As a child, I was joyous. I loved catching tadpoles in the steamy alleys of Georgetown, Guyana, climbing to the top of mango trees and riding my bicycle with friends. With play also came learning; how to set up a classroom, whilst playing school, cook on an open fire and eating shaved ice with syrup on hot Saturday afternoons.
Once my teens rolled around, I moved to the UK to continue my secondary education and later attend the University of London, Goldsmith’s College, to study pedagogy.
During my early professional career, my love of teaching was combined with the fervent political environment of the late 1970s in the UK. My first school was located in one of the most deprived areas in the East End of London. I also became very active in OWAAD (Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent), the United Black Women’s Action Group (UBWAG) in the London Borough of Haringey, and in my local community before finally leaving for Ecuador to do volunteer work in the early 1980s.
There I worked with various development organisations in Quito and with campesino groups along the coastal provinces of Guayas and Manabí. The job involved supporting the empowerment of rural women, children and men through sustainable education projects, self-help women’s health projects, community action and cultural preservation.
In the mid-1980s, I took a leap of faith, making the bold decision to relocate with my then young family to Chile during the last five years of the Pinochet dictatorship. It was a tough start, but it paved the way to a fascinating and rewarding career spanning over three decades in international schools in Santiago, Lomé, Havana, Quito, Luxembourg and now in Mbabane, eSwatini where I head Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa as the first person of colour and woman to lead WK in its almost 60 years of existence.
I also hold a MA in English as an Additional Language for Young Learners from Warwick University and a MEd in Practice Based Educational Research and have recently been awarded a doctoral degree in Education from the University of Exeter.
I enjoy writing whenever I can. I love to cook with my grandson and to wash dishes; always by hand! I am the proud owner of a small library of educational authors and thinkers from all over the world. I am deeply rooted in international school leadership with a passion for teaching young and old, a proud mother, black feminist and enthusiastic dancer.
Patricia Angoy 