Annabella Salas, Venezuela

"You have the opportunity to attend professional development sessions; learn sports such as caving, rafting, fishing, rock climbing and hiking; exploring historic places; savoring new flavors ... the list has no end."

Anabella Salas is a VIF teacher from Venezuela. She is an elementary Spanish teacher in the Prince Edward County Schools in Virginia. Here, she reflects on the journeys she's had and the lives she's touched.

VIF is a teaching experience? Well, yes, it's a teaching experience - and a life changing journey, and a new personal and professional adventure, and a new understanding of culture - the list goes on and on.

Your first year: You arrive in your new county. You stand there, one suitcase on each side and your misplaced heart somewhere in between your home country and the USA. That is when it finally hits you: you are in a completely different environment. Yet soon, everything gets better and better. As you meet people you realize that they want to be as helpful and make you feel welcome.

You meet your principal and fellow teachers and get ready to start your first class. Believe me, you'll have a lot of questions and get a lot of answers.

Yes, your country is far away, and you do not take a flight every evening to go home. In the U.S., you live in communities and use the same cars and listen to similar music as your U.S. counterparts.

Part of the reason you are here is that the majority of the students you teach have never had the chance to get out of their own towns and having you there widens their perspective of the world and its multiple cultures.

Your personal dimension is enhanced as well. You meet friends and engage in activities that never before crossed your mind. You have the opportunity to attend professional development sessions; learn sports such as caving, rafting, fishing, rock climbing and hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains; exploring historic places; going to bluegrass concerts; savoring new flavors ... the list has no end.

Now I am a few months away from having to leave a life that has provided so many great memories. But I am not leaving empty. I have faced and succeeded at challenges; I have made many dear friends and memories; and I am confident in the knowledge that I made a difference in the lives of my students, colleagues and friends lives - just as they certainly impacted mine.

Joining the VIF Program is an adventure I recommend to anybody who is willing to jump outside of their comfort zone to discover that we can share our world as we also journey into it.