*Spending the Day with Us

The girls experienced a day in the life of Mom at the Center for New Americans.  There is a lapse between Jeff and I starting school and the girls starting school, so today we delivered the backpacks the church sponsored to children who arrived over the summer and will be starting school in the U.S. for the first time.  

Everyone in the office was excited to meet them.  I touched base with some of the caseworkers, then we started delivering.  Jeff forgot to put the GPS back in the Subaru, but I know those neighborhoods pretty well now.  Still, there was a little of "Huh. I thought that street was over here." Half the time I need the GPS I don't have it. An impromptu trip had to be made back to church to pick up more backpacks, because as you know, there are always surprises like "Oh you have 4 kids starting school, not 3?"And how could I not give a backpack to a cute little five year old looking up with big brown eyes I was certain would fill up with tears if I gave backpacks to everyone else but them.  There was me, as usual, running around so engrossed in what I was doing that lunchtime snuck past and we had to run through the ghetto drive-through and eat in the car.  We were offered very authentic ethnic food, as I often am when I am in and out of people's homes. The girls got a good taste of a day out in the New American community.

It is not lost on me that taking my daughters with is entirely different than going by myself. What I choose to do is one thing; trotting my kids in and out of houses in a questionable neighborhood might earn some scolding comments. I am convinced that these neighborhoods are not as unsafe as the general public believes, and that most people who live there are just trying to live peaceful, decent lives. But there were a few times I had to go to an apartment up a dark stairwell in a dilapidated building, and I would pray a quick prayer for my kid's safety. I instructed the kids to stay in the doorway where I could see them and where I knew lots of moms and grandparents and kids could see them from their spots on other porches. Moll kept the cell phone at all times.  I never took them to a place I knew could be bad. We were going to visit the girls we took to the zoo, but they were not outside and I know for a fact that some hostile and ill-intentioned drug dealers bully the people who live there, take over the hallways and hang out in that building. When I drove past and saw cars I am certain did not belong to the Burmese immigrants that inhabit the building, I told the kids we would visit our friends another time. Anna kept asking why, but I kept why to myself.  The caseworkers and my "boss" have always said if you get a weird feeling in your gut, don't go.  I think that goes double for not bringing my kids into a situation like that. 

The girls' reactions were interesting.  They asked why the Burmese people didn't speak English as well as the people from the Middle East, and we talked about the different conditions refugees live in around the world, and that they come here from various situations for different reasons.  Molly commented on how rundown and dirty the streets were, and Anna asked if the refugees were poor.  It kind of surprised me that my kids had never really thought about the New Americans being poor.  We talked about why we were giving the kids backpacks, and what caseworkers jobs are - that part of what the Center for New Americans does is try the best they can to equip refugees to live independently and successfully in the U.S., and getting the kids off to a good start in school is an important part of that.  Without an education, the kids will never be able to succeed in our country.  They may have never been to school, and have never been to school in the U.S., so their parents are usually not aware of what a kid needs to go to school, and may not have a way to earn money yet to buy school supplies.  

I don't know exactly what Molly and Anna thought. Jeff asked Moll on the phone if today was boring or exciting and she answered, "Um, both actually." When we moved our kids into a middle class, fairly homogeneous neighborhood and school district, Jeff and I discussed ways of keeping them engaged with the world beyond that. Buttoning them up in the suburbs won't necessarily keep them safe: school shootings and drug deals can happen there too. Besides, God loves all of us, and the girls need to get a more accurate picture of "us."