rohingya

Just to keep you all updated with the world news....

check out this link

and this video

it's interesting how links on CNN that i would have just passed by before, not really knowing what they were talking about, are links that spark my interest now. it's like a whole new world (yes, aladdin) has been opened to me because of this job. crazy.... makes me wonder about the fifty bazillion other things going on in the world that i have had no exposure to and just know nothing about...

the Bhutanese in Kansas City

Today I received an email from a Bhutanese community member about an article and video that a student journalist had created about the Bhutanese community in Kansas City. Feel free to check it out at this link:

http://footslogging.com/kansas-city/

The movie is a little long, but the article is well-written as well. And the video and the pictures in the article are full of people that I work with on a daily basis. So if you have a few minutes, and want to read or hear a little bit about the struggles of being a Bhutanese refugee in Kansas City, check out that link!

snow day!

about a year ago i wrote a blog (who knew rain days existed) about my surprise at school being cancelled due to rain. perhaps it was due to the street turning into a muddy river. or perhaps it was due to a different culture that knows how, and when, to stop and take a breath.

today i was reminded of this when i got a text from my boss at 8 am saying "the office is closed today. go build a snowman!" my immediate response was - what? real people with real people jobs get snow days too?! i figured that one of many sacrifices i was going to have to make by choosing a job other than teaching was to give up snow days. what a delightful surprise to be wrong!

i hurried downstairs and made celebratory pancakes (with butterscotch chips, of course) for myself and my housemates who ALSO all had snow days. we then spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing. we knitted. we had craft time. we watched movies. we ate. we just took a breather (minus my short attempt at shoveling that i quickly abandoned as i realized the sidewalk was getting re-covered in snow just as quickly as i was clearing it). it was a delight to just to stop. and enjoy a day. it was different than any saturday. there is always something to do, an errand to run, a room to be cleaned, something on any given weekend. but having a snow day today allowed me just to relax.

i realized two things today:

1. i was extremely surprised that a company in the United States would close its office for a little bit of snow. in our culture of go-go-go-work-work-work-achieve-achieve-achieve, it was a shock (a pleasant one, albeit) that so many organizations/businesses would close down.

2. maybe the families in La Via in Cuernavaca, Mexico had it right - when the weather isn't ideal, there's no need to make a hassle for your day and try to fight it - simply take the day off, stay home, enjoy some relaxation and free time.

i wish our culture could embrace that idea better. next time it's pouring down rain, don't go to the grocery store just because you had planned to. the groceries will be there tomorrow. . . take a breather. take a break. just enjoying being.

technology and reality

Yesterday an Iraqi client of mine asked me if I could bring her mother and father to the United States from Iraq. I carefully explained (per our attorney's information) to my client that here in the United States we can apply for a refugee's spouse or children to join them (through family reunification), but that a refugee's siblings and parents were not able to do so. My client quickly explained that her parents were in poor health and needed desperately to come to the United States. Wasn't there anything I could do to help them come? ... I used the usual phrase when all I really want to say is "I have no idea!" - saying, instead, "let me talk to my supervisors and see what we can find out and i will let you know in a few days." my client took this in stride and quietly left my office.

Later that afternoon I talked to my boss's (or is it boss'?) boss's boss. She said that my client's parents were VERY lucky for the following reasons:

In every country in the world, other than Iraq, in order to apply to come to the United States (or any other resettling country) as a refugee, you have to FLEE your own country to another country first. You then have to prove that it is unsafe for you return to your home country. HOWEVER, Iraq is the ONLY country in which this is not the case. In Iraq, you can go to the UN offices in Baghdad itself and apply for refugee status if you prove that you are in danger living there. Hmmmm, that sounded easy enough....

The next day I went to my client's home (slickly turning down an offer for more arabic coffee first...) to take my clients to sign a few papers. When I walked in the door my client and her family were gathered around their computer - on which was a video of a dark room with a couple of figures in the foreground. "Natalie! Quick! Come say hi! It's my parents in Iraq!" I try to simply wave and say hi to the people i see on the screen that are half a world away, but I am quickly hurried over to the screen, sat down on the chair, and a set of headphones/microphone are placed on my head. Welp, guess I'm talking to them now... After impressing them with my limited Arabic and a greeting of "how are you?" I hear - "Please, please help us. We are very sick and need to come to the United States." i proceed to explain to them, and my clients, what my boss' boss' boss had told me. should be easily done right? "here? in baghdad? at the UN?" "yes," i tell them, "easy as that!" "but," they reply, "we are so old and sick. and we never EVER leave the house. there are bombs everywhere and killings all the time. how will we get to the UN?"

wow ... did i ever take for granted the fact that I can safely walk out my front door whenever i feel like it. . . hello reality check.