The True Strength

In the past, when I was nineteen, I was teaching in a kindergarten. The children were between five and eight years old. Meanwhile, something happened that affected me deeply. I witnessed a fight between two children over who would get to play on the slide first.

After five minutes of shouting, screaming and crying one of the two children stopped crying, wiped his tears, hugged the other child and said, “M mmm, ok don’t cry. I am older than you and I should act like a big man…now you are the next player and always you will be the first.”

What surprised me the most at that moment was how this little boy controlled his anger and contained his friend. Honestly, I didn't expect to learn such an important life lesson from a little kid: that true strength lies in controlling your emotions.

It was an important lesson I will never forget.

~~

Shaza Alhabash - Syria

Learning from Children

It is an interesting thing to learn from a child.

I remember when my daughter was about 4 or 5 years old, and we went to a playground and there was a large colourful inflatable slide. She wanted to climb it but it seemed difficult. I could hear her inner voice wondering could I do it? Let’s try.

She tried to climb, but the first few times were full of disappointment, but she kept trying, adjusted her position and tried again. And eventually after many times she reached the top. She was extremely happy.

While I was watching my daughter, I learned a very important thing, which was the great value of persistence and to keep trying over and over. Children often have this ability to not give up and face the challenges to learn and grow up. In adulthood, this kind of flexibility to face challenges may fade in time because of fear of failure or judgement. But watching my daughter reminded me that persistence is key, and success does not come from avoiding failure but from keeping trying and never giving up.

It might be surprising, because we usually think of children as needing guidance or advice, but my daughter could teach me an important lesson that I had forgotten which is the value of persistence, and it was really such an excellent experience.

~~

Nagat Shaaban - Egypt

Marling's Speech

This essay was written and delivered as a speech by Marling to around a hundred-plus people for the RIFLI End of the Year Celebration at the Providence Public Library on June 1, 2024. Congratulations to Marling for a great writing job as well as a great job of public speaking in her second language.

~~~

As an immigrant, moving to another country is always a challenge, because of the weather, traditions, laws, behavior and especially the language. Everything is new for us, and that’s why we are all here. Through the adult learning RIFLI program we have the opportunity to learn and make our adaptation and living in this country easier and independent.

During the time I have been in this program I have been feeling more confident in myself to talk, understanding(listening), reading, writing, pronunciation and fluency. Of course mistakes always will happen even to native speakers, so don’t worry about that and keep going and learning from it.

In my class, we learned a little bit of everything: phrasal verbs, new vocabulary, about my classmates’ opinions on any topic, for example “if they believe in aliens.” We also talked about our different cultures and traditions, even about koalas and raccoons. All this mix of topics made our class dynamic, diverse and funny and if someone forgot any word, we all together tried to find it to complete the idea.

I am so glad to have found this family, and I say family because that’s the way I feel about them. With classmates and teacher Jon we help, support and even enjoy each other as a family. And also with Sabine, Cruz and all the staff. I remember when I got enrolled, they received me very kindly and warmly.

And to be honest I wasn’t expecting too much, because usually we have the perception that when something is cheap or free, it is bad quality, but this is not the case. They really care about our learning and progress and are always available to help even with stuff not related with the class, like advice for a resume or a job interview. Also, we had the opportunity with Siyamala to get more knowledge and be certified for NorthStar on computer skills and best of all it is for free. I just can say thank you to all of you for this.

Finally, I just want all of you to keep going, never give up, take advantage of this huge opportunity and also invite and motivate any friend, coworker or relative to be part of this family. Maybe some of them need to know about this program and are missing this big deal because they don’t know about it. Good things need to be shared and learning always opens doors.

Thank you!

~

Marling - Dominican Republic

My Evolution in English

In January 2023, my husband and I decided that we had to leave Cape Verde and try to find better support for our son in the USA. Due to his development delay, the doctors said he may have autism. At that moment, I started studying English by myself, every night after work. I already knew the alphabet, numbers, colors, some names of animals and utensils, but I didn´t know how to form sentences because I didn't have much contact with English during my life. I studied French in high school, and I did my graduation in Brazil, where the language is Portuguese. In a few months studying by myself, my English was better.

On August 14th, 2023, we arrived in the USA. On the same day, I asked my sister-in-law about an English course and she helped me. Nine days later, on August 23rd, I received the email from Miss Sabine, with the list of registration dates in September for new students. I did it and the assessment determined my level. I was intermediate. I was very happy and proud of myself, because I went from beginner to intermediate level, by myself, during my studies in Cape Verde.

I started classes on September 18th and three months later, in December, when I went to do the test again, my level score and the teacher Doug, in discussion with Miss Sabine, decided I should move up to the advanced level.

Today, I was able to talk with my children's teachers and the doctors (A DREAM THAT CAME TRUE), with some difficulty, but I was able to express and understand what they were saying to me. I still ask for a translator at the hospital because I'm not completely confident yet, but I can understand almost everything they say.

As you can see, one year and two months ago, I knew almost nothing in English.

To learn, we have to want and to work hard.

Believe in yourself, always!

~

Irana - Cape Verde

My Almost LostJourney

I want to share with you my story about my almost lost journey. It was 10 years ago when I studied in Russia. I had to go to pass exams two times in the year. As you know, I lived in Turkmenistan, it is my country where I was born. Among our youngsters it is very popular to study abroad. I studied in Nizhny Novgorod, but went there through the capital of Russia, Moscow, because from our country that was the only way. When I was heading back home, I stayed in Moscow for a couple days. Usually, I would visit my best friend. She was also a student at that time.

I traveled between Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod by train. As a habit, I had large and heavy luggage. I left it in the storage room at the station, then I went with my friend. We walked in the city and visited our other friend. The same day, we visited my mom’s friend. We walked in the park near the railway station and my mom’s friend made me a little present. She bought tickets for me and my friend tickets on a special train to the airport. At that time, it was an expensive present for students like me and my friend. We were very thankful.

The next day we had to go first to get my luggage in the storage room and then go to our express train, (which we called shortly ”express”) to the airport. The storage & rail road station was located in the same station but in opposite corners. I asked my friend how long it would take to go from her home to the railway station. She said we have enough time to go there. We started our adventure. We walked in the park near her home and talked about how wonderful the weather was. We didn’t hurry up until my friend looked at her watch and told me, “It seems we are late.” We got lost in time and didn’t notice how quickly time flew by. In that moment our adventure turned into a big race.

We ran to the underground and waited for our train, but for us everything seemed like all things around us were stopped, except time)) Our train came and we arrived at our transit destination. We ran to the railway station, approximately 100 ft. First, I had to take my luggage and then go to express. We decided to split up, I went to take my luggage while my friend went to find the express train. We did everything like a sportsman, cause we were late and ran nonstop. All our conversation was while we ran. 

When my friend passed me, she came back, she looked at my eyes and gently asked me, to not tell my mom’s friend the reason, we missed the train. She was thinking that we might be late to ride the express train because of her. This ticket, as I said before, was an expensive gift. I took my luggage and continued to run but now it was more difficult than running without my luggage. My suitcase was on wheels, but it was so heavy and when I was running it couldn’t stand on the wheels. I heard a lot of suggestions to put the suitcase on wheels but it was impossible because of my speed. I heard the voice of my friend she again and again came back to me and showed me where we had to run.

When I saw the train itself, I was 20 steps below. I saw my friend, she tried to talk with the train conductor and asked him to wait 1 minute. I gathered all my strength and began my way up the steps. My friend came to me and tried to help me and in the last seconds we were able to do it. I felt the door slam behind me at the last split second. The journey to the airport lasted 40 minutes, but we laughed so loudly and cheerfully that we didn’t notice how 40 minutes flew by like seconds. It was the most memorable trip of my life.

~

Viktoriya - Turkmenistan

Getting Lost Can Be Fun!

I like getting lost when I ride a bicycle or walk. I used to get lost on purpose and find new streets around my neighborhood. One day, I discovered a new way to go to the Asakawa River. Another day I came across a modern white house with a beautiful, well-kept garden in front of the house.

Most of the time, I preferred to ride a bicycle alone. In that case, I could just go wherever I felt

like, and I could turn into a new alley freely.

Without thinking, just leave it to the wind.

I also spent some time practicing clapping my hands or riding with no hands during the bike ride.

The jackpot for me was finding either a milk shop or liquor shop. No, no, no, I don’t think you understand why a little girl got so excited about liquor shops! Not excited since I like sake. I got excited because we collected paper lids of milk bottles to play something like pog, and lids of sake bottles to play spinning top. And of course, it was very popular to trade rare lids.

Those were my Sunday morning adventures when I was 6.

Getting a little bit older, I still enjoyed a bicycle adventure. Sometimes my friend joined me, and sometimes my little sister followed me.

One spring day - a sweet aroma of flowers wafted through a beautiful day. It happened to be Buddha's birthday. I remember that day vividly. My friend and I were coming near to the rotary of the train station. We saw people were gathering around the little Buddha statue standing in the middle of a small basin that contained sweet tea with floating flowers.　They let us pour sweet tea onto the statue of the Buddha and gave us the sweet tea to drink. Since that day, I never forget that April 8th is the Buddha’s birthday, called Hana-Matsuri, which means Flower Festival, with the taste of the sweet tea which was not so tasty to me.

I still like getting lost even now. In fact, Providence is the perfect place to do it.

There are a lot of great old houses. I am fascinated to look at the plates on the walls to imagine who lived there 160 years ago. When I spotted the Little Free Library, I felt lucky and I couldn't help but look into it!

There is an unusually shaped tree almost bending over the sidewalk making an arch tunnel like kids are making “London Bridge is Falling Down”. It’s been on my radar for quite some time. I just found out that it happened to be a friend’s house!

Getting lost gives me not only new discoveries or fantasies, but also brings back random moments of old memories. It stimulates the five senses; the smell of the firewood from the chimney, a spooky feeling of a warm breeze, biting cold air or sounds of birds.

Getting lost is so much fun!

~

Reiko - Japan

The Two Boys Who Got Lost

I walked to the town beach in my neighborhood, as usual, this cloudy morning. Few people were walking around on the beach. The weather forecast predicts a winter storm warning, which will affect Rhode Island in the coming two days. Speaking of the weather, I remember an impressive scene happening on this beach.

A few years ago, in the middle of October, my siblings and their family members visited my husband and me at our new home in the United States. 11 people, including me, were staying in our house. All the rooms and the basement were occupied. I took them on a tour to see our new living place. They liked it here, a suburban area, with no tall apartments, calm ... and the beautiful town beach. It’s very different from our hometown, Hong Kong.

About time, the US is 12 hours behind HK time. They are living opposite day and night. Jet lag is a physiological reaction that can happen to everyone. On the second day of their trip, my younger brother’s nearly three-year-old son, Nick, woke up very early in the morning, just like the first day. He talked loudly to his parents and ran around in our house. The noise disturbed everyone in the early morning. So, my brother walked Nick outside for the reason of less noise at home.

This was about 4:30 am. They walked along a few avenues and roads. They felt cold because they didn’t bring jackets to go outdoors. After some minutes, they arrived at the town beach. Then, they took a rest there. It was windy and foggy. Very soon, the landscape was getting hard to see. Visibility was just about ten feet. That weather didn’t allow them to explore the path back home. They felt colder than before. They were afraid and started to panic. They were lost in a murky and cold place. My brother wanted to make a phone call to his wife.

OH NO!! He forgot to bring his cell phone. They couldn't communicate with others and continued to be stuck for a long time. They hugged each other to keep warm. And the father placated his son. They even felt they would die on the beach. At this unfortunate moment, they saw a kindly and pretty fairy with a halo on her head. She slightly walked close to the two pitiful guys. Her face felt familiar, but still not clear. Soon after,

“Lovely wife” and “mama” were spoken by the two guys. My sister-in-law found them on the gray beach. She knew her family well - where the lost persons might go ... or she got a calling? Her explanation was that she had a premonition that the two boys were getting lost. It was because her husband’s cell phone was left on the pillow, and they hadn’t shown up for more than one hour.

Finally, no one got hurt and everyone was safe at home. All the family and I woke up and heard this story. We all were so sorry for the unpleasant experience! After undergoing that, I could see Nick’s family forming a stronger relationship. Years later, when I asked Nick about his story of getting lost on the beach, he replied, “... at an extremely chilly and scary moment, my mama saved papa and I!” The story was deeply photographed in her head.

I believe in destiny. It helps people to connect with their love. Like the picture of the moment, two boys were discovered by a fairy who was surrounded by a luminous aura.

~

by Ann, 2024 02 12
Hong Kong