Ordinary People, Extraordinary Opportunites

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: a city approximately 8,500 miles away from my home in Vail, Colorado. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: a city, a hope, and a dream. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: a reality.

My name is Cate Maslan. I am 13 years old and I am in 8th grade. I have an older sister in 11th grade and an older brother in his freshman year of college. I love to play basketball, dance, ski, sing, and act. My typical day looks like this:
1) go to school
2) do homework
3) basketball, dance, and/or voice lessons
4) more homework
5) sleep
On weekends it looks more like this:
1) wake up
2) homework
3) theater and/or ski
4) sleep

If there's one thing that should tell you about me, it's that I'm your typical thirteen-year-old girl. I go to school, I have extra curricular activities, and I argue with my siblings. In April of 2015 I traveled to Rivas, Nicaragua where I spent my spring break working at a school for children with disabilities. I was twelve at the time. A ordinary twelve-year-old girl, getting an extraordinary opportunity.

On October 11, 2015, at 6:28 pm, I got a phone call. One glance at the caller ID was enough to make my heart skip a beat. I answered the phone with a dry throat and sweaty palms. A short three minutes later I was squealing as I hung up the phone and already planning my first fundraiser. Six moths I had been dreaming, hoping, and praying that I would get the opportunity to travel to Cambodia. All of those dreams, hopes, and prayers became a sudden reality, all within that 3 minute phone call. I am going to Cambodia. It is no longer a hope or a dream. I am now an ordinary thirteen-year-old girl, getting another extraordinary opportunity.

Nicaragua taught me lessons I will never forget. I learned that it's the little things in life that matter most, I learned how it feels to fall in love, and most of all, I learned that the way to change the world is not all at once, but one smile, one hug, and one person at a time. That is what I hope to accomplish over the course of my three weeks in Cambodia.

While in Cambodia I will have the wonderful opportunity to work with children at the Cooperation of Peace Orphanage as well as make improvements to the orphanage's property. I will also get to teach English at two local schools: a preschool and an elementary school. In order to participate on this trip I will be responsible for fundraising $2,500, attending group meetings, learning the Cambodian language (Khmer), collecting supplies for the kids I will be working with, completing 5 hours of community service, and writing more blogs.

Words cannot describe how thrilled I am to embark on my second journey with Children's Global Alliance. Children's Global Alliance, or CGA, is a non-profit organization that takes kids ages 12-17 on service trips to Tanzania, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Cambodia. While in these countries the selected students serve, teach, and support the poor, disabled, and orphaned children living in these developing countries. Spending a week in Nicaragua was enough to teach me many things about myself and the world around me, I can't wait to see what I discover when I get to spend three weeks in Cambodia.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: my reality.

"And who can say if I've been changed for better or for worse, but because of you I've been changed for good."

The sun has risen and set, the day has come and gone, and with it the trip of a life time. Working with the students and teachers at Escuela Especial has changed how I will look at things forever. What I taught the students about math and spelling is important, but what they taught me is far better. I always thought people were over exaggerating when they said the kids on the trip were like family, but I realize now that it is nothing short of the truth.

Every single student at Escuela Especial has changed my life forever. One of the most important lessons the students have taught me is that it's the little things in life that matter. I've gotten to witness so many of the "little things" this week that I am thrilled to have experienced. One of my favorite and most recent moments was with a middle school girl in Auxililladora's class. Her name is Mercedes, but she always wrote it as "Mecebes". The previous CGA kids who had been in Auxililladora's class all said to keep working with her on her d's, but not to get frustrated if she didn't get it because she really struggled with it. Sure enough, I arrived in Auxililladora's class Thursday morning to see "Mercebes" written in big letters on the top of her paper.

For nearly two hours I sat next to Mercedes, explaining and demonstrating all the possible ways to write a d. For 1 1/2 of the two hours there were still b's written all over her paper. I was almost ready to move on to writing neater r's when I thought of the last possible way to write a d. First I demonstrated 3-5 times. I then gave her the pencil and helped guide her hand to make the right motions several times as well. Then with fingers crossed, I handed her the pencil. I watched as she slowly drew a small circle and a line on the right hand side. It wasn't all that pretty of a d, but in that moment it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. "Muy bien Mercedes! Es correcto!" I said excitedly. She stared at the letter she had drawn for several seconds before jumping out of her chair and giving me what felt like a 10 minute hug. I watched as she filled her page with the letter d and the name Mercedes until lunch, and I can't remember a time I felt more proud of anyone or anything.

I will arrive back in Vail on Sunday, but I will not be the same person I was a week ago. I wear the same face as the girl who left, but a face is merely a mask. No amount of time nor any number of miles can ever sever the bond between me and the people at Escuela Especial. When I get on the plane Sunday morning, I will only have half a heart. I am leaving the other half with these kids and I wouldn't have it any other way. They may forget my name after I leave the same way I might forget some of theirs, but I will always remember the smile on their faces, their arms wrapped around me, and their fingers laced in mine. These kids have taught me that these trips are all about leaving part of yourself with them to hold on to and remember when times are hard, and that's exactly what I intend to do. So I'll come home with half my heart, but the lessons and love the students at Escuela Especial have given me will make that half stronger than my full heart ever was.

Freezing Time

Nicaragua has been one of the best experiences of my life already. I wake up every day excited and happy to see what the day will bring. Yesterday brought me the chance to work with Ms.Nora's three students with autism. Royner, Rachell, and Evert are three 7-8 year olds with an unbelievable amount of energy and personality. Rachell is the sweet and sassy at the same time, so she has the ability to steal your heart and completely rule the room at the same time. She was actually intimidating at first, but once I found that her secret weakness was her ticklish stomach, she became an adorable little girl that I absolutely love. Royner just wants hugs and high fives, and is one of the kindest little boys I know, despite the fact he likes to throw sticks. Evert is one of the smartest students I've worked with so far. He doesn't like to do much other than math, but count to 100 with him and he'll be jumping up and down with glee. Royner was the only one that opened up right away, but a simple counting game with Evert and pushing Rachell on the swings was all it took to become close with the other two of Ms.Nora's students.

Today I got to go on another set of home visits before going to Escuela Especial. This time I met Carmen, Anthony, and Matthew. I lucked out again with 2 out of the 3 children living in fairly good conditions. Carmen is a little 4-month-old girl with cheeks twice as big as her head. She lives with a mother that is disabled, her aunt, her uncle, and her grandma. Carmen's mom is only 17, so she doesn't take as good of care of her as she needs to even though she loves Carmen. Anthony and Matthew are both very loved at home, all though Anthony is mainly taken care of by is grandmother. Both boys live with many relatives.

This set of home visits made me very sad because I realized it was my last few on the trip. It is hard to believe that Wednesday is already here. The thought of leaving is enough to bring tears to my eyes. Tomorrow is my last day teaching the kids before we have a party with all of them on Friday, which means I only have two days left with the students. This trip is going by way too fast and I'm finding myself dreading the end of each day more and more. I love all of these kids so much and I'm starting to understand why CGA volunteers tend to want to return to the countries they have already been too. I wanted time to tick faster before I arrived, but now I wish time would freeze entirely. I don't know what the next two days will bring, but whatever they do, it needs to be savored and cherished. I only get this opportunity once, there's no time for me to give anything less than 100%.

Audios to Day One

I woke up on Saturday both the most excited and most nervous I can ever remember being. I woke up on Sunday nervous and happy. And now I’m sitting here more amazed than I’ve ever been in my life.

I don’t know what I was expecting when the kids pulled up in the van, but whatever it was, it wasn’t what I got. The second the first van arrived I had arms wrapped around me and tiny little fingers laced in mine. As could be expected there were some shy students that didn’t open up right away, but I was shocked at how many of the kids weren’t shy at all.

Once all of the students were in their classes and the greeting was over, I headed down to Ms.Rosa’s first grade classroom. At first I didn’t know exactly what to do. There were 8 students and a teacher all speaking Spanish faster than I would have ever been able to follow and not a translator to be seen. I tried my best to answer all of the teacher’s questions, but many times they had to repeat themselves. 

After about half an hour of this, I remembered the phrase that probably saved today from being a total disaster, “Despeacio por favor.” The phrase simply means “slow down please,” but once I started using it I realized I really did understand the majority of what I was being asked to do.  I was able to help the teacher, Ms.Rosa, grade the students homework, then I was able to work one on one with three or four of the students. 

I worked a lot with a little girl named Odili. She is very smart and very sweet. She was barely willing to tell me her name she was so shy, but by lunch her little fingers were laced with mine as she pulled my toward the cafeteria. I worked more with Odili when we got back from lunch, but I also worked with her twin sister Alicia and two other little girls, Natalie and Susan. I helped them write their cursive vowels until the final bell rang. 

I walked out of the classroom with children still hugging me. One by one they all climbed into the van and waved as they drove off. Today was my first day at Escuela Especial, but I already have made memories I will never forget. 

My day got even better when I got into the car to go to the homes I would be visiting with Natalie, Ella, Whitney, and our translator Eletta. We visited three homes and were lucky enough that all three were in surprisingly good situations. We met Angelica Maria Orteez, Steven, and Carlos. All three are loved and cherished in their homes and are three of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. We were welcomed with open arms into their homes and they willingly told us any details about their past that we asked for.

I can’t wait to see them all again on Friday at the party and I can’t wait to help in Ms.Nora’s class for autism tomorrow. Any doubts or fears I had are vanishing before my eyes as the trip is finally beginning, and I’m loving every second I’m spending with these kids.

Smiling Through Dark Times

I recently watched a documentary about three college students who went to Guatemala and lived off of a dollar a day, like the majority of the local Guatemalans. From the beginning this video was both startling and eye opening. After watching it I realized that I never had even the slightest idea of what those in poverty are faced with every day. Nothing, not even this documentary, will ever give me a full understanding of what it is like to live in such terrible conditions. It would be difficult to live like this and I don’t think I could do it. Every morning, to wake up with the fear that you or a loved one will get sick or die, that your money will get stolen, or your children will have to drop out of school… worries as big as these are the normal, everyday reality for people in poverty. There are countless reasons why I would not be able to live in these conditions, but the main one is that it would be so hard to deal with the constant fear of such terrible things happening in my life or the lives of those I love.

 While this documentary had many profound facts and stories, the thing that stood out to me most was that while these people have next to nothing, they had the biggest smiles I'd ever seen throughout the majority of the video. In the United States, you hear complaining nearly everywhere you go from nearly everyone you see. We complain about things like not having the newest phone, having too much homework, having to wake up early for school, and many other things that we are too blind to see are really blessings in our lives. These things are luxuries that we have started considering necessities. The families in Guatemala often don't have enough money to send their children to school, much less having a phone or any so called "necessity" we have in the United States. Some of the people I saw in the video had lost everything, whether it was money being stolen or a hurricane that destroyed all their farm land, they had all gone from having nearly nothing to having even less, and I never heard one of them complain about any of it. They told their stories as if it were just another problem to deal with, sometimes smiling even then, as they talked about how they had lost the little they had in the first place. It blew my mind that while having so little, the Guatemalans were able to see the bright side of their situation and give a huge smile even in situations that would have any American, including me, in tears.

People living in poverty encounter hardships every day that most of us will never experience in our entire lives living in the United States. Life always seems to have a challenge coming their way and the uncertainty of what is coming next seems almost unbearable. Most Guatemalans work as home laborers or farmers, neither of which are reliable jobs. As a home laborer or farmer you never know how much money you're going to make or when you're going to make it. The average annual income in Guatemala is a dollar a day, but this is the average income over the entire year. A local farmer may not make any money for days at a time and then start making three or four dollars a day over the next few days. This may not sound like an issue but if he hasn’t been able to save any of the previously earned money to purchase food the family goes into even more extreme poverty for the days that the farmer isn't able to make money. Finance is just one example of the uncertainty people in poverty face every day. They never know if they or their loved ones will even make it to the morning alive and healthy. If you or a family member gets sick while living in poverty, it is nearly impossible to afford the trip into town to get to the doctor, much less pay the hospital bill afterwards. Again, there are countless other ways people in poverty are put into the worst and most uncertain situations possible.

While many Americans, including myself, put different values on things than Guatemalans, you will be surprised by how many things we put similar values on. For example, the "policy" of family first applies in both countries. Many people in Guatemala have large families of about 6-8 people, but family is just as important, if not more so, to them than it is to us in America. We also value money similarly. While Guatemalans have much less money than most Americans, money is, unfortunately, very important. The difference is that the Guatemalans want money so that they can do what we already have enough money to do in the United States; such as go to school, afford transportation, improve their housing, etc. In America most people want money for pleasure or so that they can afford things that we see as necessary, but really are just things that we could live just fine without. That brings me to my next difference between the two countries: "everyday" objects. The vast majority of Americans have a phone, a home, enough food to eat, and enough water to drink, these are all things that have become so common in America that we take them for granted. In Guatemala if you have a phone, enough food to fully nourish your entire family, a home bigger and nicer than a small hut, or enough clean water to drink that you're never thirsty, you are considered extremely wealthy. Many of the things that we see as necessities, the people in Guatemala see as extreme luxury.

After watching the documentary, one major question dominated my thoughts, what can I do? You may think that living far away from countries like Guatemala, you can do little more for those in poverty than donate to a charity every now and then, but you are mistaken. There are opportunities everywhere you go to help those in need, you just have to be willing to look. There are organizations like Children's Global Alliance that can put you right into the action, or there are simpler things like hosting a local Community Supper to feed the people in need that are right here in our own backyard. I have chosen to be put into the action already, but after watching this documentary there are more things to learn than I thought imaginable. I will take them all with me on my trip to Nicaragua in April. After seeing the bonds the three students made with the local Guatemalans, I have learned that every second you spend with others makes a difference. In Nicaragua I will do the best I can not to waste any of my time with the students at Escuela Especial Sor Romero. I am grateful to be going with a slightly better understanding of what I might encounter when working with the students and their families or going on home visits. I hope that whether it be volunteering at a local Community Supper or traveling to a different country, you choose to make a difference in the lives of people around you who are less fortunate and struggling. Remember that no matter your age, capability, or situation, you can make a difference; just keep your eyes open and you will find the opportunity. I hope that when your opportunity comes, you’ll be brave enough to take it.