The following is a beautiful poem written about Casa Marianella. The author is our very own talented ESL teacher volunteer, Omar Gamboa. We had the pleasure of gathering to hear Omar recite his poem the week after our Show and Tell Night!
One roof: that title there, I understand, is slightly misleading.
After all, Casa is not just one concrete roof,
One roof… how many eyes are looking back at me in this room?
It’s uncountable! So thank heavens Casa is not just one roof.
A roof can be symbolic of any home, rather than that of a physical house..
“A roof over your head, it’s the greatest necessity,”
Says my 6th grade Lithuanian teacher.
I reply, “but…food. But…my Nintendo.” (Forgive me, I was 10.)
And she recounted her childhood, reminding me she was a woman,
Who, since age 2, got goosebumps when commercial airplanes passed her by.
But where the Axis powers didn’t harm her physically, they did take from her
Her roof, her roof of origin.
Every morning, we gleefully obeyed one unique demand from herEvery
morning, my class recited:
GOOD MORNING, MRS. V
GUTEN MORGEN
BUENOS DÍAS
BONJOUR
And OHAYOGOZAIMAS
Every day we did this, giggling to one another.
It wasn’t a giggle of dissent.
It wasn’t a giggle of confusion.
It was a giggle of fun.We giggled with a fun love for learning.
It was learning to greet others when they shared with us
One roof.
Now, here, under this roof,
While our languages sometimes seem as miles apart
As they demanded us to be when we were born,
I can confidently say to you all,
BUENOS DÍAS
BONJOUR
BOM DIA
SABAH ALKHYR
And GOOD MORNING
Under the same roof.
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