Doing the right thing: two views

Focus on Leonardo in the coffee klatch

Doing the right thing: two views

I

My mentor was always seven minutes late for our Latin class twenty-five years ago.  Unlike Jørgen, I arrive on the dot, but late in the eyes of Ellie, another volunteer teacher for our drop-in English conversation group at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library.  Ellie, a retired scientist, has already pushed two heavy library tables together for eager people still arriving.  I give her name tags and an attendance sheet and then suggest that the group talk about Spring festivals where they are from, Asia, Latin America, Europe, former Russian republics, and the Mid-East.   Ellie is a perfect match for them.  She will work carefully to correct pronunciation and explain new words and expressions as they read a short article I have prepared.

I leave Ellie’s group to join a second group, the “old faithfuls,” known also as the coffee klatch.  After we greet each other with kisses, I trade notes on the DC theatre scene with Micaela, a young Argentine actress who is wearing extravagant dangly pearl earrings. While Mark, another volunteer teacher, pulls two more tables together for the coffee klatch, I run to the information desk in the next room to get 20 copies of a short opinion piece I have chosen for both groups’ main topic, “Going to the Funeral,” a transcript from a 2005 NPR broadcast.  I hope we will focus on the subtext of the piece, positive aspects of doing the right thing, rather than its depressing subject.  I will ask them to make comparisons between funeral celebrations in their home countries and various funerary customs in the USA.

This second group, the coffee klatch, from Asia, Europe, Africa, the Mideast, and Latin America, which tolerates minimal intervention from Mark and me, know each other well, although there are a couple of unfamiliar faces.   I try to balance them, to get the Asians to talk, while reining in regulars from Egypt, Morocco, Germany, France and Italy. 

I can depend on Leonardo, arriving around 10:15 in his motorcycle helmet and black leather jacket that glint and shine like his dark eyes and straight dark hair.  Leonardo wakes us up with a slide presentation about Spring festivals around the world.  We have to laugh at how thorough his research has been, ranging from pyramids in Mexico to surfing in Wales, balloons filled with dye in India, to marital arrangements in Russia.

II

Leo is late to the Library, but brightens up when he sees Susan.  In Mexico drop-in means you come when you can.   His six-year-old son Dominic was dawdling over breakfast before the two of them walked slowly to the boy’s school.   Leo can’t conceal his worries about Mr. Trump’s weird ideas about Mexico, though, as he tells the group, the Mexican President Enrique Nieto Peña beat Trump in the scoundrel contest by plagiarizing his law school thesis and colluding with drug lords.  

Days can be long for a househusband, and Leo is grateful to have a project.  Finding out about Spring festivals around the world gave him something else to talk about with Dominic.  Since Dominic enjoyed the slide show, Leo isn’t surprised that the group likes his presentation. 

Everyone is invited to speak about Spring festivals back home. He can’t understand when Ikumi talks about Spring festivals in Japan.  Argentina and Italy have the same traditions about giving children Easter eggs that contain presents, which Dominic would enjoy.  Youssef tells about a three-day festival in Kelaat Mgovna, in a valley of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, famous for roses, and an international music festival in Gnaowa.

After finishing with Spring festivals, there’s a short article to look at called “Always Go to the Funeral.”  What a downer to hear the others talk about doing the right thing, like filling out forms, waiting in line, and enduring unpleasant work environments, but even worse to hear details about funerals, except for Youssef who accepts death as part of life.  Anna, whose husband is at death’s door with cancer, looks like she will pass out.  At the end of the meeting the mood perks up again: even the usually restrained Julia from Germany gets excited talking about Mr Trump.

Leo knows he makes many mistakes but he gets few corrections because he is fluent.  He’s frustrated enough to be talking of leaving the conversation group to take classes at the Washington English Center to get his English straightened out.  He’s heard that he will learn a lot there and also make more friends.  After the two groups break up, Leo begins to talk to Baur, a smiling young guy from Kazakhstan, about going to the Center together.