Friday afternoon I sat in the Sari Bari office writing out one of the new training ladies’ names in dotty script bangla. (You know the dotty letters that you used to write over in kindergarden (i guess it’s pre-school these days) to learn how to write your letters right?) Earlier today I helped her write the numbers 1-10 in Bengali. As an adult woman she doesn’t know how to write any numbers, and she can’t write her name (yet!). She’s never had the opportunity to go to school.
…and I sat there, thinking about our training time this morning…and thinking about the other ladies as well. One is relatively young, and she already knows her letters, and I’m teaching her to read…and as wrote this name over and over in a language, and with letters that are not my first language I was simultaneously humbled, and thankful and broken and amazed….
…I was humbled by the opportunity that has been given to me though out my life – all the ways I’ve been invested in, the access to education that I have, the ways iIve been encouraged and built up, and told that I can do anything I set my mind to…I can even learn to read and write a second language (compared with my new friend who wasn’t even given the opportunity to learn to read and write in her mother tongue)
…I was amazed that i get to be a part of this…I mean, this. is. huge. To teach someone to read? what an honor. It opens all sorts of doors that have been closed up until now.
…and I was broken…saddened by the reality that so many people live in…without opportunity…without encouragement…without and understanding of their personal value and potential…a reality where death and sickness, and oppression, poverty and injustice seem to have the last word far, far too many days.
…and I also thought of their futures, of new hopes and dreams, and “new life in the making”