Our lovely teacher Mister Brandon Figaroa!

by Olav Vroegop

We have many teachers working at Schakel College. However, there is only ONE Papiamento teacher who is in charge of all the lower-level classes. You already know his name… It’s mister Brandon Figaroa. He is the best teacher ever. Everybody knows him and if you don’t….. you’ve been living under a rock.

I’m not sure everybody knows this, but he became a teacher because he loves languages. As Papiamento was his first language at home, he decided to teach the language he knew best. Papiamento is an interesting and beautiful language. The amazing thing is that the language is a mix of other languages and if you don’t know a word in Papiamento, you just use a Dutch, English, Spanish, or Portuguese word. Also, it sounds happy and the grammar is easy and understandable for everyone.  

Brandon is a busy teacher. He works at the much larger Colegio Arubano in Oranjestad, too. There he is not the only one teaching Papiamento. At Colegio, he teaches upper level classes as well.  With his presence at both schools, he is teaching almost every age and school level Papiamento. Colegio Arubano also happens to be the school where Brandon received his VWO-Highschool-diploma. It’s probably a great feeling to return as a teacher where you created so many memories. 

All the students in class 1C can tell great stories about Brandon. He is always polite and fair. In his lessons, he provides a good atmosphere. Sometimes he could tell us some more jokes or personal great stories. But, in general, he is really open and nice to us. Not only teaching us his mother language, but he also shares his experiences about the culture and facts of Aruba. For us he is a great teacher in every way. Actually, he should be nominated as teacher of the year!