PIT of HOPE

A friend of mine recently reminded me that learning a new language is like building a high-rise building. Before any upward progress you have to dig downwards in order to form the foundation.

This image has really resonated with me. Such deep-hole-digging can be a dirty downward dread. It can be humiliating and it makes my head hurt as I twist my brain and tongue in strange ways to try to communicate simple ideas. Sometimes this hole that is being dug in the name of “the foundation” seems dark.

But then I walk out of the classroom and clear my head with a stroll down the street. Close by is a construction site in its early stage of building. It’s a gigantic hole a couple stories deep. A long bamboo path that sits at a 45 degree angle provides a bouncy pathway for dozens of exploited day laborers to go down, come back up, and to reload the woven baskets on their heads. These women and men are poor, but they work hard at building the homes and offices of their exploiters. It’s hot and dirty work, but each day puts food on the table for their family.

I can’t help but compare and contrast my language learning and the work of the construction workers. They’re beyond compare, yet our paths are starting to cross.

They may be regularly frustrated and humiliated. They may feel like they’ll never get ahead or see the light of day. They may never get a pay increase, even as the price of oil/food nails them.

I, on the other hand, am privileged to have the resources and time to pay for language classes instead of working in the dripping heat for my next meal. However, I am thankful that I get to experience a mere GLIMPSE of humbling frustration in my language learning.

There life and mine are totally different. But at the same time, I see our common bond that will only increase in the coming years. Yes, we’re together in a dirt hole now, but eventually I will be building upward, and hope to join in their building. Hopefully I will have the words and the understanding to somehow begin to journey with them in their dark pit of hopelessness. Yet it won’t be them and me, but us. Together figuring out how to use our God-given resources, skills and creativity to build our lives up to a level of dignity where there is light – a place of hope. The kind of hope that gives hope to others and shares instead of creating another cycle of hoarding and exploiting.

As I’m frustrated and humbled by language learning, it is nothing compared to the frustrating realities of those I look forward to journeying with. Every time I walk past that pit of construction, I’m reminded of the pit that the poor find themselves in. And this inspires me to stop whining and to carry on. My journey with the poor doesn’t start in the slums. It has already started in this foundation-building time.