A uncharacteristically churchy title for this blog post, but this is the phrase that has been in my head today. This morning I had my second meeting with my new mentee, a Bangladeshi woman who has recently come to England. We walked around the market practising English conversation. She bought me a cup of tea (I tried to pay!). There was a nice moment when the shop lady said how much it was, and my lady didn't understand, so I repeated it, and then she got out her £2 coin and looked at me as if to say, "Is that right?", and I gave her the thumbs up. It's extremely rare to see white eastenders and Bangladeshi immigrants mixing socially, but how amazing would it be if every newcomer had a local to help them in the first few months? How much easier would integration become?
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