An El Salvador immersion

Michaela Uhling took a big step outside her comfort zone to spend a year teaching in El Salvador.

Uhling, who graduated from Saratoga High School in 2008 is a teacher in Sheridan.

Last year, after going to El Salvador to visit a friend she met at the University of Wyoming, she decided to take advantage of a program teaching English in El Salvador.

After visiting with the principal of the school she worked in and the superintendent, she was awarded an unpaid leave of absence to spend one year in El Salvador.

Uhling’s friend Blanca, who studied at the Unversity of Wyoming is from El Salvador. Blanca returned to El Salvador and started a non-profit organization called Caminos de Acción. The mission of the organization is to educate the communities near Blanca’s home. Uhling visited Blanca and worked with her on a project which had an emphasis to educate the people and help them gain access to clean water using water filters.

While visiting El Salvador Uhling took some Spanish classes and learned about English teaching opportunities.

Uhling is currently working on her master’s degree and when she returned to the United States, she decided she wanted to focus on English Language Learning (ELL). ELL is the study of techniques and strategies to support students who do not speak English as their first language in the U.S. School environment.

Uhling thought it would be interesting to put herself in the shoes of her ELL students by immersing herself in a new culture and language environment.

Uhling, who has always had a passion for traveling and experiencing different cultures, decided to take advantage of the opportunity to live in El Salvador.

Uhling said she had no doubt that this experience has benefited her as a teacher. “When I started Spanish classes I spoke very little and was relying on my teachers to make the content comprehensible although all of it was in Spanish,” Uhling said. She started to realize firsthand the importance of visuals, gestures, repetition and patience in the learning environment.

“I was aware of what my teacher did that helped me as well as what made the environment stressful or overwhelming,” Uhling said.

Not only is she growing as a teacher, her perspective is changing. “I am gaining perspective into the culture of El Salvador,” Uhling said. “I am seeing poverty and struggle that I have never seen before.” She is also seeing determination and collaboration in the face of diversity and she finds that inspiring.

The experience has been humbling for Uhling, because for someone who is fiercely independent, she is finding she has to rely on others much more than she is used to.

“I am a person who usually builds my identity on what I do or what I can accomplish, this environment has forced me to rely on others much more,” Uhling said.

She has had to ask for help and act as her own advocate when she finds she cannot do something on her own.

The biggest wake-up call came for her when she returned to the United States for a month during the Christmas holidays. “During my visit in the United States I had an experience that I felt I was discovering who I was all over again,” Uhling said. It was refreshing to speak English and to go places alone and not worry about her safety.

As she realized she was fitting back into her old life, she started to question why she was feeling and acting differently. “Am I the Michaela who is always running around a little stressed but full of purpose, or am I the Michaela who is learning to follow and being humbled by experiences out of her comfort zone?”

She came to the realization that she is both, but that she was also not satisfied with leaving the fun, happy, energetic, risk-taking self behind in the U.S.

After returning to El Salvador, Uhling said she consciously tried to show those parts of her personality and root her identity deeper than what she is doing and where she is.

During that process, her attention has been drawn to the vocabulary differences between English and Spanish and one word in particular caught her attention – Esperar – which means to wait, expect and hope.

“This was fascinating to me because although I can see how those three words are connected, they all have very distinct significance to me,” Uhling said.

After reflecting on what those words meant to her, she realized that she was waiting for things to happen to her. Even though she was in El Salvador, she was not totally immersing herself. She was speaking English to her boyfriend, she was listening to English music and she was reading in English.

When she returned to El Salvador, she realized that she was limiting her sense of identity and independence.

She decided she did not want Spanish to happen to her anymore – so her New Year’s resolution was to stop waiting and expecting and to start hoping.

Her plan includes to focus on what she can do and not on what others are or are not doing. To take humbling risks like starting conversations in Spanish. To smile more and ask more questions. “I am here to learn and I cannot expect that everyone is going to know when I don’t understand something and explain it,” Uhling said.

She also plans to seek opportunities to learn new things such as cooking, history, culture, customs and music.

Uhling said she wants to not only keep track of the things that are frustrating, but of the things that are going well – to see the silver lining, not just the cloud.

Michaela is teaching English classes to adults who have an interest in staying in El Salvador, rather than immigrating, and want to initiate positive social change in their country. The curriculum she uses is Popular Education which has grammar concepts that are connected to current social justice issues and current events.

Uhling plans to return to teaching elementary education in Sheridan in the fall.