DIDSBURY - It didn't take long after graduation for Sara Fast to develop a taste for travel. After graduating from Didsbury High School in 2015, Fast went across the pond to England where she did some travelling in Europe before working for a year and a half in the Isle of Wight.
After returning from overseas, it wasn't long before she got the itch to travel again. This time she will be travelling to El Salvador and teaching English to school-aged children there.
"My dad, Mark Fast, is a drywaller," she said. "He used to live here in Didsbury. He just moved to B.C. He goes down to El Salvador on a regular basis. He went down to build houses and made some friends. So he goes down to visit quite often. He took us down there on a holiday three years now. I really enjoyed it."
Fast said she asked her father's friend and translator, Patricia, whether there was anything she could do to help in El Salvador as well as "get a mini-vacation in the sun there, which is always nice."
"She said I could come down and teach English," she said. "I'm going on April 15 for two months. My dad is coming down for the first week for a tour and mini-holiday and then it's off to work."
Fast hasn't taught English before so she has been busy searching out different resources.
"I've been using Google, of course," she said. "I've been talking to some teachers around town and the ESL centre by the high school. They've been giving me lots of help. It's been really neat getting to learn all about it."
Fast said that she is grabbing a couple of local papers such as the Mountain View Gazette to help the kids learn.
"I've grabbed the papers so the kids can see something from an English-speaking country with a real, practical use," she said. "It's a fun activity for the kids to go through the paper and bolster their English and their reading skills by pointing out words they know and sentences they know."
Fast said that English is a very important resource in El Salvador and opens doors for young people allowing for job opportunities in many different industries. She will be teaching in three different communities: Barrio Concepcion, Nueva Esperanza and Valle Verde.
She is also collecting money to help purchase resources such as notebooks, pens, pencils and other classroom necessities. To donate visit her Go Fund Me page gofundme.com/73shg-teaching-english-in-el-salvador or email [email protected] to donate bottles and cans.
Fast also has a blog site for anyone wishing to read about her journey: ananglophoneabroad.wordpress.com.
