Adjustments and Cultural Lessons
Day 20
One of our co-chairs and her husband went to the family’s house twice today. First she returned some bedding that she had taken home to wash, and she picked up more blankets to launder later. Yesterday we believed that the wash machine in the house did not work. Today the consensus is that it works, but the cold water delivery isn’t up to par. It will have to be fixed.
The first cultural lesson of the day could also be considered a food safety lesson. This is a lesson we’ve had to teach to several families. That is, leftover food should be refrigerated.
In this case leftover chicken from yesterday’s lunch was discovered in a bowl in the cupboard. We’ve seen other families use cupboards, the oven, and even microwave oven as food storage places. If you consider their past, from days in a refugee camp, having leftover food is probably not a very usual problem. And, when it is, you would want to store somewhere that bugs or other animals will not get it. If a refrigerator is unavailable you’d work with what you have.
Common language is not necessary to teach this lesson. Simply pointing, and explaining that it belongs in the refrigerator, while putting it in there is generally sufficient. The lesson may need to be repeated before it really sticks. We’ll also put this on our list of things to discuss further the next time we have the convenience of an interpreter.
On the second trip, our co-chair returned the freshly laundered blankets and supervised the delivery of new bed rails and the box spring mattress for a queen size bed. She and her husband also swapped out the mattress on a twin size bed with a brand new mattress that was donated.
They also demonstrated how to use the alarm function on the alarm clock the family received. It seemed rather complicated so we may need to replace the clock with a simpler one at some point. The use of an alarm clock becomes important when we schedule early appointments and becomes much more critical once employment is obtained.
Several bicycles were donated. These are great for family members to get around and explore their neighborhood. Until they master the local bus service and/or get a car the bikes can be a way to move around independently. Someone on our resettlement team will have to take a look to make sure they’re all safe with tires properly inflated.
A retired plumber from our church stopped by the house to fix an outside water faucet. It was dripping, OK running, much more than it should in an off position. No point in running up extra water utility bills.
The other co-chair took the family grocery shopping. This resulted in another cultural lesson. Fortunately she noticed, before leaving the house, that one of the adults entered the minivan barefoot. She had to point out that footwear is required in grocery stores. This resulted in some conversation and the ultimate acquisition of shoes, potentially borrowed from someone else in the family.
While grocery shopping they indicated a need to purchase shoes. Since the grocery store was not next to a shoe store that purchase will have to wait.
Overall the family seemed happy and pretty comfortable in their new home.
