Sister Pauline

Since leaving New Hall I have become involved in a variety of activities but I would like to tell you about two of them.

My background in teaching English as a Foreign Language encouraged me to look for work that would use this skill.

First, I was contacted by the Black and Ethnic Minorities coordinator at the Chelmsford Volunteer Centre.  She asked me to put on a series of informal English classes.  The main object of this course was to give non-English speakers the confidence to offer their services as volunteers or to go on to further study, or indeed employment.  The classes took place at the Central Baptist Church in the centre of town which has done a fantastic job in refurbishing the church to meet the needs of the local community.  The course attracted Africans, Indians, Chinese and other South East Asian people as well as the occasional European!  At the moment we have finished the first series and we are evaluating the course.  A new coordinator is taking over from the former office holder.  In the mean time I am keeping in touch with some of the students – particularly a small but significant group of Muslim women from the Indian sub-continent.  I have made a number of good contacts with these women.  Some have been here for decades but have never really learnt English.  I have begun to appreciate the problems they face and have valued hearing their stories.

I am also working at the local prison, teaching English to the many overseas prisoners in jail.  My small classroom truly becomes the world!  China, Eastern Europe, South East Asia, Turkey, and occasionally Western Europe make for an interesting mix!  Most of them need very Basic English but some want to improve their level of English.  Differentiation takes on a very different meaning when you have a man from Pakistan who can’t write in his own language and has very little English or a man from Mongolia who was the only Mongolian national in the prison (and had no English) in the same class as a couple of young Polish men who have learnt English at school!  Another small complication is that you are ‘banged up’  with them for two and a half hours at a stretch (excuse the puns!) and have to depend on the prison officer for toilet breaks!  There is very rapid turnover as Chelmsford is a remand prison as well as a Category B and a Young offenders Institution.  Often I would love to know what has happened to certain students.  Occasionally you get a glimpse or they ask you to read a letter they have prepared for the solicitor.  More often than not you just see these young men (and most of them are young) and give them what you can and hold them in your prayers.  It is a rewarding but frustrating form of apostolic service.  I have my belt and set of keys and a whistle.  I don’t feel at all in danger but I do feel a sense of deep sadness for these men locked away, often in the prime of their life.  Spare them a thought in your prayers.