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.

first christmas in the u.s.

today i was overwhelmed.

and overjoyed.

and uber grateful.

a few months ago i managed to "win" - i got one of my clients chosen for the ultimate christmas. a family contacted catholic charities and said they wanted to "adopt" a refugee family for christmas. one of my families, a refugee family from Chin State in Burma, was chosen to be their lucky adopted family. i helped them to create their "need" and "want" lists, all the while encouraging them not to expect to receive everything they were asking for! i had no idea what i had gotten them into....

this afternoon i went over to my clients' apartment, where i met the donor family, and their MOVING TRUCK. a huge garbage bag FULL of presents was dropped off - one bag for each person in the family. a box full of steaks was placed in the refrigerator for their holiday meal. my clients, a family of 5, had been sleeping on the floor until the donor family brought them bunkbeds. i was in awe.

this is my clients' first christmas in the united states. they told me that last saturday was the first time they had ever seen snow in their lives. the donor family's children and i then brainstormed all the fun things to do with snow and tried to explain to my clients what fun can be had with this weird white substance falling from the sky!

the mother of the family knows next to zero english. through giggles and holding back tears, she managed to say "i am very very thank you" along with several "merry christmas"es. it was PRECIOUS. she asked for each person in the donor family's name so that she could pray for each of them, because that was the only way she was able to thank them.

the family said they would wait until christmas day to open their presents.

when i went back to discuss their phone bill with them later in the afternoon, everything was already open :) ha! air mattresses, laptop, vacuum, clothes upon clothes, winter coats, mp3 players, playstation 3, and MORE. wow.

i am in awe of this donor family's generosity. they seriously just changed this refugee family's lives around. it was obvious that they were extremely wealthy, and perhaps buying all these presents to them was like dropping a few pennies on the ground for me and not picking them up. but regardless of this, that family really embraced what christmas should be about. i felt, and feel, truly blessed to have been a part of such generosity, and the sharing of such hope and joy.

merry christmas!

(...and now each of you should go adopt a refugee family! ha!)

cascanueces!!!

i just spent probably too long looking at my pictures from the christmas season of last year. at the time, i was really struggling to be away from home during the holidays, and strove to recreate every tradition possibly recreated whilst in mexico (including cinnamon rolls and red cake). i remember feeling very distanced from everyone at home, and feeling like it wasn't really christmas. but looking back, i think christmas time was some of my favorite times last year. i made new memories, did new things, and embraced christmas in a new way. i am grateful for my experience of christmas 2009!

one thing i remember that i did that TRULY got me in the christmas spirit last year was going to see Cascanueces (the nutcracker!). And again, as my mother and grandmother taught me to, i went to see the nutcracker this year.

my housemates, john and tina, and i got all dressed up, went out for indian food (yum!) and then headed to Music Hall downtown to see The Nutcracker. No version of the nutcracker will be as perfect as the one from my childhood at stranahan theatre, but i always enjoy it no matter what the differences are. it was QUITE the delight to see!

and the best part - as we were walking out of the show, we were greeted by a huge winter swirling snowy storm! this created a tense (at least for me) drive home, but it was seriously beautiful. so far it's been the one and only sighting of snow out in this hot land of kansas (it was 50 today!) i am very much looking forward to going home on thursday to a REAL winter wonderland.

in the meantime, enjoy a few photos of me and my housemates pumped for the nutcracker

arabic coffee

This morning i picked up new clients of mine to take them to apply for public housing. After having been in the United States for 3 months, these clients are now being passed to me - their new caseworker; clients in their first three months receive much more intense assistance, a sort of hand-holding-we'll-guide-you're-way-and-make-sure-everything-is-okay assistance. After three months, however, they are passed to my department, where we are able to offer them assistance (with a little less hand-holding) for up to five years after their arrival.

My new family is from Iraq, and they spoke a surprisingly good amount of English. Perhaps their daily half hour bus ride to DonBosco, where they receive ESL classes, has been benefiting them indeed. As they, and many other refugees, struggle to understand life in a whole new language, I too find myself pushed to learn new languages. On my van ride home for Thanksgiving I used an app on an iphone to learn several phrases in Burmese. For example "minglaba" is an often heard phrase around our office, meaning "good day" or "hello." I also chuckled as i learned the phrase "yay cho ba" which means "take a bath." we'll see if i ever learn that newly acquired phrase...

But today i got to learn some new words directly from clients. as i drove to work this morning i saw my first snow flurries since 2 winters ago. it was a delight. and i quickly learned the arabic word for snow, pronounced "filage" (like village, but with an "f"). When i ran into another Iraqi client living in the same building and i tossed around my newly learned term i got some strange looks and laughs.

after running here and there and everywhere in the "filage" with my new Iraqi clients, I was invited in to their home for some "Arabic Coffee" to warm up. Now, I do not like coffee. It is like eating liquid bitter dirt. gross. But of course I had to accept. i was served coffee in a tiny TINY mug, more comparable to the size of a shot glass, but all cute and with a handle. it was served on a little silver platter. an adorable little scene all around. but WOW. talk about the STRONGEST, most BITTER, miniature cup of coffee ever! i told them that there was no way i was going to be able to sleep tonight, even after a sip! (which might actually be true, since i'm awake at this hour still!) i struggled to get a few sips down before claiming i had another appointment i was late for...

Tomorrow morning I am giving another Iraqi client a ride to an appointment, perhaps I will surprise and astound her with my newfound Arabic words :-) Cynthia, I might need your help soon so i don't sound like a goober trying to talk with them!