I did not feel that the second trip with my family went as well as the first. We did not stay very long, and the conversation was more labored than it had been the first time, though they didn’t have as much homework that they needed help with, which was maybe why it was more labored.

It was funny though that when we arrived, their mother wasn’t even home. She had gone to the bank, and was totally fine with us being in her home, with her children, without her. It was a little strange, but then again it does sort of show that she trusts us, right?

It was also pretty hysterical that as soon as I walked in the door, one of the children spotted my iPhone in my pocket and immediately asked if he could play with it. He’d had it all of two minutes when he discovered my Angry Birds app, and then spent the rest of the hour we were there fighting over which of the children would get to play with it. I was amazed that they even knew how to use an iPhone, let alone understand how to play Angry Birds. I had to remind myself that before they left their home country, and before the refugee camps, they had lived normal lives. Apple existed in Napal as well, and that was something I had not originally realized.

In terms of activities, we again helped the two older boys with homework, and I have to admit that algebra isn’t as easy as I remember it being! I had to ask my partner for help in solving several of the problems I was given, and I was a little embarrassed to admit to the family that I struggled with math too, though they seemed a little relived that it’s not just hard for them because they’re refugees.