livin'

"head & shoulders, knees & toes"

...Every Thursday myself, along with 4 other students and another DTS staff person go spend our afternoon volunteering with World Relief. There we help with english classes held for refugees to Seattle and the surrounding areas.

Now, let's be honest here: this is probably one of my most favourite things I do every week. I have a TREMENDOUS amount of admiration for these people. So much so, that some days, right then and there in the middle of saying "now...put your tongue between your teeth and kind of blow out....that'll make a T-H sound.....yep, you got it....no, not zzzzz....thhh....." a single tear almost squeezes it's way out of my eye because I start to think of all the things these people have gone through to get to Seattle. The people we teach are anywhere from my age to 65+ years old...and here they are trying to understand silent L's and K's...and the 50 different ways to pronounce vowels....GOSH! I just can't tell you how my heart literally feels like it might just burst on behalf of these people. THESE (in my humble opinion) are the people who deserve recognition in this world. And, they're also some of my favourite people just to hang out with.....they're always inviting us over to their homes to spoil us rotten and feed us till we're sick, and they have MUCH less than we do. Here they are, a family of 6 or so crammed into a small apartment complex. I mean, you may not have caught on (or perhaps you're sneaky and you have...) but I could go on and on about how amazed I am by their courage and what lovely people they are.

So today I was teaching a Russian man named Usup and I thought...I have to blog about this. I like to describe myself as the type of person who stumbles upon these moments of intense love or joy and I just have to share it! I have so many funny stories about our times teaching in the English class. Please, please ask me about them whenever you like!

Here is a picture of my friend, Rossim:
Here we were teaching them body parts. We had them write down the parts on sticky notes and stick them to eachothers bodies....it was quite the laugh....they were pretty good sports about singing "Head and shoulders, knees and toes" too. They did the actions and everything! I also found out that Americans have a completely different tune for that song, than we, Canadians. I was totally lost when I found myself singing a totally different tune than the rest.....

so next time you hear that song, think of a bunch of adults, laughing and giggling in embarrassment as they learn "eyes, ears, mouth & nose" in english....

much love to all xox

posted by Amanda @ 9:51 PM