No Word for Bubbles (A Learn and Serve America Grantee)

Who would have guessed blowing bubbles and playing soccer would have created the bridge that crossed the communication gap between a refugee family from Burundi, and the 1st-3rd graders at ANSER Charter School in Boise, ID? But that is what happened when ANSER partnered with the Agency for New Americans. The students from ANSER visited the Agency, and watched an ESL class. By reading the book, The Lost Children, it helped the students see just a little of what the refugee families had gone through. Later, they also participated in pretending to be a refugee family by taking roles and facing tough scenarios like, “The second oldest child has gotten malaria from a mosquito, and is too sick to walk. What will you do?”

The kids took household items over to an empty apartment that the Agency was setting up for this Burundi refugee family. The family, who couldn’t speak any English, were forced to leave their home in Burundi, and ended up in a refugee camp in Tanzania before coming to the U.S.. The students (3 first-graders, 1 second-grader and 6 third-graders) helped make beds, carry groceries, set up kitchen supplies, and get a bathroom ready for use.

It wasn’t until a week later that the students went back to the apartment to actually meet the Burundi family. At first it was a little awkward with the language barrier, but it didn’t stop the children from reaching out to all the members of the family. There was a Congolese family that was able to speak limited English, and they helped as interpreters. All awkwardness evaporated when a soccer ball was tossed out and the kids joined in a lively game of soccer. The students also found out that there are more ways to communicate than spoken language when they brought out the bubbles. Blowing bubbles with a giant bubble wand was a complete fascination for the refugee kids, and adults as well. It was discovered that there was no word in their language for “blowing bubbles”, but there were many words for compassion and caring.