It’s not an easy thing
I’ve been working on this role for about two months now. There are times that I feel people are so vulnerable and brave at the same time. Deep in my heart, I always have a dream to work in different countries, being that person who is from a different background. Hence, when I interact with these foreign teachers, I feel like I’m also fulfilling part of my dream. Although it’s not me working in another country actually, I still feel that sense of warm pleasure flowing through my mind. I mean, that’s probably why sometimes I don’t really feel any disturbance if they bother me after work.
Brenda was my first teacher to work with after I got a hand on this position. She has a nice, outgoing personality. This was quite a lot of relief for me as it was the first time I tried to be a coordinator for true. That day, we were going to open her bank account but my google navigator was totally messed up. We were riding the scooter and I literally asked her for help to tell me which way I should go because I had no phone holder on my scooter. Although we were super near by the telecom store, both of our navigator system couldn’t work. We got exactly lost in downtown Zhongli. It was hilarious but you got to believe it that we were walking down the same street back and forth over and over just to find a telecom store. Brenda was all confused, she didn’t know what was going on. We looked at each other and laughed, then still walking back and forth on the street trying to find the right direction. It was a good day. I was glad to meet this polite and humorous friend who was the very first teacher I worked with.
About a month later, my second teacher arrived. Karla was not so outgoing as Brenda, she’s a little bit shy. She hit me with the impression that I felt like I was an Uber driver or some kind of personal private concierge. From the very first moment, she hopped into the car and sat in the back seat. I told her it was okay to sit in the front but she wouldn’t. I realized that she’s very shy and sitting next to me would make her really nervous. She actually sat in the back seat for the whole day, no matter where we went. And to be honest, my driving skill was not good enough for me to share my attention with her.
After about a month, when I asked her about this, she told me it was very impolite to sit at the front seat of a guy’s vehicle because that is always the priority seat for the girlfriend only. Anyway, we went to the two schools she’s about to work with, which were in the middle of the mountain. After fulfilling every mission that needed to be done on that day, both of us were exhausted. Then it came the time to say goodbye. I hopped in my car and I tried to figure out my speaker to get some chill music along the way. But I saw her standing there and didn’t walk back to her apartment. She didn’t leave until my car left. I suddenly felt a kind of sorrow struck my entire body. The feeling of emptiness stuck deep in my left chest and I barely found a word to describe it. Neither did I say or do anything, I just watched her pacing slightly towards her apartment while I was setting up my google map. I knew she had been through a lot as her first time traveling abroad this far. Even though working in a different country for the first time might brought her a lot of excitement, and I could tell that she was trying to stay positive the whole day.
But I know there is still a long way to go.
Living by yourself, facing the uncertainty or just simple as that, your empty home, sometimes these all stop us exploring the world on our own. These teachers are brave, but as humans we are all fragile most of the time. I’m happy for them that they choose to work in another country and explore the world. As for me, I’m glad that I was there participating in their story. Last things last, they really give me inspiration on one thing, “Never Stop Exploring.”
Shared by Coordinator Ian
