Michael: It's a Small World and That's a Shame

Shadows from the sun
Spin from the nylon webs dangling
Above the women.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Last December while we were at the Friday Market a woman approached me and asked if I’d like to volunteer to teach English to Panamanian adults.
She must’ve heard it through the grapevine that I was a retired teacher.

No problem, I said. And I honestly kind of meant it.

School would start up again in March and she’d contact me sometime before that to meet the head of the program who would let me know how I’d help out.

But I never heard back from her and I never pressed anyone to find out what happened.

Why?

It’s not that I don’t want to volunteer, or think I’d do a lousy job, but during my 25 years of teaching I often didn’t sleep very well and had performance anxiety every morning before the bell rang.

And it only got worse in front of adults. To test those waters Kimme and I joined the Westside Toastmasters at the encouragement of a trail running friend. Three times I gave speeches before we moved to Panama and every time I was sweating bullets and can barely remember what happened between the time I was called up to talk to the moment I somehow managed to find my way back to my seat.

This is where Kimme and it being a small world comes in.

Now that Kimme has her sewing machines here, she wanted to go to the sewing school and talk to them to see who they call to get sewing machines set up. She also wants to volunteer there. She feels it would not only allow her to contribute to the community, but that having a personal interest in learning Spanish would motivate her to learn the language.

At the sewing machine school, you’ll never guess who she ran into? No, not Carly Fiorina, but the lady who asked if I’d like to volunteer to teach. She told Kimme that the woman who runs the program never contacted her, but that she’ll run by there sometime this week to see if it’s still up and running and if they’re still looking for volunteers.

So my opportunity to teach again may still be in the works. I figure I retired 5 years early so I’m due for 5 years of volunteer purgatory. And who knows, maybe the anxiety will have gone and I’ll actually look forward to both helping out and learning from some of the adults here about this place, their lives, and a bit of Spanish to boot.