Tani waa kuu muhiim adiga. Fadlan aqri.
Ogeysiis! Importante para Usted, por favor léalo. Please read!
Announcements brought to you by Cultural Bridges of St. Joseph, a committee of Central Minnesota Community Empowerment Organization. We are dedicated to ease your transition into our community.
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by Juliana Howard
It was the first day of ESL classes at our new location. We had previously been meeting at the Spirituality Center on the grounds of St. Benedict’s Monastery – a spacious classroom with lots of windows overlooking the beautiful college campus. Now we found ourselves in a small windowless room in the St. Joseph Community Center. No more sun streaming in, no more smiling Sister greeting us from behind the reception desk. This was going to take some getting used to for both student and tutor alike. And to make it even harder, the door always remained locked. Tardiness meant no entry!
That first morning, I swallowed my misgivings, and volunteered to be the doorkeeper. Maama Liin and I sat at a small table in the hallway where we could let the latecomers in while working on her English. As we sat there adjusting to our new surroundings and each other, keeping one eye on the locked door, around the corner came a bevy of toddlers marching behind their caregiver to the water fountain.They looked at us, and we beamed back at them. Our hearts could not help but be touched by this sweet and surprising parade of angels who attend Little Saints Academy, also housed in the Community Center building.
This parade of little saints continued on and off during the morning, each time delighting and reminding us of our own mothering days. Maama Liin is a grandmother and I, a great-grandmother. Though we had no interaction with the children besides a wave or smile, our spirits were lifted in a way that is hard to explain in words and suddenly we were very happy to be at the Community Center enjoying our mutual love of children, building community and becoming friends.
At the end of class, Maama looked me in the eyes and said, I Liin. You Juliana. We same. Liin is from Somalia. I am from Minnesota. Different cultures, different religions, different skin color, different dress. But, as Liin so poignantly pointed out, same. Those little saints helped to bring that message home that first morning in our new location in the St. Joseph Community Center. This song, written more than 30 years ago, still rings true, still needs to be believed:
We’re swimming in the same soup, you and me.
I am a carrot. You are a pea.
You are round and I am square.
We’re swimming in the same soup, we don’t care. Carrots add the color. Peppers add the pep.
Onions roll around the bottom, getting us all wet.
Celery does the side-stroke. Cabbage does the crawl.
Everybody’s swimming and there’s room for all! We’re swimming in the same soup, you and me.
Pea loves the carrot. Carrot loves the pea.
Love surrounds us just like air.
We’re swimming in the same soup, we don’t care!
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If you have any questions, please contact Juliana Howard at 715-791-8976 or Jamal Elmi at 320-310-2351.
ESL class (from left to right) Omar Hassan; Liin Guire; Regina Reese, ESL teacher; Fatuma Ahmed; Fataum Morgan; Barry Adan; and Daud Said.
