As we write this post, we are finishing up our final packing and cleaning duties and will head to the airport at 4am to return to Portland. We are scheduled to be in Portland by 11am on Saturday May 3rd. This was completed at 3:03am.
It began as we awoke and headed back out to Clarkston to spend our final morning volunteering with a senior ESL class at Clarkston Community Center. Once we arrived, however, we learned that the classes were not taking place today and that there was no other programming today that we could jump into. This freed up a morning for us because we did not have any afternoon service planned. Luckily, despite not being able to volunteer, we were able to donate our leftover food from the week to the center so the students could have some snacks or treats when they return. Our team was sad to know we would not be able to explore a new population of refugees and a new age group we had not worked with throughout the week, but also recognized the opportunity to spend more time at the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Site. With this change in time, we were able to secure a reservation to tour Dr. King's birth-home.
We headed back into Atlanta and were able to reserve an afternoon tour of Dr. King's birth-home. This changed up the schedule even more and the team opted to check out a local business' museum. We took a trip to the World of Coca Cola to learn more about the company's history, it's impact on the Atlanta (and global) economies, and tasted over 60 flavors from around the world of the popular soft-drink. Our next stop was lunch at a local BBQ restaurant which was delicious, authentic cuisine. The rest of our afternoon was spent at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic site. We were able to tour his birth-home and hear stories of his childhood, including stories of friendships, broken hearts, sibling rivalries, and gaining an understanding of racism and discrimination at a young age. It was deeply impactful for our team to be in the home of "Little M.L." (as the tour guide called him). After the tour and our team visiting Ebenezer Baptist Church, Dr. King's burial site, and seeing the neighborhood he grew up in, we spent some time reflecting on the week outside of the Kings' burial site reflecting pool discussing how we would take this week home.
Our team has gained a deeper understanding of the meaning of 'neighbor' and what it truly means to be a refugee and experience having to resettle to a foreign country. Many of our team members expressed having stereotypes broken and learning more about the various types of resettlement processes. We discussed how the experience of having to leave a situation and transition into a new unknown environment will be something we will experience ourselves throughout our lives and we will encounter through each of our careers. Sometimes we may work with refugees who are relocating internationally and sometimes we may be working with individuals who have left families and homes to move to new and/or strange places. All of these individuals experience loneliness, fear, uncertainty, and disconnection from their homes and previous lives. Through this week, we have been able to better discern and discover how best to empathize with these individuals.
The end of the night was a spectacular show (literally). Our night ended with an amazing team bonding activity-an Atlanta Braves baseball game. The Braves played the San Francisco Giants and ended up losing to them 2-1. Even though the game was not won, we had an amazing time. Half of us even had a chance to dance on the Jumbo-Tron. The night was made even more spectacular with an amazing fireworks show at the end of the game. Naturally, after the fireworks we went to Waffle House (a delicious restaurant) that satisfied the hunger on waffles could subside.
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