My time at my rural homestay in Ixtlilco El Grande was an experience with lots of emotions. In the beginning, I was very overwhelmed and sad because I couldn’t communicate with my host family at all. Then after the first day of being sick, I was excited and happy to be there. I was thrilled to see not only how we grew as a Social Work group, but also to experience all of the education we were going to get.

The local school that we visited

The visit I most enjoyed while in Ixtlilco was the schools. It was so interesting to see all the kids so eager to learn. It was intriguing to see and hear about the schools. The thing that struck me the most is that the students have between five and nine different courses in secondary and high school. In the United States you have a different teacher for every course you take, but here in Mexico they have the same teacher for every subject. Another interesting fact is that as the kids get older they are more likely to not continue their education. The current numbers in the school are: in primary education there are roughly 260 students; Secondary level has 150 and high school has 86 students. As you can see the numbers drop dramatically from primary to high school. Another thing that stood out to me is that yes, they are getting a good education, but their books are out of date. With this being said they are not getting the current education like the students in the States. The last thing that I loved is how welcoming they were of us. In the primary school they allowed us to sit in on class. In the secondary school, we were able to play soccer, jump rope and even try games they play in Mexico. In the high school we had the opportunity to learn all of the things they are doing to beautify their school like planting trees and flowers. The schools here are very different form the ones in the States.

We skipped ropes with students from the local high school

Ixtlilco is a beautiful place. It has that great community feeling. They were and will continue to be very welcoming to us as students. I’m glad I was able to visit a place so welcoming, loving and willing to help everyone. I wish that communities in the States were more like those in Ixtlilco.