I arrived in Minneapolis from the UK in November 2011, just as the winter was starting. It's fun to move somewhere new, but it is also disorientating, lonely and confidence-blowing. Things that you previously took for granted - operating a bank account, getting a job and driving a car - are suddenly really hard, despite a supposed common language as an English speaker (British English is really not the same language as American English!). How much harder than for immigrants of non-English speaking countries? Training to be a MLC volunteer was for me the first step in regaining confidence, but also feeling the excitement of learning new skills and discovering a way into my new community. I have volunteered as a classroom assistant at the International Education Center since February. In my class are students from the Congo, Venezuela, Ecuador, Iraq, the Yemen, Japan, Russia, Somalia and Egypt, amongst several others. I come from a small English town and suddenly here is the whole world in a single room. Many of the conversations I have are only tantalizing hints of amazing lives, a woman who has lived in a refugee camp in Kenya, another who lost her mother when she was just eight years old, an eighteen year old ballet dancer on tour, a divorced Muslim woman bringing up four children on her own, the restrained voice of anger at the coalition's destruction of Iraq, a clarification from another on when the hijab is worn and when a woman's hair may be seen. Students are polite and respectful of both each other and staff, but there have been some amazing debates about criminal justice - the diversity of strongly held opinion just under the surface has been truly educational. In my normal life, I only get to talk to people just like me, and here I have a chance to genuinely connect to other worlds. I'm of course also learning quite a lot about grammar and American words and American pronunciation from the class' wonderful teacher, but that's another story…
Carla Evans volunteers at International Education Center in Minneapolis, MN. She submitted this story for the 2012 Volunteer Story Contest. Check back soon for another story!
