{"id":2162,"date":"2016-11-13T10:46:19","date_gmt":"2016-11-13T10:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/index.php\/2016\/11\/13\/bigger-than-me\/"},"modified":"2016-11-13T10:46:19","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T10:46:19","slug":"bigger-than-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/2016\/11\/13\/bigger-than-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Bigger Than Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Guest author, Marlene Lee<\/strong>, shares an excerpt from her short story, The Olomides.<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0In this fictional piece, the narrator is a rather inexperienced, provincial woman who is involved in a community effort<\/strong> to bring a resettled Congolese family<\/strong> to her small Midwestern town<\/strong>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong>Russ Trowbridge and I were waiting for the Congolese family to arrive.\u00a0 We\u2019d driven out to the 24\/7 filling station on the highway which also serves as the bus station.\u00a0 We waited in Russ\u2019s Lincoln because with its temperature controls, leather seats, and roomy interior, it\u2019s more comfortable than the bench across from the pumps.\u00a0 The Heartland Family Services van with Del, the handyman, behind the wheel parked beside us just as the Greyhound rolled up.\u00a0 Through the high, tinted windows I could see figures moving in the aisle, reaching up to the racks for luggage.\u00a0 It gave me goose bumps, thinking about how far our refugees were from Africa.\u00a0 We got out of the car and waited for them to step down onto the pavement.\u00a0 Russ took a piece of paper from his inside jacket pocket and practiced under his breath: \u201cWelcome, Mr. and Mrs. Olomide.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they were all out of the bus, they stood together in a group talking in their language, though I thought I heard something like oui<\/em> and maybe l\u2019auto <\/em>that reminded me of my father who still spoke a little French by the time he\u2019d moved in with me.\u00a0 I would have expected the Congolese to speak an African language.<\/p>\n

Russ stepped forward.\u00a0 \u201cWelcome, Mr. and Mrs. Olomide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Olomide straightened.\u00a0 \u201cGood afternoon,\u201d he said, and extended his hand.\u00a0 \u201cVery indeed pleased.\u201d\u00a0 The mother and grandmother didn\u2019t look directly at us.\u00a0 The children, running in ages from about three to probably fourteen, stared with large, still eyes.\u00a0 Del slid open the van door and Russ gestured for them to get in while he helped Del load the suitcases\u2014two were tied with rope\u2014into the back.<\/p>\n

The parents waited for the grandmother who took a spry step up into the van followed by the seven children, the mother, and then the father.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never liked that van because the windows are dark and you can\u2019t see what\u2019s inside.\u00a0 I felt emotional because I couldn\u2019t see the family anymore.\u00a0 Even though people always say our town is a good place to live, the Olomides didn\u2019t know that, and there were so many changes, maybe not as many changes as they\u2019d already lived through, but there were so many changes ahead.\u00a0 You have a deep feeling you\u2019re watching something important happen.\u00a0 That\u2019s how I felt about the Olomides: they were bigger than me.\u00a0 Congo was bigger than our town.\u00a0 Africa was bigger than the United States.\u00a0 I\u2019d never had that thought before and it made me feel large and small at the same time.<\/p>\n

Related Reading: \u00a0Culture Topic\/ City or Country Life<\/a>
\nAcculturation Process<\/a>
\nCulture Shock<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russ Trowbridge and I were waiting for the Congolese family to arrive.\u00a0 We\u2019d driven out to the 24\/7 filling station on the highway which also serves as the bus station.\u00a0 We waited in Russ\u2019s Lincoln because with its temperature controls, leather seats, and roomy interior, it\u2019s more comfortable than the bench across from the pumps.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,47,373],"tags":[140,141,142,143],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldsobright.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}