Shared lessons

Near the end of the interviewing for the knitting project a woman came to collect six of us. We followed her a few buildings over to a school where we were going to read to children.

We entered a building consisting of couple rooms filled with art supplies, books and games and children everywhere. Do you speak English? She asked the kids. She repeated the question in Arabic. Few knew more than a few basic words, the alphabet and how to count to 10.

I went in part because I had the video camera, which is always a good combo with kids. However, I had no intention of standing in the background the whole time. After filming for a few minutes I sat down with a few girls and we said our names in Araglish.

By means of introduction I put the video camera in one girl’s hands. At first she would hardly hold it, she looked at me questioningly, I tucked her small hand into the strap and showed her “on,” and “off.” A few minutes later they were all arguing over it in Arabic. I put it away in my bag and Grace and I, who were working in a room together, moved on to seeing how much English they knew. The “reading,” we did was pointing to words and saying them in English and Arabic if we knew them.

The children were all cooperative and eager to learn. They taught me words in Arabic, tried to understand and correct my mistakes and repeated words in English. I definitely learned as much as they did….

Toward the end I asked the women, who spoke excellent English, how the program is funded and who the kids are. She grimaced at the funding question, saying getting sponsors and funds is always rough. As for the children, they all live in the neighborhood and can sign up for particular programs at the school or just come in during free periods.

Different kids come each day.

Despite, things were being accomplished here. Framed artwork by the children was everywhere and a mural of a حصان, which the children knew means “horse” in English, covered an entire wall.

We’ve been told people in these communities only see people who look and dress like us on TV. From the way people of all ages, especially kids, surround and wave and run to our vans it could be true.

Whatever the significance of our presence to the children, they were open minded and eager to learn and teach.

We taught them songs like, “Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes,” and “The Hokey Pokey,” They taught Grace and I a game where you close your eyes, yell in Arabic and spin around in circles. The girls kissed and hugged us when we left.

I’m going back on Sunday.

While this type of unsustainable project is not what our service learning was meant to be, it feels worthwhile. If we make connections with a couple children, if they learn a little English and want to know more, if we are pushed farther from our western bubble, we are changed and they are too. I believe in ripples….