Amanda Smeltzer
Bio
living, learning, and loving 🦋
Stories (1/0)
The Beauty in Questioning
For the past two weeks of my summer, I had the opportunity to fly to Laos, a country on the other side of the world in Southeast Asia. I was a volunteer in a village called Sop Chem, or better known as, a home away from home. I was able to wake up every morning to go teach English to advanced teen students. Those students didn't need me to teach them, I wasn't giving them my "help." I was there because those students' eyes lit up at the thought of gaining more knowledge. They wanted to learn. Those students were intelligent when I got there, and they were intelligent when I left. I was there because learning brought them excitement. Sop Chem has an extremely strong community that would be flourishing with or without us. But, when our volunteer organization sat down, and asked the village what we could do with them, rather than for them, it not only created a bond, but it also allowed us to take measures to introduce sustainability to this community.
By Amanda Smeltzer5 years ago in Education