer over the past few weeks and everyones preparing themselves to say good bye. I come from a small farming town on the east coast of Scotland and at times its been hard to try and make people understand why I am going away for a year and that as much as it may sound like it, Im not in fact going away on one big holiday. I was extremely successful with my fundraising and I found by just having a mature and determined attitude towards fundraising, more and more people wanted to donate money to me and to hear about how I was getting on with everything.
The time from deciding to go on a Gap Year up until now has passed very quickly and I cant actually believe that Im off in a few weeks! Before there was always something to do – get injections, finish fundraising, fill out visas etc. But now with nothing left to do but wait, it is a truly overwhelming concept. At times I feel scared and my brain thinks up everything that could go wrong but mainly I am just excited and want to get going.
The next time I write up a report I will most likely be sitting in a cafe or in my school in Santiago. My whole way of life that is so common to me in Scotland will be completely different in Chile and I simply cant wait. So until then, ¡Hasta luego!
