One of the things that Dad did was to help bring up quite a few friends and family members to the States. He would travel down South every couple of years to visit the family, and, if someone expressed an interest in coming to the States for (usually) university studies, (and sometimes) work experience, he would offer to help them out. It went without saying that we would put them up in the house and/or he would help them in just about all the little details of securing housing, steady income, legal paperwork, and the like.
Very rarely were there any issues.
One of the last group of folks that he help out was his sister's family. My Tio Chino was an officer in the army, a family man, and a businessman. He was always working long hours, investing his money, and making plans. I imagine that coming to the States was quite a bit of a stress for him, because it was like starting over from scratch.
One of the ways in which he had to tackle a pretty steep learning curve was in language. Despite his experience and education, his english was a bit... rough. He could communicate fine, eventually, but it did take some serious effort, and like most, he didn't really care to expose how much work he needed.
I am happy to say that now, every time I see him, I am impressed with how much he has improved. My cousins that are here speak fluent and darn-near flawless english.
One of the things that my Tio started doing pretty regularly was his involvement in church. This was were my Mom stepped into the picture and took him under her wing. They started going to church quite a bit, and due to my Mom's status as resident Church Lady, he started to help her out in mass preparation, cleaning, ordering & purchasing of supplies, and whatnot.
One day during mass, the priest decided that he wanted to acknowledge the effort made by some of the parishioners, and welcome my uncle to the family, so to speak. He made a point of announcing to those gathered that he just wanted to welcome Chino and his family to the States, wish them well in their future endeavors, and to thank my tio for his fine job in the preparing of wine and bread for mass.
Always pretty quick on his feet, my uncle stood when asked, waved in response to the claps, and, in the middle of the church, God & everybody, thanked the priest and said a few words.
"Thank you, Padre, you are too nice to me. Thank you, too, to church for nice welcome. Many thank you to [my mom], because of her helping me, when for to come to making bread for church, I am now all day masterbaker!"
I guess the priest must've taken the last bit of wine down the wrong pipe or something, 'cause he started choking, turning red, and everything.
Very rarely were there any issues.
One of the last group of folks that he help out was his sister's family. My Tio Chino was an officer in the army, a family man, and a businessman. He was always working long hours, investing his money, and making plans. I imagine that coming to the States was quite a bit of a stress for him, because it was like starting over from scratch.
One of the ways in which he had to tackle a pretty steep learning curve was in language. Despite his experience and education, his english was a bit... rough. He could communicate fine, eventually, but it did take some serious effort, and like most, he didn't really care to expose how much work he needed.
I am happy to say that now, every time I see him, I am impressed with how much he has improved. My cousins that are here speak fluent and darn-near flawless english.
One of the things that my Tio started doing pretty regularly was his involvement in church. This was were my Mom stepped into the picture and took him under her wing. They started going to church quite a bit, and due to my Mom's status as resident Church Lady, he started to help her out in mass preparation, cleaning, ordering & purchasing of supplies, and whatnot.
One day during mass, the priest decided that he wanted to acknowledge the effort made by some of the parishioners, and welcome my uncle to the family, so to speak. He made a point of announcing to those gathered that he just wanted to welcome Chino and his family to the States, wish them well in their future endeavors, and to thank my tio for his fine job in the preparing of wine and bread for mass.
Always pretty quick on his feet, my uncle stood when asked, waved in response to the claps, and, in the middle of the church, God & everybody, thanked the priest and said a few words.
"Thank you, Padre, you are too nice to me. Thank you, too, to church for nice welcome. Many thank you to [my mom], because of her helping me, when for to come to making bread for church, I am now all day masterbaker!"
I guess the priest must've taken the last bit of wine down the wrong pipe or something, 'cause he started choking, turning red, and everything.
4 comments:
Too funny!
That kind of baking makes you go blind ;)
Good thing we all stopped when we started needing glasses then. ;-)
Hammer, I thought that kind of baking made you grow hair on your palms ?
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