Ready and waiting to help, they were an interesting mix of locals and expatriates from all over the world. We had frequent power outages, making teaching computers challenging. I used pantomime to teach my beginning English as a second language classes. Think of New York City and how different it is from rural Montana. The same is true overseas.
Every place is very different from the other places, but it is always fun and exciting.
In the Philippines, I learned that kids will be kids no matter where you are. Teaching, learning, testing, and sharing is fundamentally the same no matter where you live. Students came and went constantly, but I never got used to the gifts they gave. Things like that just didn't happen to me stateside. It was nice being in a place where teachers were valued.