Reflective Journal Entry: Jun 15th, 2009
Source: SEAMAAC website
It was a delight to visit the Jook Breakfast Program. Made possible via Penn Asian Health Initiatives (PAHI), the trip marked my first involvement with the Vietnamese community here in Philadelphia.
Entering the house from the chilling wind, I was greeted by scenes of the elders cheerfully chatting with one another in a medium-sized room. At one corner, a group of men were absorbed in a Chinese chess game. The game required so much patience and analytic skill that everyone seemed very serious at it. At another table, some ladies were exchanging stories and news from here and there. It was, however, impossible to hear anything clearly. The sound of Vietnamese, English, and Laotian spoken at the same time produced a funny, buzzing, and incomprehensible noise filling the entire room. From the back, I could smell a comforting aroma of jook, a Chinese watery rice gruel that was usually served as breakfast. Beside jook, there was also “banh canh”, a type of Vietnamese noodle soup.
The introduction to the SEAMAAC staff was brief and pleasant. While awkwardly standing and not knowing what to do, I was drawn to a group of three women standing in front of a board. After discussing something with one another, two started to jot things down. To my surprise, the board was soon filled with messages and announcements for the elders in three languages: Vietnamese, Laotian, and English. I suddenly thought of those big expensive blackboards that we use at Penn. On what occasion could I see them be filled with three languages at the same time like that? This reminded me of the multilingual and multicultural nature of this community
At 10:15 sharp, the staff started to make announcements, again three times in three languages. Interestingly, every time a special upcoming event was announced, the message of whether there was free lunch or food for attendants was also mentioned. This made me think of the health communication theories we discussed in class. Communication is an interactive, two-way process in which the message conveyed reflects not only the speaker’s and but also the audience’s concerns and interests. Here the staff announced the event, but also included information that concerned their audience. I really appreciated this little detail as a theory-to- practice illustration.
The food was served afterward. During that time I got to chat with several elders personally. An elder told me that he also had a daughter at my age but she was working, not in college right now. I shared with him a bit about myself and my family back home, being surprised by how open he was in the conversation. Since I was a part of PAHI, a name they were familiar with, the elders treated me as one of the staff. All in all, the conversations were really delightful and intimate. The elders reminded me so much of my grandparents back home.
