action.inaction.

so i helped teach my first few ESL classes at a library and an apartment complex, and it was pretty chaotic but good to start meeting some of the people, getting familiar with the Exodus program and government requirements - the refugees have 3 months to learn english and learn how to handle money and health care and all the other systems here and find a job, and when their 3 months is up they're expected to work full-time and pay their own rent and bills and everything! it's crazy. Canada gives them a whole year to do these things - why, why in the world would they want to come here? oops, i guess maybe because they don't have too much choice...the people are so brave, though, and they want to learn so much, and they're so grateful to anyone who comes to help. they are mostly from Burma, but several different ethnicities - Karen, Chin, and Burmese - and then a family or two from Iraq and the Congo.

Bob and Pat, my wonderful hosts who treat me like a substitute granddaughter, know so much about the Karen people especially because they worked with them for many years in Thailand, where many of them live in refugee camps for up to 10 or 20 years before they are resettled in other countries like the U.S. and Canada and some places in Europe. now Bob and Pat are retired, but still very actively involved with the growing congregation of Karen families in their church - driving kids to dentist appointments and soccer games; helping with ESL classes and helping kids with their homework two evenings a week; organizing collections of clothing and food and other necessities for the families; taking a few young single women, some of them mothers, under their wings of friendship and parenting wisdom and understanding of the nature of cross-cultural transitions; and generally networking and mobilizing the non-Karen members of the church, or the 'anglos', or the 'foreigners' as Pat often refers to us white Americans when fishing for lack of a better term (which makes me smile because that is exactly what i feel like, a foreigner in disguise ;-) trying to encourage and enable them with clear opportunities to care, to come together to provide for those in need in their midst. funny that this hasn't quite become our first nature yet in the church, we who are supposed to embody Jesus for the world to see. funny that we need so much prodding and pleading before we'll do the things he taught and showed us how to do, before we'll love the people we've been taught by the world and media around us to fear. funny? funny just like this, too:

last night a man named Aung Chin Win Aung, whom they had met in one of the camps in Thailand about 12 years ago, joined us for dinner. he was a writer who fled Burma because he published some things that spoke out against the human rights violations of the government. he has now been in the U.S. for 10 years, working so many different jobs - meat packer, newspaper stacker, fiberglass factory worker, bartender, now limousine chauffeur and semi-truck driver all over the country. we talked through just about the whole history of Burma last night, along with the current state of American politics and foreign affairs...it was such an enlightening conversation, such a fascinating man who has paid a high price for his unimaginably hard-earned perspective. and he presented his latest book to Bob and Pat, in which he describes the history and the current dictatorial/criminal regime in Burma. i can barely even imagine the horrible things that the clients (the refugees that Exodus serves) have seen and been through. but i'm learning more every day as i read information about them for this internship, and as i listen to the stories Bob and Pat could tell endlessly from their years of close relationship with these suffering people.

in other news, 827 people have been murdered by the Israeli military in Gaza (more than 230 children & 100 women) & 3360 injured. weapons provided courtesy of George W. Bush and American taxpayers. blood is on my hands for all this inaction i have taken. or is it action to read, and weep, and pray, and hope?

also, my parents are in India right now, and here is what my dad said at 4:04 a.m. on Saturday:

"Fuel strike in India.
Please pray that the fuel strike ends and that we can get out of .... and on to the ariport on thu... there is a country wide strike by oil execs in india. all stations were closed as we rode up to ..... the car we were in just fueled up before the stations closed and would not be getting fuel again until the strike is over.
THere were hardly any vehicles on the road today. it was great for our travels, but not great for so many who need to travel.

d. "

[edit: as of Sunday 1:43 a.m., negotiations have cleared and petrol is supposed to start trickling back to the fuel stations by Monday or sometime early this week, so they should be fine.]

so these are the things shedding both light and shadows on my mind and heart these days. along with trying not to get lost in the city as i drive all over, to and from class on the south side and north side and Exodus downtown and the church where i'm also helping, and the retirement community which is 'home base' for j-term. and helping Pat cook and do dishes whenever she'll let me ;-)