Mexico next on road to adventure

I was sitting in Candace Austin’s office at Literacy Volunteers last August when she first convinced me to go to Morelia, Mexico, with her to teach English.

During an hour we spoke about what we wanted to do: Make cross-cultural connections, build on the ties between Maine and the small towns of the Mexican highlands, and help people – friends and neighbors of Mexican families we already knew in Maine – develop the English skills they needed to secure better employment in their capital city of Morelia.

“You’ll get your TESOL [Teaching English as a Second or Other Language] certificate at the University of Maine when you come back from fixing snowmobiles in Antarctica,” Candace said. “Then we’ll head down to Morelia, and start up a temporary English school!”

“It’s a plan,” I said. It wasn’t until I was a good 45 minutes away from her office and out of Candace’s infectious force-field of capability and enthusiasm that I realized I had no idea what I was getting into. I had very little teaching experience, I had never been to Mexico and I had not spoken Spanish in a year.

“Well now,” I said to myself. “This will be exciting.”

I have a theory about the best way to get into an adventure. The trick is simply not to think about it until you’re already well on your way. It’s like jumping into the lake when you don’t know how cold the water is. You run straight for the end of the dock, and then leap – and only in those two or three long, lingering seconds between when your feet have left the dock and when you hit the water do you let yourself consider whether or not you actually feel brave enough to jump. “Well now,” I always think to myself in those instants. “This will be exciting.”

And so I’m off on another adventure, this one to warmer climes. I have a full backpack, a one-way plane ticket to Mexico, and a plan that centers on the growing friendships between Maine and my destination: Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico.

Morelia is a colonial city in the Mexican highlands in the state of Michoacan. For years, families from around Morelia have come to Maine to work as agricultural laborers, helping with our forests and harvests. The exchange of labor has naturally led to the exchange of culture, and many friendships have formed.

This summer, eight Mainers will take that exchange one step further, by going south to Michoacan to teach English and to experience Mexican culture.

Candace first went to Morelia to try out a “temporary English language school” in 2006. “We hoped to find young adults who wanted to improve their English in order to improve their employability in Morelia,” says Candace. “Lessons were free with the expectation that each Morelian family would help tutors with their Spanish language improvement.”

This grass-roots concept for an English language school is based in every way upon equal interchange. Juan Carlos and Betty Valencia Orozco, Morelian natives and students at the University of Maine, volunteered their home in Morelia as a base for the ESL team. They, in turn, have stayed at Candace’s home in Old Town.

From the Valencia home in Morelia, word of mouth and accessibility do the rest: students looking for English skills introduce themselves to tutors and one-to-one tutoring sessions are held. Mexican students gain skills in English, the tutors gain a better understanding of Mexican culture, and in the process everyone develops rewarding friendships.

This year a half-dozen other tutors and I will be in Mexico from the last weeks of June until August.

I will travel alone from Bangor to Boston, to Dallas, to Mexico City, where I will catch a bus to the city of Morelia. I beg Morelian natives for advice on what to pack. “Don’t forget to try the chiles rellenos when you get there,” one Mexican teenager urged me when I told her I soon would be going to her home state. “You just can’t make it the same way here in Maine.”

I can’t wait to try them. Just days after becoming a certified ESL teacher, armed only with my somewhat rusty Spanish, sturdy shoes, and a fresh stack of notebooks and pens, I’m setting off: jumping straight into the unknown waters of the next adventure. Mexico, here we come.

Meg Adams, who grew up in Holden and graduated from John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor, shares her experiences with readers each Friday. For more about her adventures and to e-mail questions to her, go to the BDN Web site: bangordailynews.com.