Ismail is a volunteer from Sudan who has been participating in food distributions and the English language exchanges with Serve the City Paris for 6 months. After co-leading a food distribution route in Châtelet on a Friday morning, we headed to the métro and started talking. He has been in France for over two years, so it was no surprise when he swiftly guided us through the Châtelet station like an expert.
Ismail
“I feel more integrated and connected in Paris.”
Ismail speaks two local Sudanese languages, Arabic, French and English. Serve the City Paris has been a great learning opportunity for him, especially when it comes to English. He says that he knew a lot of words in English but through the activities he has been able to learn new ways to describe things and started speaking in English with more confidence.
“Meeting people from different countries, with different accents. It’s good!”
Volunteering has also opened up a chance to participate in many intercultural exchanges. “When we walk on the way to food distribution, we get to speak to each other.” He enjoys finding people from different countries and acquiring small ideas from each of them.
With the organization, Ismail has been able to feel more connected to others. He says many volunteers are kind, understanding and social, so “Working in groups is easy.” Volunteering makes him feel like he’s doing the most out of his free time. “Doing something for the community feels great.” Finding someone who needs help and being able to help them in the moment is a beautiful feeling.
“When I come here, I feel like I’m back in Sudan.”
Ismail has been able to find his sense of community within the city and in Serve the City Paris. He feels happy to be able to speak his native languages, as he’s still keeping his culture. Ismail shares that the Sudanese communities are spread out around the city, in different areas like Belleville, La Chapelle, and Porte de Clignancourt, allowing many to feel as if they are back home. From these, we visited La Chappelle and Ismail took us to this restaurant, where we would eat the tasty Sudanese foods: gheema, asida, kisra, kamounia, rigla, ful medames, and kebda.
Ismail likes to play football within his community, read books, and does his best to watch as many Sudanese football matches as he can. Although he’s far from home, the biggest traditions he still keeps are: celebrating Sudan’s independence day (which happens to be on January first!) and also celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan.
When asked what is something he wished more people knew about Sudan, he said “We have more pyramids than Egypt.” I was shocked! Sudan has around 200 to 250 pyramids, while Egypt has 138. Additionally, mango is highly exported from Sudan. Its trees are extremely present throughout the country and Ismail has a very fond memory of climbing them. Learning more about Ismail, his country and culture was a wonderful experience!
“A Day in the Life of _” is a project by Kasey Polo-Londoño where she interviews beneficiaries who are also volunteers, with the intent to get to know their efforts within the organization, the city and the sense of community they’ve created while connecting to their countries and cultures.