Helpful.

We picked up a couple of dictionaries at Barnes & Noble this morning.  One is a keeper- I may be able to take the other back.

Jim has been brushing up on his French.

And we're all getting excited to learn some Arabic- and the teacher in me is getting pretty pumped to do all I can to help our new friends learn English asap- If I was suddenly transported to Africa, and my family's livelihood depended on learning the language as fast as possible, I'd get pretty focused. 

I'm bringing over a small markerboard for quickly writing phrases, as well as a stack of super-sticky post its that we can hang all over their house, labeling things when that would be helpful.  I'm also bringing stick-on name tags to make it easier for everyone while we're learning names.

I think this one will be particularly useful, because everything has a picture.  And there's complete English and Arabic indexes in the back.  (I'm planning to buy a matching one for English-French).

There are so many fun things we'll be able to do with this family- like play in the snow and teach them to make a snowman, go to the store, or a movie, cook together.... everything more complicated when we're trying to arrange transportation for all 15 of us- but we can make it happen.  And once it's not frigid outside anymore, well, all around that's just going to be nice. 

Do you live in Sioux Falls?  Do you want to mentor a refugee family?  Contact Amy Spaulding Zimbelman at the LSS Refugee & Immigration Center, 605.731.2009 or email her at Amy.Zimbelman@lsssd.org .