Spotlight: Adama Ndiaye & Angel Bender

Interviewed by Katie Anderson, Siena Literacy Center Program Support Coordinator

 

What made you come to Siena Literacy Center?

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Angel: I really wanted to get into a literacy program. I wasn’t sure if it was for adults or children. I actually visited a child’s after-school program, and I said, children are not for me.

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[Laughter]

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Angel: So I went into adult literacy. I have a strong belief that everybody should have access to education. And that’s why I came here.

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Adama: Since I been here [in the U.S.], I was making some search about how to get a diploma in order to go to a university. So it’s going to make it easier, because I’m trying to go at university and I cannot go over there without a diploma. So first of all, I wanted to increase my English in order to communicate well with people, and try to get my GED in order to go to university. Yeah, that’s it.

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What do you want to study at the university?

 

Adama: Nursing and management.

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Business?

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Adama: Business management, yeah.

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Do you want to become a nurse? Or something else in the medical field?

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Adama: A nurse.

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Tell me about your tutoring sessions. What do you work on?

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Angel: Well, Adama’s goal, his first goal, is to pass the GED test. So what we’re focusing on right now is learning and understanding the GED questions, the type of questions that will be asked, and also working on the vocabulary within the passages and the text and things like that. There’s the little nuances of English language that can trip you up.

Oh for sure.

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[Laughter]

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Adama, do you want to add to that?

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Adama: We are working right now on the teachings of how to understand the question in order to answer it well. Generally, we work on how to get the GED, or how to make it easier for me.

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The test-taking strategies?

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Adama: Yes.

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What do you like best about working together?

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Adama: What I like best is her ability to make me feel comfortable, like I can study at my own pace, and we’re going step by step. She’s not rushing me. She’s trying to follow my assessment. Because every student has a process.

That’s an important talent, to be able to go slow.

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Adama: Exactly.

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Angel: I enjoy helping someone reach their goals, really. Every week there’s something that he’s doing that he’s accomplishing, to succeed, to reach his goals. And I’m just excited to be a part of that.

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Adama, tell me about how long you’ve been in the United States. What has your experience been like here?

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Adama: I’ve been here since January 25. My experience is, from the beginning, I left my country because I endured some difficult stuff over there. So I came here for my mom; I’m living with her, with my stepdad. I’m meeting a lot of people since I’ve been here. I’m learning a lot from people. I’m doing volunteer also, every Tuesday and every Thursday. I have to go to the food pantry, close to downtown. We take food from over there and give it to the community. Sometimes we’re giving it to seniors, like old people, sometimes we’re giving it to a Muslim center, Linwood. So the community comes, they take samples, they take tickets, and we are feeding them.

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Gleaners? Is that where you’re working?

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Adama: Gleaners.

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You’ve touched on this, but can you tell me about your life outside of Siena? Do you want to add anything?

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Adama: For example, sometimes I go with my stepdad because his son is the owner of 13 Wendy’s. So I go with him. So sometimes I go with him and I help myself with taking some food. I know that’s not healthy, but that’s what I’m doing.

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[Laughter]

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That’s great.

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Adama: Sometimes after going at the mosque for every Friday’s prayers as a Muslim, I go with my stepdad to his office. He is 90 years old. I help him to water all of, he’s got some plants in his office.

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Angel: You said he’s 90?

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Adama: Yeah. Not 19, 90. Nine zero.

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And he’s still operating 13 Wendy’s?

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Adama: No, his son. So he can have free food. I am taking every advantage of that.

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I would, too.

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[Laughter]

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Adama: Sometimes also I’m trying to go, I’m living close to two schools, so I can go to race and work out. I was also playing soccer in Livonia city.

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You keep busy.

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Adama: Yeah.

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What about you, Angel? Tell me about your life outside of Siena.

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Angel: I live with my husband, whom I’ve been with for 20 years, and my dog, Gus, an English bulldog. I work part-time at Bass Pro Shops. And in my spare time I like to, I volunteer a lot. I volunteer with the Wave Project, hospice, here. I enjoy, I’m just beginning to learn the guitar. I’m really enjoying that. I enjoy golfing and traveling; my husband and I like to travel.

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You mentioned the Wave Project? I don’t think I know that one.

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Angel: The Wave Project provides showers; it’s a mobile shower unit. It provides showers to people who don’t have access to them.

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For both of you, what have you enjoyed about your time being here at Siena?

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Angel: I’ve learned so much. I’ve learned how to teach. I’ve met new people. Just meeting people and learning from them as individuals, through their experiences, it’s amazing. It’s why I do what I do.

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Adama: First of all, when I came in this country, we was in some type of center, with a whole bunch of people from Haiti, from Africa. And they was not able to speak English. So I was translating for a lot of people over there. My English was not so good, but it wasn’t so bad, so I was translating. And I found over there that communicating with people can help me increase my English. So once I came to Siena, it made me communicate with a lot of persons here, like you, like Moni. I appreciate the welcome, how they was treating me. Like you and Moni. The hospitality, too, I enjoy; I was learning just by communicating with you. That’s it.

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Angel: I just want to follow up. The hospitality here is amazing. I do, I feel comfortable speaking to everybody. If I have questions, of you, Eva, Moni, Caitlyn, everybody.

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Adama: Always smiling. Always open to help.

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Thank you.

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[Laughter]

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Has anything been especially challenging, or different from how you expected it would be?

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Adama: The weather.

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[Laughter]       

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Adama: Because I come from Africa, so it’s every time sunny over there. Even when it’s cold, it’s cold just two hours or three in the morning, like from 6 o’clock, 6 am, until 10; then you got the sun shows up.

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Angel: Well, enjoy your first full winter.

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Adama: There was that, and a lot of stress, because I’m still not able to work. They make you stay at home a lot. [Difficult to understand]

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That’s challenging. You mean all the work permit stuff? You’re in a waiting period. 

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Adama: Sometimes, I got difficulties to sleep at night. So that’s a kind of challenge.

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What about you, Angel, as far as tutoring?

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Angel: I don’t know that it’s different than I expected. Challenging for me is giving the best instruction to the student, to work at their pace, to state things in a way that they will understand them, in a way that will stick. The workshops here, I guess that’s something I didn’t expect, how helpful the workshops are. I feel like a better tutor after each and every one.

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We’re going to have you film a commercial.

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[Laughter]

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Do you have any type of message that you would give to other people considering coming here, as a tutor or as a student?

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Angel: I say do it. Don’t think about it, just do it. You know, it’s not too much time. It doesn’t take too much time, and it’s so fulfilling. It’s so welcoming. It’s just a great environment to be in, really.

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Adama: Yeah. Right now I’m meeting a lot of people, for example, if I go to the laundry, I’m meeting some people from my country over there. They are doing laundry, but they are impressed by how I handle the English language. I told them that so they think I was born here or have been here since a couple years, but once I tell them I been here just 6, 7 months, they say, wow. How do you speak this English? So I tell them, I used to speak not so bad, but I come to Siena Literacy Center. So I tell them to come here and increase their English, to make English as a second language. Also a lot of friends that want to get a diploma, I suggest them to come here. Sometimes I bring them, sometimes I bother Moni to make appointments for them. It can help them a lot; I suggest them to come. Who knows, if they want the GED, like me. I suggest them also to come here.