Have I mentioned how in love I am with the newly-forming MicroLending Program at Spero:Voice? I’m sure I have a time or two. Here’s an example of why. Monday night was a class mean to help finalize a few ideas for some of the ladies who have been working towards a specific crafting project for a while. But, as always, things were just a little different than I planned! Two ladies who were new to the MicroLending Program came–two ladies who are also quite new to the English language!
SOOO, we tweaked a bit and the “veterans” helped teach the new ladies about embroidery. Here’s the kicker: I was there–I speak English. Manzura was there–she speaks Russian. Lah Nu was there–Chin is her language (from Burma). Fatima was there–speaking Arabic. And, Anna was there–Swahili is her mode of communication. You can imagine how easily we were able to teach each other!
But, it turned into the most fun I’ve had in Spero:Voice in a very long time. We were laughing with each other, sometimes laughing AT each other, and mostly laughing at the fact that we had no idea what anyone else in the room was saying. We did get a little language lesson in. We all learned that I thought Lah Nu and Anna were the “sassy” ones of the bunch and then took turns walking “sassy”-like to demonstrate what I meant. You would have thought we were a room full of 5-year-old girls they way we were laughing!
And it just made me remember again that we all just want to live well and love others, whatever language we speak and whatever we’ve been through in life. What fun to get to be one of their new friends when they arrive so we can work together towards living our dreams!
