What We See in a Photograph

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you
-"Bookends" by Simon and Garfunkl

"Do not destroy the photographs! No writing!" one of the Nepali-speaking teachers semi-barks while handing out the photos of my students to a group of 8th graders.

I've learned that unless one of the teachers instructs the kids not to write on the backs of photographs, many will write messages to the students in NYC. They are usually in the related genres of "profession of love" and "admiration of beauty". Sometimes an im addresses is included. Some young men in the camps have tried to solicit my help in procuring im addresses of the young ladies in the photos, but no assistance has been forthcoming from my end.

Unlike their teachers, I don't stop them from writing on the backs of the pictures because there's something poignant to me about it. When I look out at the students I see a group of young people whose friends and relatives are in the process of scattering across several continents. They have things they want to tell each other. The message does not bleed through to the front of the image. So, in my eyes, nothing is destroyed.

I recently came into posession of another set of photographs. I got these when I was visiting with the cultural orientation coordinator of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Damak, so that I can also help create curriculum for the adult ESL classes here that uses more American English and supports the training they get from the IOM before they migrate. In one of those funny twists, the US is taking most of the resettled Bhutanese, and yet the adult ESL curriculum has mostly been designed by people from India and the UK. While that is fine for the most part, there are some glaring cultural and linguistic differences. When I came here, two people explained that it had come to a surprise to all when they recently learned from those refugees who had moved to America that the word restroom is used for toilet in the US. I was a little disturbed to learn that phrases that are typical (according to the Sisters--this was new to me) in English used in India, such as "Give me your introduction" were being taught to students who are moving to the US and Canada. I am on a bit of a cultural-imperialist mission right now to try to eradicate this language from the adult ESL program here. Thankfully, brother Paul is going to be overseeing this program for the year, and will be able to support the use of an English that is more authentic to the places they're resettling to.

Of course, I was also meeting with the cultural orientation director because I was very curious to learn what "cultural orientation training" means in practice. First I had to orient myself to get to the IOM office, which seemed easy at first. You can walk to the IOM and the UN from the Caritas office where I work. They are in a big compound with a high white wall and barbed wire. There is one entrance marked "staff" and another marked "visitors and refugees". Once you go in, there are lots of large vehicles for transporting the refugees for training, and otherwise it looks a like a small hotel. I got lost in one hallway of air-conditioned rooms where the Department of Homeland Security does all the interviews before finally finding the other building where the IOM is.

Anyway, the cultural orientation director at the IOM was happy to collaborate and advised me on some of the language points he believes would be helpful to develop in an adult ESL class. He also showed me a slide show to introduce me to the training. This was full of pictures, many of them very striking. Imagine a woman who looks like she just stepped off the mountains of Nepal. (In case you are drawing a blank here, the one in the photograph appeared to be almost 5 feet tall, had a gold nosering, was smiling, and was wrapped in several types of bright fabric.) Now imagine that woman sitting in a mock airplane seat, belting herself in. They practice that. They had another picture of an IOM trainer explaining toilet paper. They had another picture of all the pictures of activities that they sort into "sometimes legal, never legal, and always legal." They had pictures of jobs. (They do an activity where they match jobs and education and jobs and salaries, so that people learn that plumbers make a significant amount of money.) They have lots of pictures of houses where students get to see how much money buys which kind of housing. This helps, as he said, to "manage expectations" which is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot here.

Some of the pictures he showed me were ways of explaining abstract concepts. For example, they had a picture of three glasses. They show the students one glass of oil and water, one of orange juice, and one of water with sugar. Of course the idea is to convey that in a mixed society people can be like oil and water, apart. They can be mixed in, like orange juice. Or they can be like sugar in water. I'm not sure if they read this as basically hidden and collected at the bottom or as perfectly integrated. Of course both are problematic, but really there is no good way to talk about this.

The IOM seemed to have pictures of everything, so, I asked him if I could have copies of all the photos in order to use them in the adult ESL classes to help support this language development. As we were copying the files to my flashdrive, he said offhandedly, "Of course the thing with photographs is that you have to ask them what they see in the photograph," I asked him to say more about this, and he continued, picking up a photo of one of my students standing in the kitchen. She's leaning on a counter, and behind her there's a small blender plugged into the wall. He pointed to it. "They're going to look at this photo and say, 'What is that?' because they've never seen a blender before," he said.

I thought of all the boys who had looked at the photograph and inquired about the girl. I wondered if any of them even saw the blender. But now, I realized that I wish I'd asked more of the students this question. Mostly I'd let them point to things and ask me. I'm going to use the pictures with the adult classes this week, and so I'm looking forward to finding out more about what they see.