Am I qualified?
Two years of intensive and relationally-driven Bambara language studies and I still ask this question... am I really qualified to be a literacy teacher?
I still stumble through the most basic phrases after a long stint of only speaking Bambara or French. I start to forget words even in English...
The life of a multi-lingual person... we start to ask ourselves, "Am a fluent in any language? Even in my heart language?"
Just this week I forgot the word "tambourin" in English! "It's an instrument ... you know? It makes bell-like noises... What is it again!?!?" Thanks to social media, I know I am not alone in this conundrum. Like many other TCKs, this is totally normal, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating... It does make me more emphatic in the literacy journey. I remember struggling to communicate when I first learned French. I was so nervous to make a mistake… or rather mistakes.
I started with a new student this month. Thanks to my language partner, I know can run through the whole alphabet in Bambara. I think my favorite letter to pronounce is “ɔ” which is not actually found in the English alphabet. I think the closest way I can explain how to say is when we see a cute baby, we say “awwww”, right? If you drop your mouth/throat even further while saying “awwww” that is how you say that letter. What I love most about teaching her is using old games that I played to learn Bambara – both listening and visual. I am going to miss our weekly lessons when I come back to the States next month.
Let me tell you a little about her and how her story makes me excited for future ministry doors.
Living in this country, both local and international families have househelpers. With the amount of dust and heat here, it is so necessary to have someone help you maintain your home. I left for a month during Christmas time and was aghast at the amount of dust that was found in my bathroom coming back. It was like I hadn’t been there for years! Many of them though are not literate and I found this to be very sad. These girls are normally asked by their parents to help cover costs/needs the family has so they are not able to go to school. I jumped at the chance when my househelper showed interest in learning to read and write. We have had lessons now for over a year. I am so proud of her progress! Our past lessons have focused on reading the gospels and some trauma healing resources I accquired in Bambara. The director of the school that I teach at once a week also was looking for someone to teach her househelper to read and write. Sometimes it takes a lot of explaining to allow the employer to let them come. They fear it will take away from their work that needs to be done. This is why late afternoons/evenings are the best time to come and teach. I am becoming very passionate about informal learning environments for ladies like my new student. We meet once a week in the afternoon before she prepares the evening meal.
Just recently, I met a local informal environment teacher who is invested in teaching literacy to househelpers. She showed me all these new cool resources that I can use. I am hoping to even spend some training time with her as she has so much more experience than me. I think with her help, I can feel more qualified as a literacy teacher. The learning is never over!
Even though my time with GoCorps is soon coming to an end, I am so grateful for these two years! They have given me the freedom to network and reach out to people involved in ministry I am passionate about and in what God is calling me. I know most people think of a vision trip as two weeks, but I see it differently. I think these past two years have merely helped me scratch the surface of the cultural, religious and contextualized aspects of serving here. It has given me the time to develop trust with key partners in ways I could never be able do in two weeks. I pray that God would continue to use these contacts to further his Kingdom when I come back!
