Day 9: My Personal Takeaways (Lex)

The past nine days in Belize have been some of the best of my life. It was educational, enlightening, and most importantly enjoyable. Being able to go beyond the classroom and learn through experience is beyond compare. I love to travel and I feel it is the best way to learn about the world around us. This trip has done nothing but reaffirm that.

I feel my biggest takeaways from this trip, other than the 1,000 bug-bites, would be my ability to interact with the locals. There are three specific moments that I look back on when thinking about how I grew. The first would be our visit to Mopan Tech. We had gone over our presentation the day before and I was really nervous. I hate public speaking and giving presentations. We started our day at the school with a tour before we gave our presentation. The Penn State students were thoughtful and asked questions throughout the tour, but when we were left alone to interact with the students I think we were a little shy or slow to reach out. Not speaking for everybody of course, but I felt this was especially prevalent for me. I didn't know if these kids were going to want to talk to me. It felt awkward for me to walk into their classroom and disturb them from doing their work. When we shifted gears to our presentation nothing felt different. I still didn't think these high schoolers were going to take me seriously seeing that I was the same age they were. I think our group was trying to engage with them but there were some awkward moments when it wasn't working. However, there were some very bright students there that made our jobs easier and participated enthusiastically. I enjoyed visiting Mopan Tech and seeing the things they were doing, but to be honest I was glad that the presentation was over. 

The next experience I look back on was our trip to the San Ignacio Market Wednesday morning. I will try to keep this part brief since this is what I wrote about in my previous blog post, but it is still an important piece in my personal development on this trip. We started in the market as one big group of 8 Penn State students. We all went to the same stand awkwardly asked some of the prices of the foods being sold. Then we split up more into our three groups and Britton, Erin, and I met Daniella. I began to ask her questions on the produce she was selling just like the first vendor. Then I asked her about the local Mayan cuisine. She seemed to light up and began to realize we weren't just tourists but curious students who wanted to learn. She was so happy to share a part of her culture with us. I began to feel much more comfortable and it became a more flowing conversation instead of me just asking about prices. This is the point in the trip I look back on to when I began to switch how I interacted with the locals. Instead of being shy and observing from a distance I wanted to show them that I was curious about their lives. After that, they were more than happy to talk to me.

The third experience I look back to for my development, and also the development of the group, would be the second presentation at the Tumul K'In Center for Learning. I feel that our presentation at the second school was much much better. We were more confident in ourselves and our ability to interact with the students. I felt that I took control with my group to try to get them to participate and enjoy the activity. Once again there were several bright students that made my job easier, but I still feel that overall we did a better job the second time around. In the short moments when our group would be waiting for the others to finish we were able to talk with them and ask questions about their lives and their school. They were so genuinely interested in what we had to say and were able to recognize our curiosity which made them want to share more. Even after the presentation was over, all the Penn State students stayed behind and talked with the students some more. 

With Tumul K'In being a much smaller school (24 students) compared to Mopan Tech (over 500) it was a lot easier to engage with their students on a more personal level. I also really enjoyed our second presentation with the students at Tumul K'In, whereas I was glad to get it over with at Mopan Tech. I was so happy to have a second chance to interact with the Belizean students and learn more about their ambitions. The question "What do you want to do with your life" always scares me and I never know how to respond. Whereas these kids knew exactly what they wanted to do and were eager to share it with us. I am so grateful for this opportunity to come to Belize and interact with such incredible people. Places can be great, but it the people there that make it special. And it's our job as international students to be able to take that extra step to reach out and engage with the people. After all, the best way to learn is by experiencing it first hand. 


Lex is a freshman majoring in BioRenewable Systems/Biological Engineering at Penn State.