by Mr. Paul Perron, Korea International School
Here I am standing at passport control at the airport in Dacca airport in Bangladesh and the officer has just told me that he has never heard of the address I have just given him and the 34 students and teachers behind all have the same address because I told them to write it down. No need to panic yet as I was told this might happen, as the place we were headed was remote even by Bangladeshi standards. I was told to smile and tell him that we were the guests of Prince Sanjay and that all of our problems would be solved. I passed this brilliant nugget of information on to the customs officer with total confidence that the fabled Prince Sanjay was our ticket into the nation of Bangladesh. The officer deadpanned back that there are no princes in his nation. I glanced back at the thirty students and four teachers who traveled to this distant land with me believing that I had taken care of everything. I thought, “What should I do now?” as they looked at me with expectant eyes seemingly sure that I had the solution to this dilemma. At that moment the higher-ranking officer standing behind the one “helping” me whispered into the ear of his comrade and a smile broke across each man’s face. As I looked at them pleadingly the original officer then said, “Oh, except in that area of the nation. Welcome to Bangladesh.”
Why does a sane person take thirty high school students to the poorest corners of planet earth? Dealing with flights, visas and parental concerns every step of the way. Why wouldn’t he spend his vacation time with his beautiful wife on a tropical beach drinking fruity concoctions with umbrellas in them? Why doesn’t he stick to places where the toilets flush the roads have sidewalks and the roosters don’t serve as alarm clocks? What causes the entire group to take a trip where all will get filthy, labor until muscles they didn’t even know they had ache, and eat dinners that you watched your host kill an hour earlier? Had I, had indeed all of these travelers, lost our collective minds? What could possibly make the hours of fundraising money that will be 100% given away, and the lectures about beds without mattresses and warnings to bring medicines and bug spray all worth while? The answer is a simple desire to help those who, though less fortunate, are no less deserving of a better life. To give to someone who will never ever forget what we shared and did for them. Another reason for me is to teach young people lessons that no classroom could ever hope to. The reason is to build houses with an organization that has gotten the concept of helping people to help themselves right. What I’m talking about here is the incredible organization called Habitat for Humanity.
I have always felt that my life has been blessed with innumerable gifts. I have also discovered that each gift I have given has been repaid to me many fold. As a lifetime educator I have dedicated much of who I am to giving the gift of higher level learning experiences to my students. The non-tangible rewards I have received are greater than several lifetimes deserve. During my career I have discovered that real life experiences are not only the ones that teach the most but also teach at the deepest levels of understanding. These are the experiences that touch the heart and soul as well as stimulate the student intellectually. Working with my fellow teachers and our amazing students on Habitat for Humanity trips I have had the penultimate experience of my long career. The trip alone to a foreign land is a multi-curricular dream classroom. Traveling to a foreign with Habitat for Humanity gives the trip much more intensity, focus, purpose and meaning. Building the house with not only the local materials and local people, but with the future homeowners themselves allows us to experience what this house, however simple to us, means to them. During our time there we interact with local school children and their teachers, we meet local dignitaries and others of notoriety in the area. On the Bangladesh trip our local base (the YMCA) became playground central while we were there as young people from about five years old to their mid-teens came to share time with us each evening after we finished working. No trip can get you more involved with the community, pass on good intentions and promote intercultural awareness than a Habitat for Humanity trip does.
Finally, what cannot be emphasized enough is all of the multi-curricular skills and knowledge used and gained by using the local resources while taking into account the local conditions (both physical and cultural) as you and your students build a house from below ground level up. Teaching has always been and profession of love for me and my very best teaching has always taken place in an atmosphere of student involvement and independent thought on their part. On a Habitat trip I am constantly aware of the growing and expanding of my students minds, spirits and hearts as they go through the process of building the house. The next time I find myself in a foreign land confronted by a bureaucratic stumbling block with thirty anxious young people counting on me to solve it, I will smile and work my way through it as I know that my students and fellow teachers (more so myself) are about to embark upon a life fulfilling experience beyond compare as we are about to build houses for Habitat for Humanity.
Here I am standing at passport control at the airport in Dacca airport in Bangladesh and the officer has just told me that he has never heard of the address I have just given him and the 34 students and teachers behind all have the same address because I told them to write it down. No need to panic yet as I was told this might happen, as the place we were headed was remote even by Bangladeshi standards. I was told to smile and tell him that we were the guests of Prince Sanjay and that all of our problems would be solved. I passed this brilliant nugget of information on to the customs officer with total confidence that the fabled Prince Sanjay was our ticket into the nation of Bangladesh. The officer deadpanned back that there are no princes in his nation. I glanced back at the thirty students and four teachers who traveled to this distant land with me believing that I had taken care of everything. I thought, “What should I do now?” as they looked at me with expectant eyes seemingly sure that I had the solution to this dilemma. At that moment the higher-ranking officer standing behind the one “helping” me whispered into the ear of his comrade and a smile broke across each man’s face. As I looked at them pleadingly the original officer then said, “Oh, except in that area of the nation. Welcome to Bangladesh.”
Why does a sane person take thirty high school students to the poorest corners of planet earth? Dealing with flights, visas and parental concerns every step of the way. Why wouldn’t he spend his vacation time with his beautiful wife on a tropical beach drinking fruity concoctions with umbrellas in them? Why doesn’t he stick to places where the toilets flush the roads have sidewalks and the roosters don’t serve as alarm clocks? What causes the entire group to take a trip where all will get filthy, labor until muscles they didn’t even know they had ache, and eat dinners that you watched your host kill an hour earlier? Had I, had indeed all of these travelers, lost our collective minds? What could possibly make the hours of fundraising money that will be 100% given away, and the lectures about beds without mattresses and warnings to bring medicines and bug spray all worth while? The answer is a simple desire to help those who, though less fortunate, are no less deserving of a better life. To give to someone who will never ever forget what we shared and did for them. Another reason for me is to teach young people lessons that no classroom could ever hope to. The reason is to build houses with an organization that has gotten the concept of helping people to help themselves right. What I’m talking about here is the incredible organization called Habitat for Humanity.
I have always felt that my life has been blessed with innumerable gifts. I have also discovered that each gift I have given has been repaid to me many fold. As a lifetime educator I have dedicated much of who I am to giving the gift of higher level learning experiences to my students. The non-tangible rewards I have received are greater than several lifetimes deserve. During my career I have discovered that real life experiences are not only the ones that teach the most but also teach at the deepest levels of understanding. These are the experiences that touch the heart and soul as well as stimulate the student intellectually. Working with my fellow teachers and our amazing students on Habitat for Humanity trips I have had the penultimate experience of my long career. The trip alone to a foreign land is a multi-curricular dream classroom. Traveling to a foreign with Habitat for Humanity gives the trip much more intensity, focus, purpose and meaning. Building the house with not only the local materials and local people, but with the future homeowners themselves allows us to experience what this house, however simple to us, means to them. During our time there we interact with local school children and their teachers, we meet local dignitaries and others of notoriety in the area. On the Bangladesh trip our local base (the YMCA) became playground central while we were there as young people from about five years old to their mid-teens came to share time with us each evening after we finished working. No trip can get you more involved with the community, pass on good intentions and promote intercultural awareness than a Habitat for Humanity trip does.
Finally, what cannot be emphasized enough is all of the multi-curricular skills and knowledge used and gained by using the local resources while taking into account the local conditions (both physical and cultural) as you and your students build a house from below ground level up. Teaching has always been and profession of love for me and my very best teaching has always taken place in an atmosphere of student involvement and independent thought on their part. On a Habitat trip I am constantly aware of the growing and expanding of my students minds, spirits and hearts as they go through the process of building the house. The next time I find myself in a foreign land confronted by a bureaucratic stumbling block with thirty anxious young people counting on me to solve it, I will smile and work my way through it as I know that my students and fellow teachers (more so myself) are about to embark upon a life fulfilling experience beyond compare as we are about to build houses for Habitat for Humanity.
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