Drawing to an emotional close - Day 13 - Building a better working world in Shigar, Pakistan

Today was our final day teaching at Abruzzi School and our last day in Shigar, before heading to Islamabad early tomorrow morning. This trip has been a real roller-coaster of emotions but today was particularly hard. Walking back into the school made me realize what an impact we have had with these students in such a short space of time, seeing the excitement in their eyes...they knew today was going to be a big performance for many of them and something that they wouldn't have dreamed of doing a couple of weeks ago. 

One of our main objectives in the school was to instill confidence and aspiration in the students. We've used a range of highly interactive teaching methods to get the kids acting, singing, dancing and speaking in English. Although the school curriculum is taught in English, many of the students and some of the teachers didn't have the confidence to talk aloud in English. Today was going to be a test for all of us. I was a bit nervous to be honest. Seeing how challenging English was for many of the students, I was starting to worry that we were asking too much for them to perform a 2 hour event in front of the whole school, parents, teachers and community leaders.

I walked in to visit my classes that I had been working with yesterday and who would be performing the closing act of the show, 'Shigar Shigar' - a song that I wrote about the beautiful community we've been lucky to stay  in. My class is made up of 8th, 9th and 10th grade girls. When I left them last night, they had about 50% of the song prepared. It was clear when I arrived they were very excited and wanted to show me their hard work. They had obviously been practicing all evening because they did their dry-run performance and it was outstanding, they had even added actions for each line of the song and had got the performance spot on. I was so proud of them. Some of these girls wouldn't even talk individually with me when I first met them and now they are singing and acting a whole song in front of me!  

The school event took place outside the school, with the spectacular backdrop of snow capped mountains, I think it's definitely the best stage I've performed on! The event started with two boys singing a piece from the Koran and the Pakistan National Anthem. I was watching the faces of the parents in the audience, looking on in amazement at what was unfolding in front of them. We had a passionate welcome from the Principal of the school and our Managing Partner for Talent in EY who has joined us for the last few days. Both spoke passionately and from the heart about this experience and the important of education in the community. We also donated a new projector and laptops to the school to help them increase the digital content being used in the school. There are major challenges with internet connectivity but providing this will allow them to use more interactive content in teaching and introduce a new weekly movie afternoon where the students will watch a movie or documentary to both increase learning and English language skills.

The students performed exceptionally well and surpassed my expectations, any nerves disappeared almost instantly! They performed a play 'welcome to Shigar', a guided tour around the community, depicting the different things that make this place so special - the mountains, the produce, the people and the culture! It also allowed some of our team to show off their acting skills! 

One of the female teachers, Fatma, that we have been coaching and working with also came to talk on stage. Her words were incredibly powerful and once again, this made me realize the scale of impact we have had.

"we learnt a lot of things from them...I don't know how I am speaking, I don't know how I've built my confidence - it's absolutely the result of these 5 days spent with this team"

Here is our final picture with the whole school, community leaders and parents that have come to watch.

Walking out of the school gates for the last time was hard and I was close to tears. It suddenly hit me that this experience was coming to an end,  I won't be back with these kids for a while and I realized how much this has impacted me personally. It was topped off by two of the girls giving me a card that said  "We hope to see you again in our lives". They then walked with us the 3.5km back to the town centre and to our hotel! I'm already planning my return trip to see these guys!

My last walk through the community in the afternoon made me once again see the real beauty of this place. Not only the scenery but the incredibly warm and friendly people, smiles and waves from those who we've danced and sang with, played sports with, taught and met during our travels.

Our final evening trip was to have one last game of football, a final visit to the Principal's house to talk about how we ensure the connection we've made continues in the future and finally to meet some of the poorest women in the community. These women, many of whom have been widowed and left with children to care for alone, literally have the bare minimum in life and yet they are still some of the most contented people I've met. We donated 10 sewing machines to the younger women to help them produce clothes for their family to and to sell to other families in the community. The desire for more in life is often driven by external factors, but the true happiness for this community comes from within - from the connection and bond they have as a group of people.

One last look out the window before bed tonight as we will be leaving very early tomorrow morning to travel to Skardu and fly to Islamabad.

Day 1 update here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/day-1-update-building-better-working-world-shigar-my-alex-collins 

Day 2 update here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/day-2-update-building-better-working-world-shigar-trust-collins 

Day 3 update here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/integrating-community-day-3-update-building-better-working-collins 

Day 4 update here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/creating-memories-day-4-update-building-better-working-alex-collins 

Day 5 update here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/instilling-passion-day-5-update-building-better-working-collins 

Day 6 update here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/creative-imaginations-day-6-update-building-better-working-collins 

Day 7 update here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/bonding-together-day-7-update-building-better-working-alex-collins 

Day 8-10 update here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/time-explore-day-8-10-eid-update-building-better-working-collins

Day 11-12 update here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/snow-women-entrepreneurs-day-11-12-building-better-working-collins