Final Reflection!

Saving Hearts!

     The Southern Utah University gave all students the assignment to create an EDGE-project, which is an experiential learning requirement to graduate. This experience is important for after graduation. When applying for jobs, it shows that we have life experience that benefitted our life skills, whether it was learning to work with others or planning, organizing, following through with something, and helping out the community, contributing, giving back to society or communicating.

      EDGE means that we have an edge on everything else around us when applying for jobs. It makes us stand out from all the other applicants, which is important nowadays because society is so competitive. Many people have a bachelor degree in this day and age, or so it seems. That’s why there need to be other factors or experiences on someone’s resume in order to look more impressive to your new employer, which is why this program gives you something extra that no one else has.

     In May 2014, I undertook a journey to the Central American continent with my husband, Vincent Noot. One of the reasons for doing so was to have a similar experience to that of my husband’s. His adventure was a 6 month trip to the exotic country of Thailand. There, he taught English and art to a group of children who were at risk of being trafficked into child prostitution. He also painted their walls in the library. Another reason I wanted to do this, was that I had a desire to improve my Spanish and learn more about the Latin-American culture. I also felt empathy for the victims of such a horrific worldwide issue, and felt the need to help out a little.

     In order to help out in the same way, I contacted organizations in Central America which helped girls that had been involved in child prostitution. Salvando Corazones was the only one who responded with enthusiasm. Maria, the head of the organization, directed us to come between May and July, 2014. Our purpose was to teach English and art to the girls at the center. There were 5 girls in total. They were between the ages of 10 and 18 years old.

     Our expectations were that we would have more time to teach English and art to the girls, but they had other studies that were so important to the organization and teacher that we did not have much time left to teach them a lot. Although we did teach a considerable amount of time, it was not nearly as much as we planned or aspired to do. Therefore, we filled our time with painting the walls of their living quarters and personal spaces at the safe house. In this way, we did not meet our original expectations but exceeded theirs by the initiatives we took through creating a better atmosphere for future girls that would come to the home. Another unexpected problem that came our way, was that the transportation was terrible, nearly non-existent. The bus that stopped near the center was unreliable and came every 2 or 3 hours, so most times we walked for more than an hour through hills and valleys in the rainy jungle climate. This added to our determination and reminded us why we were there.

     Because of the circumstances at the safe house, we discovered that it was more difficult to teach English than I thought it would be. The reason for this is that I thought the girls would have a basic knowledge and understanding of the English language before we went there, yet they did not know much English at all. Therefore, one of the skills I learned was how to break down English into basics and explain it all in Spanish, which was not always easy. Of course, I upgraded my Spanish language skills as well, since I had to speak it constantly. Most of the staff spoke little or no English. I also learned that I have a talent for painting walls. It took a lot of precise planning, outlining, designing, color mixing and patience. We approximately painted 20 murals, which took a little more than 4 hours each, which added up to 80 or more hours of painting.

     All in all, our adventurous journey to Tilaran, Costa Rica, was a success and an amazing experience. We made good friends, we had fun, we worked hard, we experienced challenges and we learned more about the Tica culture and language. Even though we had many good memories in Costa Rica, it was nice to fly back to home sweet home.