Everyday Faithfulness - John & Janice Bogott
In March 2024 we were invited to attend a meeting introducing the leadership of Refugee Memphis and their need for “language partners” for the many recent refugees that had come to the Memphis area. We have donated to that cause in the past, but frankly I had no interest in attending a sales pitch of another benevolent organization… Janice talked me into going. The meeting started as most do, with snacks and small talk—information about the mission of RM, personnel introductions, several speakers who had already been in the role of a language partner, and proceeded to the distribution of a notebook with “resumes” of refugees that are in the Memphis area and in need of help. We looked through the book, most were single individuals, but one page jumped out to us. The resume was a page for a young man that had only recently made it to Memphis. It detailed a little of his background, and let us know he was engaged to a young lady. Bingo! For some reason, a young couple soon to be married struck a chord for both of us, AND we still did not know what we were getting ourselves into.
It took several weeks for us to actually meet over coffee, at which Josh (from RM) hosted and made introductions. We discussed a few basic goals—they were very simple—primarily the new couple (Paul and Anastasiia) need help with conversational English. If that means sentence structure and proper diction—we are in trouble… but here we go. We decided to set our expectations gently, so our first meeting was a picnic lunch at Shelby Farms. We sat by the lake and talked about their journey that culminated in landing in Memphis. It was an amazing story, and it took a while to flesh out all the details. They didn’t know us or what they were getting into, but we were all excited to start this effort together. We decided that we would begin with a lot of questions about the meanings of American sayings. We had no idea we have so many sayings that make ZERO sense. How do you explain the meaning of “what’s up”, “hang in there”, or “raining cats and dogs?” American English is truly weird and we named the sessions Idioms From Idiots. We also did a lot of work with tenses. We met on Saturday mornings for coffee almost every week, and we usually started with questions about sayings and their meaning/use. We were amazed how helpful that was for them, and the longer we met the more proficient at English they became.
Our friendship developed rapidly, and we were invited to their wedding in June. It was so much fun to see the gleam in their eyes for each other, and they reached out to us for a lot of information and help. They told us about their honeymoon plans—going to Miami and renting a car to see south Florida. But they didn’t know that car rentals can be expensive and are not friendly toward couples under 25. We were able to give them some valuable guidance on what to expect and it turned out it was good and accurate information. We introduced them to good old American hot dogs and hamburgers on the 4th of July—complete with instructions on how to build a proper hamburger. They joined us for our family Thanksgiving feast and really enjoyed it. Prior to our meal, we spent quite a bit of time explaining the origin of Thanksgiving in America.
As our time together increased so did our relationship. We shared stories about the Smoky Mountains, Lake Pickwick and many other places. We talked about hunting one time and they both lit up about wanting to try “shoot guns” (rifles). We told Paul that if he would get his hunter safety certification, we would buy him a hunting license and take him deer hunting. Little did we know how excited and enthused he was. He got the certificate, we went hunting and he harvested a nice buck on his first hunt. We suspected the deer hunt was more than just an outing—it fed their entire extended family and is a vivid reminder of a close knit family that shares and helps one another.
As we have already said—we had no idea what we were getting into when this started last March. We thought this would be a strenuous effort to help someone learn some English. Not so. We have gotten to see a young couple marry, adapt and grow. They have given us more than we could ever imagine, and have become more like adopted family. This was supposed to be few months of teaching/learning, but it has turned into a genuine relationship that we will continue to enjoy for years to come.