We visited our family on a tuesday again because of spring break. This time we had a little trouble because my partner and I have food allergies. They served us both things that we couldn’t eat and it is turning out to be really difficult to communicate that we actually can’t have the food, not just that we don’t want it. We helped with homework again that day and we are quickly realizing that ELL teaching is very difficult. We are pretty sure that they are not literate in their native language so teaching them things is more difficult. Both kids can read aloud fairly well (except for they don’t use the “sound it out method”, which I am confused about). Their comprehension is minimal at best however, which is frustrating for them and for us. We try to help them with their assignments and they don’t understand, or can’t accomplish, the task of puttting things in their own words. One of them just scans the pages looking for words that look like the question, but then had no idea how to answer it when I asked her to talk about what she thought the answer was. I am curious how they are being taught reading skills and why their comprehension is so far behind their pronounciation/reading skills.
There were fewer in/out family members that day, perhaps people were working? We have yet to establish who is who and we plan on doing some family tree activities next visit.

Three of us sat in rapt attention listening to a Bhutanese refugee family and a translator describing their experiences with the student volunteer befriending and tutoring program. We sat in a tight circle of chairs around a small side table and a twin bed in a 6th floor apartment with a broad view south toward downtown Chicago about 9 miles away. A strong, cool breeze was rushing through the wide-open window, which seemed to heighten my senses of the surroundings. Like every apartment we have visited, it was spotlessly clean with simple furnishings and a lack of clutter. The living room we were sitting in was doubling as a bedroom, including a bunk bed for the young boys. This frugal pattern seems to be duplicated in throughout this community.

Although we were not treated to the usual snacks of apples and chai that are commonly served in the Bhutanese homes, I assumed this difference may have been because we were visiting with a translator who was a very familiar face to the family and because our visit was understood as an management review of the volunteer program. The father of the household even inquired if I was the “manager,” which brought gentle laughter to us all. As with visits to other families, we often found things to laugh about during the visit and it is clear that a great appreciation of wry humor exists among many members of this community.

I was especially keen to visit with this particular family because they have been paired with six different students during the past several months and seem to greatly value the services the students provide in tutoring their children. As we have experienced in all of the interviews so far, the family expressed deep and profound appreciation for how this program has been able to assist the family in a wide range of ways. We also learned some critical information about how the program can be better structured and improved from the standpoint of the clients.

We learned interesting rumors about a certain degree of apprehension that some Bhutanese families may have concerning the partnering of male and female students in our befriending program. Gossip had come through the grapevine from some Bhutanese refugee families now living in Atlanta who had been offended by the public display of affection of a young American couple who was visiting the family. Our informant was using this example to express his possible concerns about our tendency to partner male students with female students. We took the opportunity to explain to him that we practiced this intentionally to provide greater safety for female students who might be traveling in unfamiliar neighborhoods at night. Still this conversation reinforced our understanding of the conservative values these families bring and some of the cultural challenges they face when being immersed in American culture. 

In addition, we had some fascinating discussions on folk knowledge concerning how bed bugs are actually good for your health and can help those with influenza. That perspective put some interesting spins on our investigation of the effects of the bed bug problem in the community.  Fortunately, complaints about bed bugs have greatly diminished this semester, but that may be function of the winter season as shown in this graph of the increasing numbers of bed bug complaints with its ebbs and flows across the seasonal cycle (this study is from Greater London but US cities show a similar pattern). 

L. Richards, et al. (2009) Journal of Environmental Health Research 9(1).

Chicago happens to be #5 among cities in the US with bed bug complaints and it seems that much of the affordable housing stock available to refugees has a likelihood of being infested. We are also working to develop informational programs that will assist families in effectively dealing with this problem.  Click the following link for a short video about this project: NIH Fellowhip Bed Bug Study.