Thoughts From Places - Louisville

It is our fourth day here in Louisville.

Today we were fortunate enough to be able to make a small difference in the lives of people that we do not know or understand and who we will most likely never see again. Yet even though our contact with these people is fleeting there is a sense of transcendence in the entire experience, the feeling of something greater. We often do not stop to reflect or care to realize how our experiences not only affect us, but affect others until long after we have had them. The Karen family we helped receive today will not remember our names in the coming months, neither will the students in the ESL program. They might not remember our faces or that were from Virginia Tech, but that’s not the point. Whether or not we are remembered and whether or not we remember is not what we came here to do. What matters is that we were here and we had a part in the lives of the people we met. True meaning lies in that brief moment when we see the glint in the eye of a student when they get a word right, or the quiet contentment on the face of a refugee family who after 17 years in a camp has found their sanctuary. It is not tangible because to fully grasp something is to marginalize it in that we focus on the how and why when the what is what counts. The fact remains that what we did today was to affect someone else’s life in a positive way and whatever the motivation all that counts is the action itself. 

- Matt

Wednesday. Hump day, as some people like to call it. And this week, it truly lived up to its name. Today was quite possibly the busiest we've had yet, and if you've been keeping up with us this week, you know that's saying a lot. If you haven't, STOP READING, like right now, (well, OK, read to the end of this sentence) and go back and read this week's posts! See? Aren't you glad I made you do that? I have the privilege of being on this trip with so many amazing people who have a lot to say and I think they do so beautifully.

Lar Htaw, 7, after a few insane minutes in Louisville

But back to today, or at least today-ish. We've been working for two days in an apartment not that much bigger than most in Blacksburg to turn it from a grimy, slightly run down space into a place a family of six can call home. Finally, tonight we had the rare opportunity to greet this family as they got off the plane from over 24 hours worth of traveling with four stops in airports around the world. Oh, and four kids under eleven. Our group, along with two other colleges here in Louisville over Spring Break and some family already settled here, formed a massive thirty-some odd horde of a welcoming committee. I'm pretty sure there we even attracted a few people just wandering the airport. Seeing the looks on the faces of that family as they were just enveloped in a mass of pure love and welcoming was about the most fulfilling it gets. Once we got to the apartment, each member of group seemed to have one aspect of the apartment that they sort of owned, whether it be a toy or the set up of a room or something else. And each person watched nervously as the family explored their new home, discovering each of these little surprises, and was rewarded when they noticed it, pointing it out to the interpreter.

My New Dream Vacation

After working with the ESL and these new refugees all day, I realized just how much I take advantage of the fact we all know and speak English very well. I spent one class in a room of Cuban refugees, attempting to teach them English needed to survive here in the US. I also found out just how far four years of Spanish can get you with native speakers. It just so happens, that is practically nowhere. But somehow, through a lot of speaking with our hands and picture drawing we got the point across. There was one man there that described to us his home, in Holguin, Cuba, and I definitely have a new vacation spot if I ever get the chance. I can see where the life that filled that room comes from, from a place even he described as paradise, full of crystal-clear blue water, white sands, and the bluest skies. And in that moment, I had all the vacation for this break I could need. I closed my eyes and imagined this amazing place and I was there, and it was paradise. Who could want more than that for their Spring Break?

One final thing I noticed on this break is a belly laugh works in all languages. I got the chance to work in the toddler room. At first, I was a little worried. All of the kids just sort of sat and stared off, unwilling to speak or even do anything more than shake their head to any of the volunteers. But after a few minutes, as they were filling in their coloring pages and reciting their ABC's, they began to warm up laughing and playing like any kid the world over. I'm pretty sure I had an entire feast and tea party understood maybe one word, but the love and sharing was there and it was as if I was at home, playing with any of my cousins. A girl from Sri Lanka and another from Somalia were best friends and neither spoke much English, let alone the other's language. And tonight, after giving the only little girl of the family, who was only four years old, the Cabbage Patch Doll I had picked out in the distribution center just for her, I had my beyond language moment. She looked straight at me and rattled off a string of words I had no hope of understanding with no translator in sight. I will probably never know what it is she said, but the feeling was there, and that was love. It is obvious that the belly laugh and a smile knows language, because where there is laughter, there is love. And that is true whether in a refugee camp or a van full of college students barreling down the highway blaring "The Circle of Life."  
-Emily