Even being right in the middle of things, it’s easy to forget. As humans we become habituated, conditioned to see the world through the lens of our experiences. I have worked to overcome this, to expand my vision and see with new eyes. But I retain the ability to be surprised and confronted by the unexpected time and again. Nothing is as simple as it seems.
Every Monday and Wednesday I have been giving an English class to some university students. They have created an organization to make change in their country and are forging ahead with vigor. We happened to meet through a mutual, though distant, friend and it has become a comfortable relationship. I approached them about English lessons because I thought it would be convenient to exchange for Lingala lessons. Learning English would help them to bring not just their message but also their methods to a wider range of African countries. There are many English speaking countries on the border of DRC to the south and east. They hope for the opportunity to learn from organizations that are working on similar issues as well as the chance to tell the story of what is happening in their country. The founders come from and have traveled to many cities throughout Congo. They’ve set up organizations in each of these cities with the goals of problem solving the lack of development and documenting the effects of war. Their aspirations are impressive and the evidence of progress and positive impact abounds.
So we began our English lessons with the idea that I would give them a basic jump start and then perhaps they would move on to a more structured course somewhere, or maybe I would tailor the class to suit their individual needs of getting out their message. It has proven quite fun to teach them, as they are student minded. They write a lot, take notes, ask questions and aren’t afraid to practice. This evening, I even sent them away with homework.
We’d been talking about feelings. On Mondays the class is structured so that we learn some new vocabulary and then spend much of the time talking, asking each other questions and trying to have a conversation. We learn a lot about each other and this also leads the way to some natural expressions- the idioms of English. This week we were talking about feelings. Things like hot and tired, sleepy and nervous. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse. We talked about degrees of feelings from afraid to terrified and happy to overjoyed. I wondered what kind of things these young guys could be scared of or what life events had brought them joy. My naiveté ever present.
“What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of spiders? Snakes?” I am asking Alain, who has an always present smile that reminds me of the young Jimmy Fallon, sitting at his 4th grade desk with his hands folded, smile taking up his face and head bopping to his own rhythm. Alain has that same life-is-great, not a care in the world presence. So I wasn’t really prepared when he said, “I was terrified when the military came into my house and shot their guns all around.” Of course, he struggled with the English and used a lot of body motions but that only served to make his statement more electrifying. Ben added his own terrifying experience. “When the military was coming in from Rwanda, I was terrified for the Congolese in the east.” There was also some help with wording and a struggle to express the idea. But it was clear Ben was not just worried for himself or his family but for all the Congolese. And when was he most overjoyed? “I was overjoyed when they signed the cease fire to stop the fighting.”
Yeah. Not your average English class is what I was thinking. We had some debate about whether the correct phrase he was looking for was cease fire or peace treaty. We eventually settled on cease fire. Because that’s why we’re here. To learn the important phrases.
