Day 3 on Day 4

This post is from Wednesday.

Today our group spent the morning working with Lutheran Services of Georgia assisting refugees who have recently resettled to the Atlanta area and are working to learn English, create email accounts, and develop resumes to apply for jobs.  LSG helps refugees who are resettling gain employment so that the time that the resettlement grant they are provided has been fully utilized, they are gainfully employed in a job where their skills are meaningful.  When we arrived at LSG, we took some time to do some morning stretches to prepare for the day.

After properly preparing for the day, our group welcomed the refugee families to LSG and were even able to reconnect with several of the families we met on Tuesday when visiting homes.  This was a great surprise and blessing!  As families arrived, each of our team members paired up with an individual or family to help with English language practice and develop natural conversation skills.  Once everyone had arrived, we heard the stories of one of the current women who had recently resettled to Clarkston, GA from Somalia.  She is only 24, which is close to the age of several of our team members; this was especially impactful as we reflected on her experience vs. ours and how resilient and determined she was despite having to resettle without her husband.  She is hoping he will be able to resettle to the USA soon.  They registered separately in the refugee camp rather than as husband and wife so that they could receive additional food rations.  This is a common and sometimes necessary decision because, even as a single mom with one child, they only received 3lbs of grain rations (the main food) for an entire month.  Her husband was able to receive food separately and they were able to have some additional food they would not have otherwise had.  The average person eats around 5 lbs of food per day, so it can be easy to see why her family made this decision.   This was shocking to many of our team members and her story left an impact on us.  

Next, the team heard from a current LSG staff member who had resettled to the Clarkston area more than 30 years ago from Iraq and began working at LSG as his first job.  He shared with the volunteers and refugees attending the classes how much more advanced and helpful the services offered to refugees have become since he resettled.  He discussed how he did not have a case manager or a matching grant to help with the first few months' expenses and transitions.  He encouraged those in attendance to pursue employment and work to learn English.  It was great to hear two very different stories of resettlement success.   We were also able to teach "Happy Birthday" to the clients and sing to Suelemon, who's birthday is May 1!

Our next task involved working with those who were in need of a resume and email account to become employed.  Many of the individuals we worked with were very early in learning English and had never created a resume before.  In many of their home countries, there was either no need because individuals traditionally remain in the same career throughout their lifetime, or they had been living in a refugee camp so long, it was difficult to include any employment.  Our team worked through language barriers with the help of translators and using Google images to determine which skills the clients we worked with had.  This was extremely helpful, however, it became apparent that we were now experiencing similar difficulties or frustrations as those we were helping have been experiencing when trying to communicate to us.  We were not able to understand some of the types of jobs, names of companies or cities, or translate the types of skills effectively from their lives in their home countries to traditional jobs in the United States.  Our team worked diligently to prepare resumes with as much correct and helpful information as possible, but the LSG staff mentioned that resumes often took several reviews by clients as their English improves to be fully ready to submit to employers.  Overall, it was a very impactful experience to help with this process and also to begin to understand (on a much smaller level) what it's like when you are working to communicate and there is a major language or cultural breakdown.  

Before heading to lunch, several of our team members were able to spend more time with the LSG staff sharing our stories from the week and learning about future involvement opportunities as a team and individually.  We have truly enjoyed partnering with Melanie and LSG in general.  It will be a bittersweet moment to say goodbye (hopefully temporarily) to Melanie tomorrow morning.  

The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic site is just down the street from LSG, so our team took some time to visit this site and look around the exhibit hall that detailed many of the stories of Dr. King's life and accomplishments.  We will head back to the site to fully explore his birth home, church (Ebenezer Baptist), and see he and his wife's burial site near Freedom Hall that honors additional civil rights leaders from the past and present.  This was a very meaningful preview of our visit to come and the team was moved by the many displays and exhibits they were able to see in our brief time.  Atlanta (and MLK) have been epicenters for Civil Rights movements and Atlanta is now one of the most popular places to resettle.  This is no accident.  The team discussed how MLK (and other civil rights leaders) paved the way for refugee resettlement to be possible in the United States. 

En route to the Clarkston Community Center we had naptime 

Today was our third day with the students at the after-school program.  Our time today consisted of working on science projects again, homework, and teaching four square to the students.  Most of the science projects were finished and the students were treated to afternoon entertainment by a local musician - Haywood.  

The storms have held off for most of the week during the day and we have yet to experience the washouts or severe weather that was forecasted for the week. In anticipation of thunderstorms, the concert we had planned to attend tonight was cancelled.  Instead of heading downtown immediately after finishing science projects and wrapping up for the day with the after-school program, we were able to experience local cuisine at Kathmandu Kitchen in the same area as the Thriftown grocery store where we met Amina on Tuesday.  This was a great experience!  Much spicier than some of our team expected, but the hospitality from the owner was fantastic and it was a treat to be able to not only support a local family, but to experience a new type of cuisine - Nepali.  

Despite the concert being cancelled, our team still opted to check out Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta and get a glimpse of the skyline from a new part of town (for us).  This was a great way to relax halfway through the week and our team was even treated to a music and light show at the Fountain of Rings.  After the fountains, we found a quick Geocache and headed back to our housing for a night full of great discussion and a full 10 minutes of laughter!  See some pictures below from our evening.