*Note to my guests from the Works For Me Wednesday Blog Carnival: I first started mentoring a newly arrived couple a year and a half ago. Last week I met a new family. They are AWESOME. Mentoring can mean many things - it sort of means whatever they need and you can provide. You can be a friend or a surrogate family, a teacher, a cultural guide, etc, etc. I wrote about working with refugees here and here. I work as a volunteer with the International Rescue Commission, but I also recommend World Relief. It is one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done*
Tee Reh and Soh Meh were married a year ago and were given permission to come to the US as refugees. They've been in Dallas a few months. He has a job as a janitor, and she stays at home. They're lucky that his sister and her husband and their kids moved to Dallas at the same time, so they actually have family nearby.
This family is also from Burma, just like the other family I mentored. They actually live just a few apartments over from where the other family first lived, so I know my way around. They are Kareni, which are a people group that lives in the state next to the Karen people. The Burmese government has pushed them out of their native lands through economic persecution, harsh governmental control, and sometimes physical violence. Tee Reh fled his homeland with his family about 13 years ago and has been waiting around in camps over the border in Thailand, a people without a home, unable to travel anywhere or get a job.
The first meeting is always nerve-wracking! The Kareni are a pretty remote and uneducated people (or so I'm told), so there was a chance that this couple would have a HUGE adjustment process, lack basic sanitation knowledge, and not even know how to read or write their own language. We had no way of knowing how this little family would be until we got to their apartment. The IRC volunteer coordinator took me and a translator (a teenage Burmese boy) to their tiny apartment. We all nervously chuckled through an awkward conversation as we tried to get across who I was and what I would be doing as a mentor for them. Several jokes definitely fell flat and there were awkward silences and nervous polite smiles.
BUT... when the translator and the volunteer coordinator left, it turned out that we hardly even needed the translator at all! Tee Reh actually has a great grasp on basic English - he slurs all of his words together but his vocab and grammar is so impressive for a new immigrant! He can read and write and even taught school in the refugee camps. They were THRILLED that they would have someone coming to teach them English. It was SO fun to chat with Tee Reh because he is so motivated and determined, I have so much respect for him. I asked him if he liked his job and he looked at me and shrugged his shoulders and said "It doesn't matter if I like it. I have to work." That is a GREAT understanding for a new immigrant to have - work ethic is a huge indicator of the success of their future.
Tee Reh told me he needs help reading the bus schedules and help with shopping, but mostly he just repeatedly said he needs to learn English. He was very clear that he needs English before anything else in their life can really happen. He also wants to learn how to use the internet, and it's impressive that he understands the importance of the internet. He's never used a computer, and he asked if we could help him find a used computer so he could just learn to navigate around on one. I explained how expensive the internet is to have as a monthly bill, and he understood and said it would be better just to learn to navigate on a computer, and then he could use the free internet at libraries. That frugal side is a good thing - refugees often don't yet realize how to budget their money. This family didn't even have a tv, which is usually the very first thing refugees get. I actually think they need one, because it will help with language acquisition. If anyone finds a cheap tv in Dallas, let me know!
Today when I brought Isaac back both of them worked so hard on pronunciation - they are determined to get it! It's so fun to work together on it - we giggle at the funny differences of speaking. "th" is really hard for them to say, as is the "k" and "x" sound. So Meh tried over and over again to say October and kept saying Ostober again and again until we all dissolved into giggles. So fun!
They are an absolutely adorable young couple. She's an itty bitty little thing, so sweet. He's an easy-going and good-humored man, and there's a tenderness between them. They are Catholic, and a small framed photo of Mary and prayer beads were the only decorations in their sparse apartment.
I'm very excited to keep working with them! We leave the apartment practically giddy with the excitement of it. It's really SO fulfilling.
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What an awesome opportunity!
ReplyDeletehey Kacie-I love what you are doing and where your heart is-you inspired me to look into working with refugees here in Alberta after reading about the other family you were working with and you linked to a friends blog once who was helping a family too. Thanks for opening my eyes to a need that I would love to help with. I can't go overseas anytime soon and I always felt so called to work with other cultures-and working with refugees is the perfect fit! Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteOh man, I really need to look into this! I'm so excited for you, it sounds like a really great opportunity. I've yet to find a good way to volunteer my time, and I definitely feel the lack. So yeah, maybe I'll look into this.
ReplyDeleteOkay, this has nothing to do with your post, but the e-mail optiondidn't seem to work.
ReplyDeleteAbout Wheaton's clinical psych program ...
I loved it. I absolutely loved it. The two years that I spent in it are probably the best spent of my life so far. For me, I found it to be an incredibly fresh breath of "Christian" air and really healing in some ways. I know you've heard it all before about Moody, but I definitely struggled there with feeling like professors were very arrogant in their "rightness" about all sorts of theological issues and I felt very bogged down in that. For that reason, I felt like I thrived at Wheaton where I perceived there to be a real air of Christian community ... where people have totally distinct theological views and yet prize, value, and work together with each other really well. So that was great for me.
In terms of Wheaton as a Christian psych program, it was perfect for me. I desired to go somewhere that taught great academics and reinforced using research available, etc. I wanted to be a great clinician. I felt that Wheaton was a great blend of academia, but always with the idea that as Christians we think differently and we help people differently. It was a big part of the program. That being said, I know that some people struggled feeling like there wasn't enough Christian influence in the psychological aspects. So it does depend what you are looking for. Some wanted prayer, and really concrete ways to mix faith and Christianity ... and didn't feel they received that to their liking. What I would say is that the majority of professors at Wheaton view integration from a faith-praxis standpoint instead of the types of standpoints we were taught in the Moody counseling program. (It's interesting b/c at Moody you read a book about 4 views written by Wheaton people and then you choose the view you correspond to and write about it for your sr. thesis. Well, from what I remember, none of my Wheaton professors adhered to any of the four views! In fact, over the years they have been developing their own model together as a team and are writing about it). So anyway, from the faith-praxis standpoint, the emphasis is on the therapist and the therapist's relationship with God. Keeping that right and modeling Christ-likeness to heal brokenness with clients. It's not generally so overt as praying or using the bible to measure techniques against, etc. (not that they don't do this). That being said, what I valued most was feeling that my professors, though not perfect, were INCREDIBLE models of being Christ-like people to us as students and demonstrating how to be listening to God and non-judgmental to people at the same time!
I don't know if that makes a lot of sense or not but hopefully it helps. If you have any specific questions about what I said or other things you wonder about, feel free to ask. I like talking about my time there:)