Immigrant Women

"Last night, my friend Gwen and I attended an English Class for immigrant women that we are volunteering with. We had women from Korea, Libya and Iran. One of the volunteers is a university student from Japan. They are a wonderful group of women who are bravely learning to navigate not only a new country but a new language. They come from a variety of backgrounds but all are sincere in their efforts to learn and adapt to their new homeland.

Two of the women had their babies with them, one was teething and didn't want to leave mommy for the babysitter, the other is a beautiful little three month old girl. Maybe next week the babysitter will actually be able to take care of the children! She had a good time, meeting and talking with the ladies, even if she didn't fullfill her purpose for being there.

We worked on grammer, learning "will" and "would" and then we talked about what we had done during the summer. It was interesting hearing everyone's stories, expressed in different levels of english, but all completely understandable.

The highlight of the evening for me was when a Korean woman noticed the henna dyed fingertips of a woman from Libya. She got so excited and between the two of them they discovered women in both countries use henna and dye their nails the same way. They were so excited to have something in common. If all contact between people of different cultures could be so peaceful and and end with both peoples having discovered a common bond between themselves." I whisper.

Are you listening?