My Journey at its End

I am currently finished with volunteering at the World Relief and to some surprise, it was actually more fun than I had imagined. Don't get me wrong, it was very tough at times trying to figure out ways to communicate with them, especially because the only words they really knew to begin with were: "hi" and "bye". There were moments where my patience was tested, but I knew that I had to stay calm, continue to be understanding, help as much as I possibly could, and maintain my positivity. After all, I needed to be a good role model to them and a great representative of the American culture. 

Over time, the refugee family did improve with their semantic language because their vocabulary skills were gradually getting better; I could see improvements when they would match certain words to their meanings. Also, a pattern that I noticed was they would all work together to try and understand us and answer our questions: this is an example of collectivism. 

Now that I look back and reflect, I realize that the family was beginning to develop a bond with us and start to trust us, instead of us being weird strangers that were coming into their home, we were now known as friends that they could at least trust more. I could especially tell that the little boy was forming a friendship with me because he was always seated right by my side and enjoyed learning all we had to offer. On the last day, as we were leaving, I had to figure out how to break the news to them that my partner and I were no longer coming back- this was our final time. They seemed really sad, as was I, as they gave me a final hug good-bye. They thanked us multiple times and seemed to be so appreciative of the help we gave them over the 12 hours that we spent together. I was touched when I noticed how much I had positively impacted them. This was a job well-done in the life of Laura Bush!

As I have mentioned before, this experience has taught me to have much patience with people, especially with people that are non-English speaking. It has taught me numerous ways to communicate both verbally and non-verbally with people from across the country.