Secret Snowflake

Of all the things that could make my day stressful working with refugees and immigrants- the most surprising thing did yesterday.

Secret Snowflake.

Oh yes. It's similar to Secret Santa, but apparently when you replace the word Santa with Snowflake it alludes to something much more stressful and serious.

They told me nothing at work. Simply- Molly, you're in charge. Distribute names on Monday and email everyone a reminder about the rules. So I take 30 individual pieces of paper with names on them, fold them each up, put them in a hat, draw out names and place them in a spreadsheet with other names (oh yes, it has to be entirely random) and then send each person a personalized email letting them know who their Secret Snowflake is. Ugh. All of this on the busiest day of the week, while I'm trying to juggle immigrant information and refugee complaints and fax machine break downs and anything else people want to ask me about while I'm on the phone.

And do you know what? Apparently, that's not how they did it last year. Or so I was told after the fact. They like to be able to draw their own names. They don't all like who they got assigned to. Please tell us something about them Molly, you're the one who gave me the name!

Are we in the fourth grade? This is what I'm hearing 'Teacher, but, he's looking at me!'

We work with people who've fled their country because of persecution and I actually have people so upset about their Secret Snowflake that they won't even look at me the rest of the day! Who are these people?!

The Sixth Wife

Client: Excuse me, miss. If we're applying for her green card, but she has refugee status, how long will the process take?

Me: I'm sorry sir, but you'll have to talk with your immigration counselor about that. You can take a seat, and it'll be just a few minutes.

Client: Oh. So, you're just a secretary or what?

Me: Yeah. I mean I can't answer those questions- I don't want to tell you the wrong thing!

Client: Well, you're a pretty nice looking secretary anyway.

Me: Uh thanks?

Client: Oh sure. If I didn't already have 5 wives, I would definitely marry you!

Me: Oh....*nervous laugh*....uh...ok, uh thanks? Uh, it'll be just a few minutes. Yeah. Ok yeah.

New Year's?

It's official. Dallas here I come!

Middle School

Yuk.

An epiphany today: I can't handle middle schoolers. That's right....middle schoolers. I can't help it. I thought I could blame their annoying-ness on puberty or just say things like "Give them time, they'll grow out of it"...until today. When I was completely surrounded on the bus by them. They were everywhere. The girls standing up on the bus, dancing around, talking about boys. The boys being 'too cool' to listen to the girls...but not quite cool enough to keep from *shouting* obscenities at all the wrong times. Seriously- if you're going to use a curse word, at least use it correctly?!

AND- they think everything they say is hilarious. For example, one of the girls on the bus changed her name on someone's phone to God and the other girl changed hers to Jesus. Then they proceeded to have a conversation via texting (and then re-capping out loud to the rest of us) consisting of "I'm sorry my son's so out of line today. He's always going around sinning" And 'I can see you....I'm everywhere" followed by fits of uncontrollable laughter. (I mean it's just so funny) And on and on for miles! Why are people this age even let out of the house?!

Ugh- thank goodness for people like my sister who actually like people this age. If it were up to me they'd all have to stay in the house until they mellowed out a bit! Or at least have a 'keep your middle schooler at home' day once a month. I would choose tomorrow...

Is it so small a thing?

Taken from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society:

Food grew hard to come by, and soon there was no firewood left. Days were grey with hard work and evenings were black with boredom. Everyone was sickly from so little nourishment and bleak from wondering if it would ever end. We clung to books and to our friends; they reminded us that we had another part to us. Elizabeth used to say a poem. I don’t remember all of it, but it began “Is it so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done, to have advanced true friends?”

Oh Friday

I'm bothered by this situation on so many levels. I'm not sure whether to feel hatred, for this man's disregard for innocent people he may have caused to die, OR to feel pity, for the whole idea of water-boarding in Guantanamo Bay. Either way, it doesn't seem right....

On a completely different note, Alyson J (now H) just sent me a picture of a group of us girls after we rafted the Nile! It takes me back to the smells and sounds of that beautiful river. Oh, I'd love to go back! Anyone up for a trip next summer?!

Meiji: Yan Yan

Ok, if you have an international supermarket anywhere near you, you must try this out! They remind me of Dunk-a-Roos from my childhood. Basically they are graham-cracker sticks dunked in chocolate icing.




But what makes this brand different (and better) is that the sticks have things written on them!Each stick has its own animal printed on the bottom, the name of the animal and then a short saying that relates to the animal...and some that don't relate to anything! Here are a few!

Just Breathe....

That's what I keep telling myself. You know that awful feeling, like there's some large object that is crushing your rib cage- pushing on your heart and lungs and being? That's what I've been experiencing all day today...

I've been reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I'm still in the beginning chapters, but some of the stories recalling the German occupation are hard to swallow- even though none of them are graphic or violent. Just the idea of a group of people thinking they know what is best for everyone- and then forcing themselves onto innocent people that have no control over the situation anyway- is becoming harder and harder for me to understand. We look at the time period of the Nazis as an extreme situation that we can't believe happened...and that would never happen again...instead of seeing it as an example of what ethnocentric attitudes can lead to.

I see the same situation happening today with our occupation of Iraq, though people label it as something they can personally justify- sometimes 'justice', or 'peace-keeping', or 'democracy-promoting'. I see it as a group of people violently forcing their ideas of what a society should be on innocent people that have no control over the situation....sounds familiar right?

I think a lot of this was stirred up because of a man I met today at work. His name is Hussein, but asks to be called Steven by us. He says that Americans think he is a 'bad person' because of his name, so when he introduces himself, he is now Steve. I don't like that a person has to change their identity to function within our society- and in their own. I've met too many Iraq's that have been kicked out of their country, watched friends and family die, and are now living in low-income housing working in meat factories because of the United States' 'superior ideals.'

Working here has caused pacifism to once more appeal to me....

Why not engage in the battle against ignorance instead of innocent people?
Why not promote peace and communication and actual justice?

Somehow, I'm not convinced that the people Germany killed via bombs respected their idea of values or the 'perfect society' and I'm sure that Iraqis (and soon to be Afghanis) probably feel the same about our 'perfect idea' for their society.

But what to do?

I will make room in my life for genuine relationships with people from different parts of the world- so that their perspective will influence my way of thinking.
I won't assume that I know what is best.
And I will breathe....

Prophetic? Yes!

So tonight would be the perfect night for some Gilmore Girls. I cooked a cheap *cardboard like* pizza, have some pop in the fridge and am planning on just sitting down the rest of the evening.

BUT....last time I turned on Gilmore Girls multiple occurrences from the episodes invaded my life the next few days! And not just- oh a cute boy saw me and ran into a pole- kinds of things. We're talking a car crashed another car into the store front below World Relief's office- kinds of things. (And YES, that did happen in the episode!)

So now I'm actually a little worried to watch another episode. What if something terrible happens? I guess I'll know about it before everyone else...but isn't that worse?!

Maybe I could use this as a sort of gift...Let Miss Cleo (Molly) Help Ya Out!

Too cool for dressing up? I think so...

I know, I know. 'But dressing up is the whole fun of it....' Well, whatever. We just weren't up for it. And our party was just as fun (if not more fun) without the costumes! We carved pumpkins, ate lots of good food and drank apple cider.

Jessica carved her first pumpkin:



Sheri tried her first Velveeta and Rotel cheesedip (CRAZY, I know!):



And I showed everyone what pumpkin carving was all about: