Every Thursday and many Tuesday evenings I tutor three or four intermediate learners in English at Church of the Servant, usually two Bosnians and one Ukrainian (all women). The college-educated Ukrainian woman is essentially a mail-order bride who has been here about a year and has just recently had a job interview. We were all rejoicing with her tonight as she got the job as a custodian at a well-known local business, especially since after a trial period the job can be full time with some benefits, which neither Bosnian woman, who have lived her much longer, has. One of the factors that made this so special was that during her interview she was asked to share her "short term" and "long term" goals, concepts we had discussed in one of our textbook lessons. ("Isn't God good?" I asked them.) The two Bosnian women have either college or technical college training as well and work as custodians (one perhaps a sales-person?) at a store in a nearby mall. Yet they were so gracious, and one of them worked hard to say that she has no "shame" in being a janitor. We talked about that a bit and hit upon a true sentence--"There is no shame in doing any job well." I told them there is another word to describe their attitude and that was "content." They were content to do the work they are doing because it provides needed money for their families and hope for their children's futures. "Content," said one of the Bosnian women, "Thank you, Barbara, for my new word."
