Tag: refugee life

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Who needs food?

They are a happy family, even in face of the challenging task of learning a new language, learning new technology, learning a new culture, learning many many things new.  Perhaps most importantly, they are safe – without fear of rebels or soldiers coming to rape the women and girls or kill the father or force the boys to be soldiers or something.  Everything else – home, job, food, etc. is icing on the cake.  How much we take for granted in America! Continue reading “Who needs food?”

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Lost Suitcase – RESOLVED

The lost suitcase surprise is coming to a close.  We had great news from JetBlue.  The lost suitcase claim finished processing and the Kasongos will be paid about $1200 for their lost suitcase, which will be very helpful for them!  It’s surprising how much it costs to replace everything in a large suitcase, but it certainly adds up as you start itemizing the price of each item.   Continue reading “Lost Suitcase – RESOLVED”

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African Dinner – Trying Sardines for the First Time

Our good friends the Kasongo’s, and after only 4 months of helping them, we consider them to be good friends, invited us to have an “African dinner” with them on Friday.  I think our invitation for them to try an American dinner of pizza <LINK> with us last time inspired them to invite us for a meal.  It was our turn to try some new foods the first time!
 Continue reading “African Dinner – Trying Sardines for the First Time”

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Most Helpful for Refugees? Love

I asked Papa Kasongo the question “What can volunteers do to be most helpful?”  He thought for a few minutes, then answered:  “Love is the most important thing – our family felt love and that opened the door for everything else.”  He pointed to the example of Jesus Christ – Love God and Love Others.  It was an insightful answer to a question.  The father of 7 kids summed up the most important thing for volunteers to do as simply to love the family.  Everything else stems from that.

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Just For Fun

Tomorrow we’ll be visiting our friends the Kasongo’s.  It’s been a couple weeks since we last saw them.  We’re looking forward to the visit.  For the first time since we’ve been visiting, we don’t feel like there’s a bunch of things we need to help them with.  So, we’re going to have dinner together (hope they understood our invitation on the phone – they seemed to), talk, maybe play some games.  It’s been fun to see them post photos on Facebook as they travel around town for different things – doctor appointments, going to the refugee agency, attending church, around their house, etc.  They seem to be settling in fairly well.  I imagine we’ll find some things when we arrive that we could help with.  But, it’ll also be nice to just play together and relax a bit.  We’re also going to introduce them to our brother and sister-in-law that are in town visiting with their kids.  So, it’ll be an even bigger party.

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Becoming a Refugee

As one starts working with a refugee family, it’s a natural question to wonder what circumstances led them to flee their home, their community, and their country.  Obviously something that is incomprehensible to most living in the first world.  With language barriers, it’s difficult to communicate.  A volunteer working with the Kasongo’s spent some time learning their story.  As best she understood, this is their heart-wrenching story; a 9 months long ordeal with very difficult and trying situations.  The hand of God preserved them and reunited their family after being separated in a violent part of the world.  Warning, there are difficult subjects in their story, though graphic details are not included.  Here’s a powerful video from some great musicians on the plight of refugees.

Here is the Kasongo’s story…

Continue reading “Becoming a Refugee”

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No Heat – Gas Turned Off

Willy called me recently, obviously concerned about a pressing problem. I thought to myself “After the challenges they faced, what now?”.  They’d arrived in Salt Lake 6 weeks ago to find the airlines lost one of the six bags of luggage (16% of everything they brought to America), they had struggles getting food assistance working properly, after a month here, they still had no shoes and were walking in sandals and socks in the snow with only light weight jackets.  “What could it be now?”, I wondered.  “They’ve had their share of struggles in their new country, and don’t deserve more.”  

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Shoes and More

Missing shoes, socks and luggage is rough.

Macy loves her new friend (face blurred for privacy)

Beating the executive order is a blessing.

Shoes – After we found out that the girls were going to school in flip-flops, Mike posted on Facebook looking for shoe donations. I know that people are generous and I know that many people like having an opportunity for service placed in their laps, but it is always amazing to see how much people do help. Continue reading “Shoes and More”