Blog 1- Pre Service

1.  While working with World Relief, I hope to learn a lot about the culture of the family we are helping.  I am excited to hear and learn more about their native language.  It will be interesting to observe their daily routines and rituals, and compare them to how I live.  I am curious to know if their parenting styles are similar to those of American parents.

2.  I do not really know what to expect from my service-learning site.  The small town that i grew up in was not very culturally diverse.  I have never been exposed to the lifestyles of people from such different cultures.  We are going to the home of a refugee family in Rock Island.  I assume that the language barrier will be a problem, especially when we first meet our family.  Since they are refugees that just moved here, they will probably not have the best living conditions.  They will probably need to learn about technology and American currency/consumerism.

3.  World Relief works very hard to adapt refugees from all over the world to American culture.  They provide them with a temporary home and help them find jobs.  They try to educate them about our culture and language.  I will be volunteering with one specific family. I will help them learn about America and I will become a friend/advocate for them.

4.  World relief helps with refugees from all over the world. They rescue people from refugee camps in places such as Africa and Asia, and bring them to America.  I do not know where my service-learning family is from.  The only information I have is that I will be working with the Ko lat KO family. They are a young family of four. The father speaks a little bit of English. The mother does not speak any English.  They have two children, ages one and two.

5.  I am very excited to begin working with the world relief family.  I do not have any previous connections with world relief or even people of such different cultures.  I have a passion for helping others and learning new things.  It will be interesting to connect with a family from across the world.

Service & Learning

Serving others will always lead to learning. Whether it's working in a soup kitchen, or simply helping a friend with homework, the result will be a learning experience for everyone. You can learn a lot just by helping someone from a different cultural, racial, economic or social background.  Seeing how other people live can be very humbling.  For the Urban Plunge, I was assigned to go to a homeless shelter for women and children.  I learned a lot about the women there, the volunteers, and even myself.  It made me appreciate what I have and what I take for granted every day.

For our service project, we will be working with refugees from countries of Africa and Asia.  I am very excited for the experience because I have never worked with people from such different cultures.  I hope to gain knowledge of their culture, and learn more about the refugee camps.  I also hope to provide them with academic knowledge, and knowledge of our American culture.