Morgan Day
Homework in hand, Jakelin Marleny twirls around the courtyard of Colegio Angelitos de Dios after meeting her third-grade teacher for the first and only time this year. | Photo by Gina Miller
9-year-old Jakelin Marleney twirls across the open courtyard of Colegio Angelitos de Dios, waving her white homework packet through the air as she spins. Leaping and pirouetting across school grounds, she giggles while her 17-year-old brother Kevin watches with a smile on his face. Behind Jakelin’s cow-print medical mask, she smiles back.
Class is officially in session at Colegio Angelitos de Dios, but the new school year – beginning in January after a two-month break for coffee harvesting season – is anything but normal. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the elementary’s black iron gate entrance has remained closed for two years. Teachers come and go, dedicating hours each day to creating worksheets to deliver to students and drafting lessons to text to parents, but the seats in each classroom remain empty.
Despite opening for meet-the-teacher Jan. 17, the Ministry of Education in Guatemala prohibits Jakelin’s school from returning to in-person learning due to Santa María de Jesus’ low vaccination rate. Students will continue to pick up their homework once a week and attend school for an hour via Google Meet. Those without internet access will continue to receive their lessons via WhatsApp text messages, as they have been doing for the past two years.
Despite this, Jakelin dances.
She dances because she gets to meet her third-grade teacher for the first time. She dances because the sun is shining. She dances because she gets to work on a reading and writing packet.
She dances because she simply cannot contain her excitement about learning.
Two hours prior to this interaction, I received an email with my syllabus for ENL202, British Literature II. I rolled my eyes as I thought about the assignments and exams awaiting my return to Minnesota. Excitement to learn was the last thing on my mind. If I’m being honest, I haven’t been excited to learn for a long time.
“I only have to deal with this for one more semester,” I thought to myself.
My classes are in person. I have all of the materials I need to successfully complete them. After this semester, I will have graduated from university debt-free.
Jakelin’s parents work dawn to dusk to afford to send her and Kevin to school. Jakelin attends school via Google Meet for one hour a week. Jakelin relies on Kevin to help guide her through arithmetic and social studies.
Despite this, Jakelin dances.
When classes went online in March 2020, I had a safe place to live. I had internet access. I had the opportunity to further my education amidst the chaos and uncertainty the world was facing.
The students of Colegio Angelitos de Dios did not have this same luxury.
While I am experiencing pandemic-induced online-learning-burnout on my MacBook Air from the comfort of my apartment, the students of Colegio Angelitos de Dios are experiencing the same burnout from weekly lessons sent via WhatsApp text messages. As I am using my university-sponsored study abroad experience to explore a new country to create a magazine, Jakelin dreams of becoming an explorer — of seeing the world outside of Santa María de Jesus. As I prepare for my final semester of university, dreading the assignments and exams that await me, Jakelin Marleney proudly displays her homework to everyone she meets.
As I think of Jakelin dancing, of the joy radiating behind her mask as she presented her homework to me, I cannot help but think that I want to actively choose to be more like her. I want to experience the same joy, the same gratitude, the same excitement for learning she has.
I want to dance.