Week 5 Impressions by Hannah Noll-Willensky

Yes, I realize that this study abroad trip is taking place in London, but every time I step into the office I work in, I feel like I’m somewhere very different. My internship is a little like Inception, but instead of dream within in a dream, I’m in a foreign country within a foreign country. I work at the Latin American Disabled People’s Project, designed to help disabled, Spanish-speaking refugees and asylum seekers to improve their quality of life and sense of independence.

Though coming to London was at first disorienting, the transition into British culture wasn’t all that difficult. However, it is now my fourth week at my internship and I still feel the culture shock. But it's not just one culture; the list of countries represented at my internship is extensive. Already I’ve met people from Colombia, Paraguay, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Portugal, parts of Africa, and Brazil. And a large part of my struggle to adapt stems from the fact that I am completely lost in translation. I have quickly learned that five years of mostly high school Spanish cannot keep up with the many different accents and Speedy Gonzalez-like rates at which my co-workers speak their varying types of Spanish. I so desperately want to improve my Spanish in order to understand the conversations flying across the office that, when no one is looking, I play Spanish tutorial games on the Internet. Pathetic, I know. I try to speak Spanish with the clients, but most of them want to practice their English, being new to the country, and I’m the only English-speaker around. A typical conversation goes something like this: Me: “Buenos Dias!”, my supervisor, “Good morning Hannah”, Me, “Como estas?”, my supervisor, “Fine, thank you, now would you like some tea?”—“Si.” Needless to say, the conversation ends in mutual frustration.

Though my work is sometimes confusing, and would definitely make for a comical reality show, it is also extremely gratifying at the end of day. Even though the atmosphere in the office is always lighthearted, the issues faced by the clients are very serious. Many of the members have physical or mental disabilities, or are suffering from terminal illness. They also face the added challenges of integrating into an unfamiliar country, finding housing, finding employment, and getting legalized. I’ve worked with a woman who needed to have her husband’s diagnosis of bone marrow cancer translated into Spanish because no one at her clinic could speak Spanish and she didn’t understand what was wrong with him. I’ve translated marriage certificates to be sent to the legalization office, and recruited volunteers to become weekly companions for housebound, elderly clients. Not one day has been the same as the next and despite my often embarrassing misadventures in language, the experience has been very rewarding, sometimes heartbreaking, and always a surprise.