Ana

Ana is a 44-year old woman from El Salvador.  Since the end of January, I have spent a few hours each week with her in her home.  We talk, we laugh, we cry.  We have become friends.

One of my goals for retirement, established long before the actual retirement date, was to do some volunteer work.  Last fall an article appeared in the newspaper about the ESL In-Home Volunteer Tutoring Program.  Since literacy was high on my wish list, I called the coordinator, attended a training session in November, and was assigned to Ana in January.

Our first meeting was a joy.  She and her family were so excited about my visit.  It was a humbling experience to be so important to someone.  She lives about two miles away with her husband, her son (13) and her daughter (16).

Ana has been in this country for about 20 years.  Part of her journey to get here was with 19 other people squeezed into the hidden bed of a truck.  Her story of coming to the USA was the one we’ve read about and seen in movies.  She came so that she could find work that would allow her to send money back home.  She was alone and she spoke no English.

She is,  however, intelligent and industrious.  Over the past 20 years, she has taught herself English through television and newspapers, etc.  She has had no practice in her home, however, because she and her husband agreed to speak only Spanish so that the children would be bilingual.  She has done quite well, but wants to speak better, mostly because of her job.  She is an assistant supervisor in the food service at a nearby high school.  She is often embarrassed (a word she has trouble pronouncing — something we work on) at work when she cannot make herself understood, and feels that she is resented by co-workers because she was promoted even though her English isn’t as good as theirs.

As I spend time with this woman and hear about her struggles, I find that I want to take care of her and her family and iron out all of her problems — much the same feeling that I have had throughout my life for various friends and family members.  I have to remind myself to stay back and just be supportive.  For example, her supervisor at work arranged a birthday party lunch at a local restaurant for six  birthday employees — eleven attendees in total.  She TOLD Ana that she would have to pay half of the bill.  (Ana is looking for a second job to help pay their mortgage.)  Ana was upset but didn’t want to make waves.  I was irate about the injustice and wanted to march over to the school to have a talk with the supervisor.  I didn’t but I still am annoyed when I think about it.

I am so thankful that I never had to learn English as a second language.  What crazy stuff it is!  You don’t realize the inconsistencies until you try to explain them to someone — for example, think of the pronunciations of win and wing — especially for someone who is used to pronouncing i’s like long e’s.  One of the first things Ana and I worked on was why people always laughed when she talked about “the beach” — perhaps beause beach always sounded like “bitch”.

There will be more about Ana in future blogs.