Literature discussions are among my favorite kind. They are right up there with discussions of good food, and good friends. So perhaps I don't even need to mention that I enjoyed this Monday's class. The book covers many stories of refuges that moved to Lincoln, Nebraska to escape persecution from their home country. Some came to America dreaming that life would be perfect upon arrival, but they soon realized that life in America was a hard adjustment. In our class we bounced around our feelings on the treatment of refuges in their old country, and how we would relate or not relate to those situations. We talked about our families and our shared our own stories. The room felt understand and kind the whole night.
My own experience with teaching Somali's English gave me a greater appreciation for this book and our class discussion. I don't know what those people went through before coming to America, and I really don't know how hard of an adjustment it was for them to make. I only see them for two hours a week, but in those two hours I see many of the attributes that Mary Pipher talks about in her book.
I believe that reading and discussing this book had equipped me with compassion. I have a greater will to talk to those I don't know and offer my help. I find myself often checking my life plans to see if I wouldn't rather teach English as a second Language. The stories that I read will stick with me for a long time, and I will share them with others. I never knew how much people were suffering. It astonishes me that this happens in the same world I live so comfortably in. Mary Pipher has inspired me to do more.
