Welcoming the Stranger
I wish I would have read it two years ago when we were getting ready to welcome eleven people seeking refuge from the Congo and Tanzania.
I learned so much. I laughed and I cried.
I thought about all of the requirements that I had as the coordinator of the furnishings department. Some of them seemed silly then. Many more of them seem silly now.
We worried so much about how much our new friends would understand about life in America.
But, look, here is what we should have been worrying about:
"As a newcomer, one could never tell what Americans were going to understand and what they would not understand--sometimes they did not know anything at all about matters one considered fundamental." (p. 307)
Comments
xx, Carol
Library Journal sent me the audio to review. I enjoyed it tremendously. I learned so much about immigrants and about the social service personnel who work with them -- and the dedication and creativity of the ELL teachers.